There are four major business strategies guiding technology expenditures: operational efficiency, customer centricity, claims transformation, and underwriting profitability, according to Gartner’s new “Hype Cycle for P&C Insurance, 2012.”
The property/casualty industry is facing a number of potentially transformational forces, including increasing competition, consumerization, the number of communications options for both agents and customers, social networking, and an evolving regulatory environment, according to Gartner’s “Hype Cycle for P&C Insurance, 2012.”
Business strategies
There are four major business strategies guiding development and technology expenditures: operational efficiency, customer centricity, claims transformation and underwriting profitability, and the technologies that support these strategies differ. Gartner analyzed what insurers need to focus on within each strategy:
Claims Transformation
Claims transformation strategies are expanding to include claims data mastery, the customer experience in claims, mobile claims personnel support, end-to-end claims processing efficiencies, catastrophe response, and fraud identification. The guide recommends focusing on claims data management, proactive loss identification, social data for fraud identification, and using predictive modeling for decision support. “Companies are undergoing an entire renovation of claims technologies and processes to meet business objectives, such as operational efficiency and customer satisfaction,” the report says.
Operational Efficiency
Focusing on operational efficiency requires growing profitability and revenue and reducing operational expenses. For those companies employing this strategy, the guide recommends a more aggressive approach to:
• Digitalization
• Replacing legacy systems
• Moving to lower-cost platforms, including business process outsourcing (BPO), business process as a service (BPaaS) and software as a service (SaaS)
• Standardizing and automating business processes
• Consolidating systems
To achieve these objectives, tactics include leveraging cloud computing, customer communications management and electronic document generation/delivery.
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