Were YOU in New York City with us last week?
If you’re a life insurance senior executive and were not in New York City last week at Celent’s Roundtable: Take a Walk on the Digital Side: Digital trends in Life insurance, then you missed an outstanding event. A group of 15 of your peers got together to share insights on how digital is done at their companies.
Three major carriers presented at the event. While we don’t name names, they included the COO of a major life insurer, the head of strategy of a major multi-line carrier, and the head of transformation for a major financial services company, in both banking and insurance, that is often used as an example. In other words, some pretty amazing content. Their presentations were fantastic, but what made the meeting come alive was the interaction, discussion, and open sharing of ideas and accomplishments.
The attendees covered every area of specialty, from operations, to IT, to strategy, to marketing, including the head of life and annuity from another major multiline company. The breadth of carriers involved was wonderful too. While most were from large Tier 1 insurers, as it was in New York, many were from medium-size companies and brought a different perspective to the conversation. A special guest was from a well-known distribution focused InsureTech company and brought a totally different view on the industry. As you can image, the discussions were spirited.
You know a meeting like this is a success when the attendees ask if we can distribute all their contact information to each other. Think of the networking success alone!
Our first speaker started off the day with a broad overview of disruption going on in the industry. From the economy, to appealing to Millennials, to regulations, to channel risk -- the discussion covered it all. The speaker then jumped directly into details about the innovative projects at their company, and there were many. From direct to consumer, to instant underwriting decisions, to electronic policy deliver, this company has a lot on their plate.
Our second speaker spoke from an entirely different viewpoint. As the head of a life strategy for a major multiline company, this speaker focused on the complexities for working in broader insurer family. Their sheer size allows them to be experimenting, implementing, and succeeding with a broad range of topics. A particular focus was cross-selling through analytics and how to sell direct. One particularly interesting topic was a SWOT analysis of the life insurance industry. A lot of success, combined with a lot of room for improvement. Again, the discussion was open and interesting, with the attendees adding their personal experience.
Our final speaker focused on the customer experience. While they have had a solid online experience for many years, they recognize that they need to stay fresh and current. They are completely revamping their online experience, while simultaneously doing a complete back-office transformation. Nothing like changing everything at once. This session was entirely round-table and every company shared their experiences, with honesty and openness about their successes, failures, and need to do more.
The insights and relationship building created a fun and valuable day for all involved. Celent is looking forward to hosting an even bigger and better peer networking event in the early spring. We would love for you to attend. Please let us know the topics that are of interest to you.
These events are invitation only, so if you have an interest, reach out to us at:
Ed Sullivan – esullivan@celent.com
Colleen Risk – crisk@celent.com
Tom Scales – tscales@celent.com