Insurance Newsletter: July 2018

You may have seen the article in Dig-In this month on Northwestern Mutual’s partnership with Marquette University and the University of Winconsin-Milwaukee to create a Data Science Institute. I think it’s an interesting example to add to the growing list of tie-ups between the insurance industry and academia.

What fascinates me most about stories like this one (and those of you familiar with our research will know that we have been researching innovation partnerships for quite a while) is that these kind of industry/academia partnerships not only address the simple swap of intellectual capital in exchange for funding, but also go beyond that to attract and nurture future talent who, hopefully, will choose to make the insurance industry their career destination of choice.

As we have observed in recent years, demand within insurers for developing internal capabilities in both software engineering and data science is on the rise as insurers look to take more control of developing a unique and engaging customer experience, and make more use of the data they hold or have access to.

Aligned with this industry phenomenon, Craig Beattie, Nicolas Michellod, and Zao Wu have recently published two reports that delve into the models being adopted for setting up a data science function and the tools being deployed to support data science and help implement DataOps. As the authors note, AI, data science, and now DataOps are capabilities that insurers need to invest in and industrialise to compete in the future. I hope that you find them valuable.

We're excited to announce that we have expanded our Life, Annuity and Health team with the recent addition of John Barr, as a Senior Analyst. Many of you probably already know John from his 25+ years of leadership experience in strategic information technology and transformation consulting at firms such as EXL Services, Wipro, Capgemini, and CSC/Continuum. John will be focused primarily on platform transformation in the Life, Annuity and Pension industries and its impact on digital services involving carriers, insurtechs, greenfield start-ups, and software and services firms spanning both information technology and business operations.

Finally, we’re now just under three months until the third annual InsureTech Connect event in Las Vegas, presented by our parent firm Oliver Wyman. It’s going to be even bigger this year and is a “must-go” destination for those interested in innovation across the industry. We'll be there and reporting on what we see and learn. We hope that you can make it too. If you're keen to attend, then feel free to use this link for access to a Celent discount.

Jamie Macgregor
Senior Vice President
@JamieMacgregorC