Property & Casualty Newsletter

Summer is here, and unlike the days when that meant “The livin’ is easy,” things seem to be moving faster than ever before. Insurers continue to look for new ways to deliver new products and services, and vendors continue to look for new ways to support them. It never ceases to amaze me just how many opportunities to apply innovative and smart technology continue to exist in the industry. We see this with the continued explosion of startups in the insurtech space. However, while it’s easy to follow the lure of the shiny objects, there is a lot of foundational work to be done to take full advantage of the promises they dangle.

Sorting through the options requires thinking along multiple dimensions.

• What does the future look like?
• What do we need to do now to prepare for it?
• Which technologies and functions can offer the best returns for the investment?

As an insurer, you need to continuously ask these questions to plot your digital transformation journey, and at Celent, we try to help you understand the opportunities and pitfalls.

For example, if you’re interested in the future of the independent agent, check out my report on The Agent of the Future: How Insurers Can Help Them Get There. It lays out some of the disruptive trends facing agents, and where we believe the agent of the future will need to change to compete. And of course, advice for how insurers can help them. Mike Fitzgerald’s report Distribution Management System Vendors — North America provides an overview of some of the tools you might need to manage the agents. And stay tuned because he’s working on a report to describe the trends in portals and the vendor solutions in that space.

If you’re interested in how to prepare now, Craig Beattie and I described the digital foundation of success in our recent report titled Preparing for Digital: Laying the Foundation for Success. It describes the implications of the foundation on people, processes, and technologies. Or if you’re wondering how the new AM Best Innovation score will impact your financial rating, Mike Fitzgerald has put together some interesting thoughts about how to prepare for that in Maximizing Your Score on the AM Best Innovation Assessment.

When it comes to new technologies, data and analytics are top of mind for most. There’s a great report on Machine Learning In Insurance: Fact From Fiction by Craig Beattie, and a report, appropriately named for a summer time read; Swimming in Data: Data Lakes in Insuranceby Craig Beattie and Nicolas Michellod. Or if you’re wondering which functional areas to invest in, here’s a few more ideas. Donald Light’s report on Insurance Communication Technology Trends and Outlook: North America P/C Edition; or Mike Fitzgerald’s report P&C Policy Forms Management: Workin’ Like It’s 1999.

Looking Ahead

As we head towards fall, we have a lot of great research on the agenda. Look for insights into Digital Transformation in Workers Compensation; the Rise of Automated Change (Anything Ops); or Extreme AI in Core Systems. We’ll have vendor reviews for Global Stand-Alone Rating Engines, Global Distribution Management systems, and Agent Portal Solutions. And for those looking to the future, Rethinking the End of Auto Insurance will be a good read. Your account executive can give you a copy of the full agenda with descriptions of these as well as other planned research for the quarter.

And of course, fall marks the InsureTech Connect conference in Las Vegas. If you’re planning on attending this conference or know someone in your firm who is planning to attend, we’re delighted to offer you a discount. As you know, the closer you get to the event, the more the price rises — and the final price is $2,195. We’re pleased to offer you a price of $1,495 through September 6, then $1,695 through September 22. Here’s the link . This year they anticipate over 7,000 attendees from across the world. Do let us know if you plan to attend. We’ll have a full contingent of analysts there who will be delighted to chat and say hello.

Please see a sampling of recent insights below. We look forward to connecting with you throughout 2019!


Best regards,

Karlyn Carnahan, CPCU
Head of Property and Casualty, Americas