A recurring finding from Celent research concerning the use of social media in insurance is the perception that the return on investment is low or nonexistent. Given that the cost of social platforms is minimal, this implies that the benefits associated with it are thought to be very low. Celent believes that insurers can increase [...]

Social Media has established a foothold in many insurers in the United States. However, strategies, goals and results vary widely. In order to shed some light on why and how this new tool is being used by insurers to enhance their businesses, Celent and Locke Lord LLP are conducting a survey among their respective clients [...]

Preliminary entries are in and they are strong! As many of you know, Celent kicked off a contest to define innovation in six words or less. Based on the principle that scarcity breeds creativity, we challenge you all to stir your creative juices and give it your best shot. We have received over 90 submissions so [...]

For those interested in how new data techniques and availability are changing business models, I can recommend the article Smarter Information, Smarter Consumers in the latest edition of Harvard Business Review. http://hbr.org/2013/01/smarter-information-smarter-consumers/ar/1 The central premise is that legislation in the U.S. and U.K. now requires government agencies to make public data available and consumable in electronic [...]

There are some very interesting results in the recent Accenture survey: “Accenture Interactive Survey: Shoppers Prefer Personalization Over Privacy” (infographic here: http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Accenture-Shopper-Holiday-Preference-US.pdf) The online survey asked 2,000 UK and US consumers about their preferences across various shopping channels and their use of social media networks as they research and purchase products. (Note: The fact that [...]

Celent held its 10th Peer Networking Event in Toronto last week and met with Canadian-based carriers to discuss insurance innovation and trends in big data. The purpose of the discussions was to identify practical ways to make progress on these topics in the face of increasing demands from the day-to-day business. The group reviewed the [...]

I read with great interest the article in The Wall Street Journal today about bioprinting (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443816804578002101200151098.html?KEYWORDS=3d+printing). This offers great hope for critically ill patients and possible future relief for those of us whose natural sinews are reminding us of the law of entropy (read aches and pains). It also should give some pause to actuaries [...]

It has always been ironic to me that insurers have “lost the plot” on technology innovation. After all, insurance companies were among the first companies to implement systems to solve practical business problems. Of course, this was in the day when mainframes demanded entire floors in company headquarters buildings. These early systems have, in many [...]

Celent facilitated another Insurer Peer Networking Event at the headquarters of New York Life Insurance Company. The discussion was the liveliest yet, with every company contributing significant learnings about their experience in straight through processing and product development in Life and Annuity Insurance. Here is a brief overview of those lessons. There was general agreement [...]

Another step noted on the journey that I blogged about last month – which insurer will be the first to sell through Facebook. Thanks to Carol Tice (@TiceWrites) for leading me to the 21st Century Facebook site. They have implemented a quoting feature on their page and I used it to find out how much [...]