Now more than ever, technology is playing a major role in the insurance market, by offering a competitive advantage to an industry that is trying to reinvent itself after years of stagnation. One thing is clear — insurers must evolve to survive and succeed in 2015.
Stephen Busateri, global managing principal, Insurance, Verizon Enterprise Solutions
As insurance companies determine where to place their bets in the coming year, they are realizing that there is no single investment that will solve all their challenges; they must spread the wealth. Let’s look at the Verizon Enterprise Solutions' Tech Trends for 2015 and explore how these future-forward technologies and ideas can help reinvigorate the insurance industry.
Network Reliability, Innovation is Key to Business Success
Insurance companies will concentrate on strategic network and IT investments in 2015. The network goes beyond fiber and wireless connectivity, and insurance companies that understand the benefits of the network and can leverage its visibility and applications layer will have a competitive advantage in 2015. A secure, reliable and scalable network is important to insurance companies as they need to make their consumers comfortable with data collection, which is an important part of measuring risk.
Internet of Things Adoption Gains Momentum Downstream
Telematics has forever changed the face of Insurance. Vehicular usage-based insurance has created a tightly coupled relationship between driving performance and risk prediction. As insurers comb through a massive amount of data, they need to consider the next model where the connection will be made between insured risk and their assets use.
Predictive Analytics Will Make Sense of Big Data
While telematics helps insurers gather data, social scientists and actuaries define the models which represent the statistical correlation between the insured resource and the level of risk imposed. Insurers are experimenting with machine-to-machine (or the Internet of Things) technology and are utilizing sensors to improve risk engineering. But there is much to be learned as insurance companies transition from insurance assets to insuring how people interact with risk on a usage basis.
IT Will Direct the Cloud
Improvements in cloud infrastructure, staging and integration into the insurance business process have improved the amount of time it takes for IT to react to the needs of the business. While IT may become arbiters of insurance workloads in their existing cloud environment, the real business benefit in insurance is when the business processes evolve and improve by leveraging cloud technology. Consumers and agents are becoming more mobile. Insurers can gain operational efficiency and additional business insights by determining what workloads can operate more efficiently.
The Game is Changing in the Fight Against Cybercrime
For insurers, cybersecurity is not just about protecting enterprises, it’s about understanding the impact of cybercrime on risk management as a whole. When companies are breached, few people consider the impact to the insurers that underwrote the policy for the affected business. For insurers, the risk management model must evolve beyond the financial picture to include a firm’s cybersecurity practices. Insurers will benefit from strategic relationships with providers that can integrate a holistic view of potential cyber risk into the underwriting and policy pricing process.
Visit Verizon Enterprise Solution's Insurance Market services center to learn how technology can help change how your insurance business operates.
