Archive for the ‘IT Spending’ Category

« Older Entries

Importance of Communication on Core System Replacement Projects

Friday, March 29th, 2013

Tom Benton

In my recent discussions with various insurance IT leaders, communication issues are becoming a common thread in lessons learned during core system replacement projects.  This reminded me of a Harvard Business Review blog post I read recently.  The post suggests that communication is an issue that has been of concern for a long time.

The author (Scott Edinger, founder of Edinger Consulting Group) presents three critical elements of communication first proposed by Aristotle, the Greek philosopher who studied under Plato and was teacher to Alexander the Great, a leader who undoubtedly dealt with communication issues on his projects.  The three elements of ethos (credibility), pathos (emotional connection) and logos (reason, or logic) are all important to communicating your message effectively as a leader.  Your team needs to believe what you are saying, connect with it and understand how you came to your conclusions.  The post notes that while all three elements are needed to communicate  effectively, leaders can become better communicators by improving in any of the three.

From my discussions on core system replacement projects, IT leaders believe that improvement in communication will increase the likelihood of success on these projects.  As one Novarica IT Research Council member noted, project leaders need to communicate “early and often” for project teams to successfully meet the challenges of these large, high risk projects.

Share

Posted in Article Links, Insurance, IT Spending, IT Strategy, Policy Administration Systems | Comments Off

ACORD/LOMA Forum 2013: Novarica on Growth, Modernization, and IT Impact

Sunday, March 3rd, 2013

Matthew Josefowicz

Chad, Karlyn, and I will be speaking at a number of this year’s ACORD/LOMA Forum, on topics ranging from modernizing your distribution channels to preparing insurers for new technologies and business strategies in 2014. If you’re planning to attend ACORD/LOMA this year, please let us know.

Our sessions are:


Tuesday, May 7

  • 2:15-3:30 PM. Creating Market Expansion Capabilities: Capitalizing on New Growth Opportunities (Karlyn Carnahan)

There has never been a better time for insurers to develop a strategy for capitalizing on new growth opportunities. The marketplace abounds with opportunities for carriers to offer critical products and services to commercial and private businesses. This panel discussion will cover how to get started on setting up your business for successful expansion, outline the benefits of industry partnerships and provide a comprehensive overview of the technology available to successfully expand your business to serve the markets you want to serve.

  • 2:15 PM – 3:30 PM e-Signatures: Implementers Discuss Their Experiences and the Benefits of Adoption (Rob McIsaac)
Rob McIsaac participates in a panel with Genworth, ESRA, and Warwick on e-Signatures benefits and challenges.

 

Wednesday, May 8

  • 8:30-9:30 AM. Evolving Your Distribution Channels: Modernization That Matters (Karlyn Carnahan)

Insurance isn’t purchased the way it was a decade ago. Unfortunately, insurers have maintained static distribution channels with little potential for significant growth. So, how can insurance distribution channels change with the times? For insurers, the evolution of distribution channels is modernization that matters. Attend this session to learn how automation can help distribution channels roll with the punches and improve producer management at the same time.


  • 10:00-11:15 AM. Analyst Panel: What is New in 2013 and What Should We Expect in 2014? (Matthew Josefowicz)

While many new technologies and business strategies are discussed during the event, is anything really new that is changing the industry? This panel will present point of views from the analysts on what is new this year and how much change is really happening within the industry. Panelists will discuss the major industry changes of 2013, whether insurers are really innovating, and what we can expect in 2014.

  • 1:15-2:15 PM. Core Policy Transformation: Real-World Insurer Stories (Chad Hersh)

This interactive session brings together technology, consulting and data conversion industry experts to discuss the different strategies insurers are taking to fundamentally improve their business. Hear real-world stories of insurance transformation from the teams that are executing on these projects. Topics will include understanding the compelling business reasons to transform, including product agility, excellent customer service, and reduced cost; and how business context impacts transformation strategy and business value of modern application architecture in a changing insurance value chain.

  • 2:30-3:30 PM. IT Initiatives That Deliver Business Impact (Matthew Josefowicz)

This panel of insurers presents case studies of real-life IT projects that delivered business impact by adopting new practices, delivering quick hit new capabilities, expanding the capabilities of existing systems, or transforming entire platforms. Learn how these insurance IT leaders worked with their business partners, overcame challenges, and delivered real business impact.

Share

Posted in Conferences, Impact Awards, Innovation, Insurance, IT Spending, IT Strategy, Policy Administration Systems | Comments Off

February New Research Round-Up: Mobile, CIO Best Practices, ACE Rankings

Sunday, February 10th, 2013
  • Mobile in Insurance Beyond Personal Lines: Current Trend and Expectations. Mobile has spread far beyond personal lines, with significant growth projected for this year and beyond for policyholder and agent/broker capabilities across the industry. Based on a survey of 75+ CIOs.
  • Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in Insurance. BYOD is growing in insurance, but large and midsize insurers are taking different approaches. Based on a survey of 75+ CIOs.
  • Moving Into Mobile. 3-page interview with Novarica partner Chad Hersh from this month’s Best’s Review on mobile trends in insurance. Clients and non-clients may download the full article for free.
  • Contract Development Planning Checklist. The latest in our CIO best practices checklist series.
  • Novarica ACE (Average Customer Experience) Rankings of 37 insurance software solutions, including solutions from Agencyport, Cincom, ECCA, FirstBest, Guidwire, Hyland Software, Innovation Group, Insuresoft, Intuitive Web Solutions, iPartners, Maximum Processing, MULTICO, Napersoft, NxTech, Oceanwide, OneShield, Optical Image Tech, Perceptive Software, Silanis, StoneRiver, SunGard, Thunderhead, Vertex, and Vertafore.
Share

Posted in Insurance, IT Spending, IT Strategy, Mobile, Vendors | Comments Off

December New Research Roundup

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Summaries of all reports are available for free downloads on our site. Some of our recent reports include…

Business and Technology Trends

  • Business and Technology Trends: Commercial Lines. Commercial market pricing is showing a decided recovery, leading commercial lines carriers to invest in core systems replacement, agent portal functionality, and business intelligence and predictive analytics.

(see full list of Business and Technology Trends Reports at http://www.novarica.com/sectorreports/)

CIO Surveys, Best Practices, and Case Studies

  • US Insurer IT Budgets and Projects for 2013. Modest budget increases, core PAS replacement projects, business intelligence, agent portal enhancements, and mobile and social media pilots are all on the 2013 priority list for insurer CIOs.
  • Best Practices Case Study Compendium 2012. These case studies, the fruit of the first annual Novarica Research Council Impact Awards, provide a useful set of examples of impactful IT projects. They offer insurer business and IT executives detailed examples across a broad range of diverse industry initiatives.

Novarica Market Navigators

Executive Briefs and Checklists

  • Minimizing Project Risk Checklist. Insurers’ core missions are tied to managing risk in a cost effective and predictable manner. This brief illuminates common factors that contribute to IT project failure and offers a checklist to reduce project risk.
  • Insurance IT Transformation Checklist. In order to survive and thrive in the future, CIOs need to facilitate and support business transformation efforts. This report provides a roadmap of things to consider for a transformational program.
Share

Posted in Case Studies, Distribution, eBusiness, Impact Awards, Insurance, IT Spending, Research Council Survey, Vendors | Comments Off

Business and Technology Trends: Workers’ Comp and Commercial Lines

Friday, November 30th, 2012

Karlyn Carnahan

For the latest in our series of Business and Technology Trend reports, I looked at the top issues for Commercial Lines and Workers’ Comp, and offered an overview of and data on their respective markets and examples of recent technology investments by insurers.

Both commercial lines and workers’ comp carriers are looking to invest more in agent portals, data analytics, and core systems replacement. Specifically, commercial lines carriers are focusing on expense reduction, growth strategies, and improving underwriting results, as they see pricing continue to firm up. As a result, we are seeing them consider issues including business intelligence (particularly predictive analytics, for those who have sufficient data), policy administration upgrades to improve product development flexibility, claims administration system upgrades, and agent and policyholder portals that extend functionality to both parties.

Workers’ comp carriers, on the other hand, are dealing with competitive and regulatory pressures that are leading to a strong interest in data and efficiency. Like commercial lines carriers, their top initiatives include extending portal functionality to the agents and policyholders, upgrading claims administration systems, and policy administration system upgrades to improve risk selection and pricing, and to reduce operating expenses. They are also interested in business intelligence and predictive analytics tools.

A free preview of the Commercial Lines report is available online here, and a preview of the Workers’ Comp report is available here.

Share

Posted in IT Spending, IT Strategy, Policy Administration Systems | Comments Off

Personal Lines Insurers: Top Business and Tech Initiatives

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

Karlyn Carnahan

I recently published our latest Business and Technology Trends report, which looks at the top priorities for personal lines insurers based on our own expertise and conversations with members of our Novarica Insurance Technology Research Council. I also offer data about the marketplace and discuss 30 examples of recent technology investments by personal lines insurers. As the market continues to be soft and very competitive conditions increase profitability pressures, personal lines insurers are focusing on growth strategies, expense reduction, and improving underwriting results.

Overall, the personal lines market is characterized by high transaction volumes; intense price competition; high levels of advertising spending, particularly on the part of direct response companies; and slow growth.

Widespread use of segmentation has restrained the cyclical nature of personal lines pricing, with auto pricing remaining fairly stable even as homeowner rates increase. Furthermore, the weak economy, while beginning to recover, has left a legacy of declining premium and fewer exposures as fewer vehicles were purchased and limits were reduced to control costs. Stagnant investment income on top of that has resulted in rising combined ratios and significantly increased competition as carriers vie to take a larger piece of the pie from other carriers.

Against this landscape, personal lines carriers are focusing on managing and improving customer retention, improving – or just maintaining – their market position, and reducing their expenses to continue to respond to pressure on the combined ratio. In particular, carriers’ top initiatives include business intelligence, policy administration systems replacement, claims systems replacement, and portal functionality for both agents and insured.

To read more about these initiatives, you can view the full report online here.

Share

Posted in IT Spending, IT Strategy | Comments Off

US Insurer IT Budgets and Projects for 2013

Monday, October 22nd, 2012

Matthew Josefowicz

We’ve just published our annual US Insurer IT Budgets and Projects report, based on a survey of over 100 CIO members of our Research Council.

With all this new data on spending and budgets at hand, I thought it would be fun to revisit my August 1 column at Insurance Networking News, 5 Predictions, 5 Guidelines for 2013 IT Budgets. Here’s what we predicted this summer:

1. Budgets grow modestly or at worst hold steady.

2. More core systems projects.

3. More business intelligence and analytics projects.

4. More agent/customer experience projects.

5. Limited investment for social and mobile, but more low-cost pilot projects.

Given the overall vectors of the insurance IT world for the past few years, I suppose it didn’t really take Carnak the Magnificent to hit on those five areas. But every one was confirmed by the survey data:

1. The majority of respondents reported modest budget increases or flat budgets.

2. 35% of respondents reported being in the middle of a core policy administration system replacement or planning to start one 2013, and another 18% are planning major enhancements to their core policy administration systems.

3. Business intelligence is the top priority business capability for P&C insurers, and overall more than half of insurers are replacing or significantly enhancing their BI capabilities.

4. Nearly half of insurers are replacing or significantly enhancing their agent portals, and distributor ease-of-doing-business is the top priority for large life insurers.

5. 10-20% of insurers have mobile or social media pilots underway, but fewer have extensive deployments today.

For more, including a free downloadable summary of the 27 page report, see US Insurer IT Budgets and Projects

Share

Posted in Insurance, IT Spending, IT Strategy | Comments Off

If I had five million dollars, I’d buy you much better data and analytics capabilities…

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Matthew Josefowicz

Ever wonder what insurer CIOs would do with an extra $5 M in next year’s IT budget? So did we. So we asked 120 of them. Here’s what they said:

 

  • Despite the intense focus on data and analytics in insurance IT spending and project prioritization, more than 30% of insurer CIOs would spend more in this area if they had the budget. Clearly, this will be an area of continued high investment across the industry for the next few years.
  • There is a huge backlog of demand for core systems projects at insurers under $1 billion in annual premium, and a general belief that these projects can be accomplished for investments in the single-digit millions. If business conditions improve and budgets can be made available, we expect continued high volumes of activity in this area.
  • 1 in 5 insurers would invest in improved mobile capabilities, to improve both customer and agent experience.
  • Many CIOs have ideas on how to use technology to move the business forward that may not be captured in the traditional governance and prioritization process. Business leaders should make sure they are asking the question and incorporating the answers into deepening their understanding of their companies’ challenges.
  • Money is not the only scarce resource CIOs need – in many cases, business time and attention is even more scarce than cash. As one respondent put it: “No matter how much more money we had, the organization could not support the delivery of any more services. The capacity for the business support of IT projects is all but tapped out at this point.”

Check out our new report, which contains over 100 verbatim responses from insurer CIOs to this question.

Share

Posted in Data Management, Insurance, IT Spending, IT Strategy, Mobile | Comments Off

Novarica September Update.

Monday, September 10th, 2012

Matthew Josefowicz

So…our Impact Awards will be presented 10/30 in NYC, we’re running our IT Leadership Training Seminar again this November, the CIO Insurance Summit is coming up, there’s a new report on Southeast Asia, reports on enterprise architecture and US Insurance IT Budgets and Projects for 2013 are coming soon, we bought a banking advisory firm and hired the CEO, we hired a new principal with life, investments, and banking background, and one of our analysts got married.

Man, I thought August was supposed to be slow.

Share

Posted in Banking, Impact Awards, Insurance, IT Spending, IT Strategy, People | Comments Off

New Report Profiles 34 P&C Claims Solutions Vendors

Monday, August 6th, 2012

Karlyn Carnahan

Our latest report in the Novarica Market Navigator series examines Property/Casualty Claims Solutions, which play a critical role in a carrier’s success. Accordingly, we found that 41% of large carriers we surveyed and 23% of midsize carriers rank upgrades to their claims systems among their top three projects for 2012.

This comes as no surprise. For many carriers, claims solutions were installed twenty years ago or more, making them hard to maintain and rendering the claims handling process a labor-intensive one. Whereas carriers had a limited number of choices for modern systems a few years ago, there is now a broad range of claims solutions available. These solutions include features that support automated processing and management of claims functions, and provide integrated workflow management and task or process management.

P/C carriers see claims as an area to invest in to drive growth and improve operational efficiency, and with a surge in the number of feature-rich solutions, carriers are acting to modernize. Indeed, we estimate in our report that P/C carriers completed between 50-60 claims systems new sales last year, and that 65-75 will be selected in 2012.

Like Novarica’s other Market Navigator reports, this one includes a survey of the current solution provider marketplace and profiles 34 vendor solutions. A free preview of the survey is available online.

Share

Posted in Claims, Insurance, IT Spending, Vendors | Comments Off

« Older Entries