2017 has been a heady year for insurance technology. The widespread embrace of new digital experience solutions, the explosion of interest in AI, and the rapid absorption of new insurtech by mainstream insurers have helped provide extra momentum. It has brought into sharp relief the inextricable relationship between systems of record and systems of engagement and the need for platforms that foster that relationship. Creating just such a platform has been at the heart of EIS Group’s technology approach. For this reason, it is hugely gratifying to find ourselves recognized as a Visionary in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant for P&C Core Platforms, North America”*, which is “an update of the ‘Magic Quadrant for Property and Casualty Insurance Policy Management Modules, North America’ published in January 2016."

DevOps and the cloud are powering change and delivering business value to insurers, as CSAA Insurance Group discovered via an automated testing environment upgrade and an AWS migration

The value of the cloud means different things to different people. Security, scalability, and rapid provisioning of infrastructure are often mentioned and understood. And then there is software development and IT operations. The mashup of both is called DevOps and it is changing the speed to value equation of technology initiatives and is itself powering cloud adoption. For insurers faced with product complexity and managing large transformations, cloud-based DevOps offers tantalizingly tangible speed to value. And panelists in a session at the IASA 2017 conference explained how it all works and provided a stellar instance of where one insurer realized tremendous value.

 Forget “15 minutes could save you 15% on car insurance.” This popular insurance advertising meme makes me want to ask wouldn’t your customers prefer to save not only more time and money, but the effort also? This is precisely the new value that is being achieved with new digital engagement technologies, and customers like it.

Something normal happened during Mardi Gras this year in New Orleans. Amongst all the chaos, a conference broke out. Workplace Benefits Renaissance held its annual event. The meeting draws notable thought leaders and personalities within the industry and, if you were able to resist the revelry in the streets, there were some interesting stories heard and lessons shared.

Photo courtesy of http://bit.ly/1tVwkpT

On February 2, Groundhog Day, something different happened at the annual LIMRA Enrollment Technology Strategy Seminar (ETSS). For the last three years, EIS Group has sponsored ETSS and each year, the latest approaches and challenges to benefits enrollment are discussed. But just as the venerable Punxsutawney Phil himself is prone to do, each year the attendees see their long shadows – of legacy technology constraints – and withdraw to comfortable, insulated dens rather than embrace an early spring of much-needed change. Not this year. For the first time, the conference coalesced around the root cause of enrollment problems: connectivity.

Drones, bots, blockchain, AI and machine learning are what everybody is suddenly talking about. Start-ups with cool names like Trov, Slice, Goji and WeSavvy are the talk of the insurance town, yet just a year or two ago core transformation toward becoming a digital insurer was all the rage, and the names of core vendors filled the headlines. Now, it seems like all the cool stuff is happening peripherally to the core and some great examples peppered the lively discussion of Insurtech and next-gen insurance at the recent SMA Summit.

When it comes to benefits insurance market expansion…it’s good to be a “yes” man 

What stood out this year at the LIMRA Group and Worksite Benefits Conference was all of the talk around small businesses. Yes, it is an election year. But no, this was not just an echo of every candidate’s familiar refrain about how small business is the growth engine for America and must be supported. For benefits insurers, this is an every year issue. Carriers struggle to make small business a plank in their platform for business growth. The result is that growth opportunities are left on the table while the majority of carriers are forced to battle over the same books of business in the large and jumbo case markets.

How smart do insurers have to be to engage customers? Just how much customer data from sources near and far and how much analysis of customer behavior is necessary to create an effective engagement model? The answer may as well be, “How much money are you willing to spend?” Overlooked, however, is the fact that core systems data is actually customer insight lying in plain sight.  How can insurers get at it and use it for intelligent engagement? Why must they?

New technologies. New players. New products. New business models. The clamor of disruption is loud in our ears, but seeing a clear path for adapting to change and implementing new technologies to support change is hard. In their urgency, are insurers force-fitting disruption on old operating models and systems?

Last week I had the pleasure of joining my industry colleagues at the LIMRA 2016 Enrollment Technology Strategy Seminar in Charlotte, NC. We spent a fun evening at the NASCAR Hall of Fame which also presented me with an interesting juxtaposition because NASCAR is a sport based on speed, strategy and serious horsepower, yet our industry has been stuck behind the pace car for quite some time.

Who is the current pacesetter?  It’s the majority of group benefits insurers with legacy systems that lack the horsepower necessary for their business to move up in the field.