Boston, MA, USA
August 10, 2001
U. S. Insurance & the Web:
An Overview
Report Published by Celent
Celent Communications presents an
overview of the ways U.S. insurers are embracing the Web to reduce
administrative costs and increase communications with shoppers, policy
holders, and agents
According to Celent's new report, US
Insurance & the Web: An Overview, the Web will not lead
to a disruptive revolution in insurance sales. However, effective use of
the Web for customer and agent communications is a critically important
evolution for insurance carriers.
The report includes the results of a survey
conducted by Celent in July 2001 of the functionality of Web sites of the
top 100 carriers in both Life/Health (L/H) and Property/ Casualty (P/C)
Insurance, as well as the top 75 bank Web sites.
38% of the top 100 P/C carriers and 54%
of the top 100 L/H carriers have already implemented some type of
Web-based agent extranet, while 29% of the P/C carriers and 43% of the
L/H carriers provide some kind of policy holder account access
.
"In the last year or so, the dominant
perception of the Web in the insurance industry has changed from that of a
frightening challenge to established retail distribution channels to an
enormous opportunity for potential savings in time and money," says
Celent analyst Matthew
Josefowicz, author of the report. "Some carriers reported
increased efficiencies as great as 90% on communication with agents.
Carriers who are slow to implement Web-based communication systems for
their agents and customers will quickly find themselves at a competitive
disadvantage."
Celent expects the impact of direct
consumer online sales in the next five years to be negligible for the next
five years compared to these cost savings. "The portals are serving
an important marketing function by providing product information to
customers, but their business models are based on sales," Josefowicz
says. "While some of the portals may survive as Online Agencies,
we expect most of them to disappear or be absorbed by larger companies
that can leverage their marketing and technology values within a larger
context."
A Table of Contents
is available online.
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