Insurance deal activity, although delayed, was very active during the economic downturn.
In a new report, Insurance Software Deal Trends 2010: Life/Health/Annuity Edition, Celent analyzes deal data provided by software vendors active in insurance in North America. A close look at 2008 and 2009 deals that fall into each metacategory and subcategory shows that insurers are still investing in solutions, despite the economic conditions.
The report breaks down deal activity by carrier size, type of deal, four broad metacategories (core processing, distribution, infrastructure and financial, and document/content management), and a number of subcategories. Data from previous deal trends reports are used to look at longer-term trends, and leading vendors for each metacategory are identified.
Based on vendor-provided data, the report also names leaders in the Celent Traction Index, which is an indicator of which companies are finding success in the insurance vertical.
“Over the past 18 months, we have had numerous discussions with vendors and insurers about the impact of the financial crisis on decision-making,” says Mike Fitzgerald, Senior Analyst with Celent’s Insurance Group and coauthor of the report. “A consistent theme is that deals were continuing to get done, but that decision time frames were longer. We found that the 2010 deal trend data support these comments.”
“Insurers are sticking with vendors with whom they already have a relationship,” says Karen Monks, Analyst with Celent’s Insurance Group and coauthor of the report. “Given the financial environment, it seems that insurers are more risk-averse when choosing software and more inclined to stay with current suppliers. This has implications for vendors in that effective account management and cross-selling efforts are more important than ever.”
