A holiday gift from Celent - Top 10 searched for terms and links to reports

Last year we offered a Christmas Carol themed post summarising some thoughts on the past, present and future. This time around I figured I’d go for one of the end of year top ten style posts that pop up as folks take a moment to look back at the year. So here I present a view on the top 10 searches insurance folks made on the Celent web site. 10. Model Insurer (Click on the words to do the search) In at number 10 are explicit searches for the model insurer series of reports. We’re still working hard on this years but here’s some links to last years and the one the year before. This year we’ll be holding the Model Insurer event in Boston along with our insight and innovation day. The model insurer reports can’t be beaten for offering a view of successful investment in change and technology across the insurance industry. Also take a look at the Model Insurer Asia report and 2012 event. 9. Fraud Sadly as pressure increases on the financial system, on wallets everywhere then the propensity for fraud increases. 2011 has seen an unprecedented rise in ill-feeling towards the financial services sector as a whole so it’s no wonder that fraud is on everyone's agenda. Look out for work by Donald Light and Nicolas Michellod in 2012 on modern fraud systems across the globe.

8. CRM or Customer Relationship Management Insurers have made great strides in moving from policy and agreement centric thinking to a more rounded view of the customer. With ever increasing ways of reaching customers and intermediaries, of simply transacting business this focus on technology to support the customer relationship is clearly still a focus. 7. Claims Clearly a key focus for any insurer, from the systems supporting claims to the latest trends in claims analysis. In 2011 Celent examined the impact social media was having on claims and how insurers are interacting with claimants. We also looked at location intelligence solutions and below are just some of the reports looking at various angles of this key function. Look out in 2012 for the XCelent reports on claims system vendors.

6. Outsourcing 2011 has seen a more pragmatic approach to outsourcing in the insurance industry globally. Strategic outsourcing is still a key tool for any large organisation and this is reflected in the term appearing in our top ten. The CIO survey series of reports (which will be refreshed in the new year) offer insight into CIO’s views on outsourcing globally.

5. Policy Administration Ah the big core system question. What was interesting to me was this wasn’t number one, still number 5 is pretty high up the list. Searches in this area were looking for advice on the core systems themselves, building a case for them as well as general trends. This year we published the 2011 reports on policy administration systems around the globe, each offering a different perspective on what’s available as well as what’s required.

4. IT Spending In at number 4 is IT Spending – how are folks splitting their hard earned currency between projects? A key question on the minds of CIOs and others. A key insight into this is offered in the CIO interview series of reports as well as our emerging technology report – aimed at identifying technology gaining interest and investment from the insurance industry – take a look.

3. Asia - or rather searches for India, China and Japan A significant number of searches were for specific countries, the three top countries were India, China and Japan. Asia is a very diverse market and there is a great deal of opportunity in the region, not only financially but also in learning how insurance problems are being solved in these very different markets. Personally, I find one of the great things about working for a global company like Celent is the breadth of view it affords.

2. Social Number two in our list is social, social media and social networks. Technology is helping people to interact and changing the way they communicate. Customers, agents and members of insurers staff all expect very different things from an organisation now in a Twitter and Facebook world than just 10 short years ago. In addition, the relationship between the insurance industry and the vendors and service providers supporting it is changing. In all this newly collected and aggregated information there lies privacy and brand-busting dragons but also great opportunity for those intrepid enough to sail the social seas.

1. Mobile I recently tried going around London for the day without my phone – it was hell! The debacle this year regarding the Blackberry outage created a wave of such feelings, although raised some counter blog posts as journalists recounted how they spent more quality time with their family without answer emails. Regardless of for better or worse, humankind has wed itself firmly to being constantly connected through mobile devices. This is a global phenomenon from geeks seeking the latest 4G android handset, executives and music lovers with their iphones or Kenyan farmers with simpler phones, mobile has changed the we communicate, interact with technology and each other and will continue to do so – the insurance industry is still feeling the impact and in many cases still leading the charge in changing peoples lives for the better through mobile technology.

So there it is, a top 10 for you. I haven’t included links to the webinars, peer networking events and other events through the year but the links to each of the search terms will provide you with those. It’s been a phenomenal year of challenges, change and interesting times. Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year or indeed just a great season - depending on what you're celebrating this Winter. We look forward to working with you in the new year and beyond. Oo, look, I wrote an end of 2011 post without mentioning the Euro crisis - oops...

Author

Craig Beattie

Research & Advisory