Comments on: Is the Insurance Industry Risk Averse?

By: Is the Insurance Industry Risk Averse? « Guidewire Claims Blog

Is the Insurance Industry Risk Averse? « Guidewire Claims Blog — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:28:31 +0000

[...] the Insurance Industry Risk Averse? Posted on October 24, 2008 by Mike Mahoney Is the Insurance Industry Risk Averse? (Mike Gantt’s Insurance Technology Blog) An insurance company CEO marveled to me recently that his board of directors would heavily [...]

By: mikegantt

mikegantt — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:04:42 +0000

Releasing this ‘log jam’ is a compelling vision. The one advantage to being a laggard is that it gives you the opportunity to leapfrog. I look forward to a time soon when other industries take notice that insurance is leading the way in technology deployment. A greater portion of insurance industry processes are capable of being automated than almost every other industry because the product itself is intangible – that is, a promise to pay. Therefore, let’s indeed get at releasing that ‘log jam.’

By: Deb Smallwood

Deb Smallwood — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:50:05 +0000

Mike – I enjoy reading your blogs – - this one struck a nerve –
I agree…Insurer’s business model is all around risk and where insurance is in relationship to banking and capital market vendor maturity – they are laggards.

I believe that vendors have no incentive to change what they are selling – because insurers continue to buy what they are offering. North American insurers spend over $40b a year in IT – - they are implementing and trying just about everything out there…. however, most of this is being driven by technology/IT and not the business.

I believe the other part of this puzzle is the Business Executives are afraid of technology, not because of the risk, but because they do not understand it – - unlike the business of insurance – - they just delegate it to their CIO’s. There is no business accountability.

In today’s world of technology – - it is interwoven in all aspects of our personal and business lives – - -business executives needs to understand the power of technology, look at their needed business capabilities and how technology can help drive change, agility, and flexibility – - – they clearly need to work with their CIO’s to drive the vendors to start building what they need – - instead being the ‘victim’ of misaligned IT solutions that do not satisfy their needs.

To me, this will release this ‘log jam’.