Our insurance team is just returning from InsureTech Connect (ITC). What a great week in the desert! ITC is one of the, if not largest, industry gatherings of insurance carriers, solution provers, implementation partners, and startups. Over 2,400 companies were in attendance, and it was said that there were over 8,500 attendees present this year.
I felt very fortunate to be in the company of thousands of like-minded professionals seeking to digitally transform an industry that’s focused on protecting people, businesses, and the things they care about most.
Roaming the convention floor, I found several exciting paths the industry is headed down and how it aligns with our view of digital modernization:
- Data is everywhere. Data and analytics remain key investment areas for insurance operations. Data-led companies assess the impact of decisions and adapt more rapidly while advanced analytics and data science allow companies to make predictions and test them against real-world results. This was evident with innovative applications for underwriting, customer service, and claims management. At Perficient, we are helping our clients deploy high-value insights quickly to deliver decisions with agility and speed.
- Personalization remains a key focus area of differentiation. We’ve discussed for quite some time the need for our industry to increase its focus on product and experience personalization. It is no longer okay to simply be the industry leader in experience when consumer expectations are set by cross-industry experience leaders like Amazon, Apple, and Google. Businesses and Individuals engage with companies that demonstrate authentic knowledge of their relationship. Our capabilities in journey science are helping to build on a strong data foundation above and develop successful experience makers to deliver integrated, seamless, tailored experiences.
- Embedded Insurance is a rapidly evolving distribution channel. Shifting insurance distribution to meet the consumer where they choose to interact was a big focus at this year’s conference. Breakout sessions on the topic and embedded platform technologies abound. It has been estimated that as much as 25% of the total P&C premium could be driven through embedded distribution by the end of the decade. Embedded insurance allows consumers to purchase coverage at the moment they’re most likely to buy it while expanding purchase opportunities for carriers and partners. At Perficient, we believe embedded insurance has the power to transform insurance by providing convenience and control in the purchasing process. We also know that a robust digital strategy and API development plan are required to be successful:
- Partnerships and experiences will be an extension of carrier brands, so they must be carefully cultivated.
- The digital experience requires real-time and frictionless interaction delivered by robust cloud and API programs.
Our team left the conference a little bleary-eyed and tired after three days of taking all this in, but we’re excited for what the future holds. Meeting with like-minded insurance professionals from across the world provides inspiration for where the industry is headed.
The goal for Perficient’s insurance practice is to help our partners modernize, innovate, and disrupt to win in the increasingly competitive insurance market. And as a global leader in digital transformation, we’re excited to be part of this industry transformation and look forward to helping our customers leverage these capabilities to truly differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
