Comments on: Finally Time for Insurers to Develop Comprehensive Views of Clients http://www.acsellerant.com/2009/06/finally-time-for-insurers-to-develop-comprehensive-views-of-clients/ Context. Content. Conversations. Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:36:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Bob Leonard http://www.acsellerant.com/2009/06/finally-time-for-insurers-to-develop-comprehensive-views-of-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-4 Bob Leonard Sat, 27 Jun 2009 12:49:17 +0000 http://www.acsellerant.com/?p=159#comment-4 I'm happy that Ellen Carney, Forrester financial services analyst, agrees with my opinion on this. I'm thinking, Ellen, that when you wrote "this isn't the holy grail", what you meant was that it's achievable... it isn't out of reach. If that's so, this is a major opportunity for IT vendors in the insurance space. I’m happy that Ellen Carney, Forrester financial services analyst, agrees with my opinion on this. I’m thinking, Ellen, that when you wrote “this isn’t the holy grail”, what you meant was that it’s achievable… it isn’t out of reach. If that’s so, this is a major opportunity for IT vendors in the insurance space.

]]> By: Ellen Carney http://www.acsellerant.com/2009/06/finally-time-for-insurers-to-develop-comprehensive-views-of-clients/comment-page-1/#comment-3 Ellen Carney Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:19:04 +0000 http://www.acsellerant.com/?p=159#comment-3 Depressing to think the industry hasn't progressed much over 20 years, and worse because this is the second time I've heard the same thing in less than 24 hours. My take--industry execs want (and we see in Forrester surveys around IT plans) guidance around how to extract and manage all this--BI, analytics, ECM. We're definitely seeing vendors pitching to insurers (and bankers) about deploying these tools as a way to get that cross line of business view. I think that while the insurance industry has held up better than banking in the Great Collapse, it's definitely now feeling pinched, and maybe it is this business pain that finally gets them going. Vendors and their sales teams need to do some education here, get their insurance customers comfortable with the fact that this isn't the holy grail. And it's more than anecdotal that sales reps are a key source of information--they also provide information that insurers trust. We did some research last year, and learned that tech vendor sales reps are trusted more than consultants, and a little less than industry analysts (http://www.forrester.com/rb/teleconference/influencing_influencers_how_banks_and_insurers_research/q/id/5165/t/1) Depressing to think the industry hasn’t progressed much over 20 years, and worse because this is the second time I’ve heard the same thing in less than 24 hours.

My take–industry execs want (and we see in Forrester surveys around IT plans) guidance around how to extract and manage all this–BI, analytics, ECM. We’re definitely seeing vendors pitching to insurers (and bankers) about deploying these tools as a way to get that cross line of business view. I think that while the insurance industry has held up better than banking in the Great Collapse, it’s definitely now feeling pinched, and maybe it is this business pain that finally gets them going.

Vendors and their sales teams need to do some education here, get their insurance customers comfortable with the fact that this isn’t the holy grail.

And it’s more than anecdotal that sales reps are a key source of information–they also provide information that insurers trust. We did some research last year, and learned that tech vendor sales reps are trusted more than consultants, and a little less than industry analysts (http://www.forrester.com/rb/teleconference/influencing_influencers_how_banks_and_insurers_research/q/id/5165/t/1)

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