8March - April 2018Keeping up with the Social and Digital Evolution in InsuranceBy Ursuline Foley, Corporate CIO, XL CatlinThere are at least five key competing drivers of Change at play in today's Insurance Industry, those being;1. Highly active M&A activity driven by the need to grow 2. Globalization3. Regulatory Changes4. Alternative Capital5. TechnologyFor an Industry that has earned a historical reputation for being a technology laggard, Insurance is now paying close attention to the threats and opportunities provided by emerged technologies of Mobile, Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), Robotics, Wearable's, Drones and Analytics, to name a few. This is largely due to the dramatic disruption caused by the high-choice digital market-place in other industries. The Insurance industry is bracing for this change to happen to it and is working hard to try to anticipate what it might mean to its business products and operations. The Insurance industry is already seeing the usage of technologies like; driverless cars, drones, telematics, Cybersecurity, Usage Based Insurance (UBI), Insurance aggregators, Big Data and extensive mobile dependency in emerging markets and therefore many Insurance CEOs are already adding Innovation and Technology as their business strategy. CEOs are keen to understand the value of these new technologies to their operations but more importantly they want to prepare for the impact on the overall Insurance Ecosystem; products, sales cycles, and partnerships.Of course, technology has always offered major strategic competitive advantages--streamlined processes to boost internal efficiency, better data to make better underwriting decisions, more efficient claims handling and real-time data-sharing to improve the customer experience. But since technology is providing such a seismic change in many industries, it is there even more vital that (re)insurers also look to technology in their quest to find profitable growth in a highly competitive insurance market.Technology can affect change in Insurance both directly and indirectly, all of which could redefine Insurance partnerships, processes and culture for the future;Indirect Change--driven by consumers' increasing demand for digital market places, leading to disruption/change in other industries;As consumers and insured industries advance in their adoption of these technologies, then their products, processes, and data will become more enriched. This, in turn, can result in newer and more sophisticated products for consumers. In my view it's the insurance company who is staying aware of this technology and social evolution, preparing its workforce and sales teams to see opportunities in it--is more likely to survive it and growth with it. IN MY OPINION
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