Gartner: Insurance
The insurance industry faces massive technology transformation to support new business processes and respond to escalating customer requirements and regulatory pressures. Gartner's insurance research provides the actionable, in-context analysis and bottom-line guidance necessary to meet these challenges.

• SunGard Enters ICM Market via DSPA Software Acquisition
  SunGard's acquisition of DSPA will allow it to offer incentive compensation management solutions to insurers. SunGard gains a new product area while DSPA gets access to markets and resources for expansion.
• Findings: Obtaining the Single Rating Engine for P&C Insurers
  Maintaining multiple company-built rating engines within policy administration systems taxes resources, minimizes flexibility and responsiveness to market cycles, and makes insurers more susceptible to unjustified pricing differences.
• Findings: Legacy Claims Systems Continue to Be a Productivity Drain for P&C Insurers
  Legacy claims systems have failed to alleviate the administrative workload on adjusters, call center representatives and other claims users, which in turn has hindered their ability to focus on the business of adjusting and settling claims efficiently and accurately.
• Findings: Policy Administration Does Not Equate to Underwriting
  Policy administration systems have delivered little to no value in helping insurers underwrite complex products such as commercial and specialty lines. Underwriting workstations are the solution for insurers seeking to truly underwrite those products.
• Findings: Review of Financial Blogs Reveals Little Guidance for Life Insurers
  In reviewing 250 financial, insurance and investment consumer-sponsored blogs in the U.S., Gartner found little discussion about individual life insurance and annuities. The content does not clarify how consumers view their products, but that doesn't mean insurers should ignore blogs.
• Findings: Care Management Is a Top Health Insurer Investment Priority for 2008
  Improving health outcomes and lowering medical and administrative costs are driving the need for more-robust care management solutions for health insurers. Predictive analytics is a top investment area, whereas the personal health record ranks at the bottom of care management investment priorities.
• Findings: Australian Insurers Open Eyes to Global Trends
  Australia has been a relatively closed market for insurance, dominated by local insurers. However, Australian general and life insurers are becoming more concerned with global competition and are seeking new strategies to compete.
• Findings: Health Insurers Still Support Multiple Claims-Processing Applications
  Health insurers attending Gartner's 2007 Healthcare Summit confirmed their continued use of multiple claims-processing engines. Inconsistency and exposure to error are rationalized by the perception of greater risk and the cost of implementing a unified processing engine.
• Findings: Data From the Healthcare Payer IT Budget Survey Indicates Solid Growth in IT Budgets
  The Gartner 2007 U.S. Healthcare Payer IT Budget and Staffing Survey indicates double-digit growth for 2008. This follows an eight-year upward IT budget and staffing trend.
• Findings From the Gartner 2007 Healthcare Summit: A Glaring Disconnect in IT and Business BI Alignment
  IT executives indicate that the business is trying to force IT to make business intelligence procurement decisions. To capitalize on the real value of BI, IT must shift the focus from technology procurement and encourage the business to define the requirements that drive BI technology investments.
• Predicts 2008: Insurance Competition, Data and Staffing Risks Dominate the Insurance Industry
  Fundamental shifts in staffing levels, healthcare spending account providers and the mismatch of data used by business intelligence tools head up Gartner's 2008 predictions for insurers.
• Life Insurance Straight-Through Processing: Lessons Learned and Ongoing Issues
  After nearly 15 years, U.S. life insurers continue to struggle with deploying a comprehensive straight-through processing strategy for individual life insurance and annuity new business. From process design to agent adoption, the industry has learned important lessons about implementing STP.
• Service Excellence: The Key to Health Insurer Differentiation
  The customer experience in the health insurer market has not improved in the past five years and is perceived as having deteriorated. Achieving significant organic growth in a highly competitive market requires differentiation through analytics, streamlined processes and personalization.
• XML: Adoption Increases in the Insurance Industry, but Strategy and Governance Are Lacking
  Gartner and ACORD recently conducted a joint survey with property and casualty insurers, life insurers, annuity providers, and reinsurers. The survey found that, though XML adoption is increasing, most organizations lack the internal governance and structure to manage these projects appropriately.
• Internet Use for P&C and Life Insurance Lags Among U.S. Consumers
  Despite speculation that the Internet will be a major sales and service channel for property and casualty and life insurers, Gartner research shows that adoption of the Internet for insurance still lags among U.S. consumers.
• Multichannel Integration Adoption Grows Among U.S. Insurers
  Although multichannel integration may be a relatively new concept to the insurance industry, Gartner research has found that adoption among insurers has already started, and many insurers are making investments in the technical foundations to support cross-channel needs.
• ECM and BPM Acquisitions Confuse Health Insurers
  Large vendors that target health insurers are acquiring companies to bring enterprise content management and business process management together for one-stop shopping. However, multiple, overlapping product lines and mixed marketing messages confuse health insurers seeking ECM and BPM solutions.
• Health Insurers Must Move Beyond U.S. Census Numbers of the Uninsured to Drive Change
  U.S. Census Bureau reporting on health insurance coverage provides insurers with opportunities to capture membership by building products for the uninsured.
• Microsoft HealthVault Is One Important Step Toward a Workable Personal Health Record
  Microsoft HealthVault will create credibility for a repository for consumer personal health information "in the network cloud" because it is based on a strong, explicit privacy model. However, it is very much a work in progress.
• Key Issues and Research Agenda for Insurance Industry Advisory Services, 2H07
  Gartner's survey of insurers indicates that they will continue to focus on core systems modernization, more-effective use of the Web to sell to and service customers, multichannel integration, enterprise information management and the intensified use of business intelligence tools for the remainder of 2007.
• Top Business and Technology Priorities for Life Insurers and Annuity Providers
  A recent Gartner survey of insurance customers found shifting priorities among life insurers and annuity providers. Data management and utilization, product development, customer service, and infrastructure improvements rise as top interests among insurers.
• P&C Insurers Must Adopt Web-Based Rating Engines
  For most property and casualty insurers, rating is still stuck in the mainframe from 30 years ago. A myriad of newer technologies has flooded the market in recent years, offering greater flexibility to meet market changes and providing real-time, accurate rating data.