There’s always time to look back and re-examine failures (and the occasional success
stories) that have taken place, but looking forward and planning for the future takes a
different kind of energy. Putting regular tasks aside to contemplate better ways of doing
things sounds like something an organization should endorse, but too often it results
in navel-gazing with little accomplished.
Still, just a bit more than halfway through what has been, thus far, a most extraordinary decade for insurance and technology, we felt this was an excellent opportunity
to examine what lies ahead in the remaining five years of this second decade of the 21st
century.
Where have we come from in this half-decade? In 2010 we were beginning to
emerge from the worst financial crisis in 80 years. IT leaders were finally being viewed
as valuable players in the company hierarchy, but the constant that held back insurance
for more than a decade—the replacement of core systems—was still on hold for most
carriers because of the tremendous cost concerns.
People were carrying computers in their pockets in 2010, but we had yet to see the
full value of mobility and how an entire generation was becoming unplugged (except
for their chargers, of course). The cloud was some vague concept to many and even the
smartest people in the industry never saw entire policy administration systems being
available in the cloud.
In this edition of ITA Pro, we asked some industry leaders to reflect on areas of
importance—such as analytics, claims, distribution, and mobility—and where the
industry will likely find itself with these capabilities five years from now.
Making predictions is never easy, but it can be fun. The beauty of where we are
now, though, is reasonable people can make outrageous claims about the future and we
will still have a problem tearing those ideas apart because, deep inside, there is a tiny
speck of belief that the future is there for almost anything.
I don’t know if we will see flying cars, as Chad Hersh, then a Novarica analyst,
spoke about a few years ago at a Majesco users’ conference I attended, but another
point he touched on—driverless cars—certainly has a chance to change the insurance
world in the 2020s. How wild is it to think drones will be soaring above us to examine
property risks for underwriters? Not very.
Take your imagination for a spin and you might be shocked at some of the ideas
that will come your way. Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn’t been paying attention
these past five years. ITA
Robert Regis Hyle
PRO
PRO
Jim Daggett
Editor in Chief
Robert Regis Hyle
Contributing Editor
Michael P. Voelker
Art Director
Jason T. Williams
ITA Advisory Board
Tricia S. Blair
Lincoln Financial Group
Thomas Dunbar
XL Group
Miguel Edwards
AIA Allstate
Lawrence Fortin
Millers Mutual Insurance
Judith L. Haddad
Patriot National Inc.
Craig S. Lowenthal
Berkley Technology Services
Ken Mitchel
Clements Worldwide
Wade Rugenstein
NTA Life
Kath Sandklev
Cap Specialty
Larissa Tosch
Glatfelter Insurance Group
For Advertising contact Jim Daggett
at jim@itapro.org or 631-241-3301
For Editorial, contact Robert Regis Hyle
at bob@itapro.org or 812-747-7159
For reprints and licensing please
contact Jim Daggett at jim@itapro.org
or call 631-241-3301
ITA Pro magazine is published five
times per year in print and tablet
forms and three more in tablet-only
form.
Copyright © 2015 by the Insurance
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