Becoming truly digital is going to be a long, arduous, zigzag, stop-and-go journey for all companies involved with insurance commerce regardless of their role in the insurance ecosystem.
Executive Summary
Inspired by a section of his recently published book, "From Stone Tablets to Satellites: The Continued Intimate but Awkward Relationship Between the Insurance Industry and Technology," veteran insurance and technology analyst Barry Rabkin explains why "going digital" is such a long process for insurance carriers. It involves digitizing every activity of "conducting insurance commerce"—bringing on customers, adjudicating claims, communicating with producers—and third-parties involved in those activities need to be digital as well. SECOND IN A SERIESInsurance commerce becoming truly digital is decades away from fruition
Very few, if any, of the insurance ecosystem participants are going to succeed in becoming truly digital within the next two-plus decades. Truly digital insurance commerce, which encompasses all aspects of getting and keeping customers, mandates a digital integration of processes and information flows among and between all members of the insurance commerce ecosystem.
As all insurance industry professionals know full well, insurance commerce involves activities well beyond sales to acquire customers. The insurance commerce ecosystem supporting these activities is a large and expanding portfolio of firms whose objectives are critical to keeping customers. These firms include, at a minimum, claim adjudication firms, auto body shops, property restoration firms, physical remediation firms, medical providers, outside legal firms, construction firms, police stations (providing accident reports) and fire stations (providing arson reports).
