“Ten years ago, when BlackBerrys first came out, we had what ended up being false hope. People talked about mobile when the whole Internet explosion came about, but it never really took hold in the [insurance] industry.

There was a lot of hype, but people would use their mobile devices for pretty basic things like e-mail. It took a lot to get insurers and executives to even want the devices. Now everyone has them.

Executives all want iPads and they all want data—not necessarily applications. They want their analytics and scorecards on top of these devices. The smartphones really tie in with plug-and-play. It’s changing our whole culture and mindset.

I think the challenge will come from all the devices having different protocols and different technology. We can’t take an application and have many different versions. We are going to have to figure out how to manage the front end of the desktop and then figure out how to manage it on the backend. It’s going to require a whole new environment.

These are technology challenges, but the excitement is there and it will get funding. Fifteen to 20 percent of insurers say they are investing in mobile apps. We’re also going to start seeing some of the solution providers offer apps like first notice of loss (FNOL) that will allow some of the smaller carriers to adopt the technology.

Some of the investment time has been pretty long on the mobile apps. It feels like they are coming out quickly, but many of them have been at it for a long time and have spent considerable money.

There are some vendors in their backroom shops looking to package their mobile apps. Anyone can build a little app and put it out there, but how are you going to manage all the different versions. Even as a consumer when I go shopping on iTunes, the iPhone has a lot more apps than the iPad. For these apps to have any value it goes back to the data integration. You are going to have to tie FNOL to a claims system.”

Deb Smallwood is the founder of Strategy Meets Action

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