What areas of mobile technology for insurance can bringthe quickest return on investment and why should insurers adoptthem?

Achieving the desired return on investment (ROI) requiresinsurers to first consider the business issues that are drivingthem to even consider mobile technologies. After all, the ROI isalways going to be tied to the business value.

I might also argue that the best approach to mobile won'tnecessarily deliver the quickest ROI, but it should deliver thegreatest ROI. And, those insurers who work from a reactive mode byresponding to each functionality request or each new mobile devicemay find themselves with a wide variety of front end silos similarto those that most every insurer has experienced and struggled withon the back end.

As the industry has learned, silos typically result inoperational inefficiencies, a management nightmare, and wastedinvestments.

Before they jump in with both feet, insurers might also considerwhat 'going mobile' really means and design functionalityaccordingly to not just take advantage of mobile delivery, but alsoto accommodate the limitations of mobile technology. Afterall, the 'viewing real estate' of a mobile device is much smallerthan a desktop and only critical data should be delivered. Again, this planning should be a natural result of a well thoughtout mobile strategy.

Unfortunately, I have seen many insurers rush to deliver mobilecapabilities to either respond to the current and growing demandfrom distribution channels and customers, or as a reaction to acompetitor. Once an insurer is in this react mode, the problemswill follow and the downsides of a lack of a well thought outstrategy will become apparent.

Building one-off applications for each mobile device is probablynot the answer. What if a new device comes out? What if thebrowser version should change? How does an insurer create amobile environment that is agile in delivering changes over thelong term?

The industry should have learned its lessons when it comes to“if you build it, they will come.” I would suggest toinsurers that they focus on building it right rather than quickly,getting the user to come, and more importantly, getting them tostay. Insurers should strive to understand each distributionchannel's needs and work with them on delivering the rightfunctionality, regardless of the device.

What user channel is the insurer trying to reach via mobiledelivery and what functionality do they want to provide to thatchannel? The destination device shouldn't be an issue sincetoday's technologies have the sophistication to detect and deliverto both the Web and mobile. The insurer should focus on thewho and the what relative to functionality ratherthan to location or device.

Again, being the fastest to the insurance market with mobiletechnology is not nearly as important as taking the time, buildinga long-term strategy, and doing it right in order to maximize boththe ROI and competitive advantages of delivering mobilefunctionality.