In March, Innovation in Insurance (i3) surveyed subscribers onthe information and advice of analyst groups Celent, Forrester,Gartner, Novarica, Strategy Meets Action, and Tower Group. Thesurvey found Celent, Novarica, and Strategy Meets Action wererecognized by insurance carriers as the well-known leaders in theindustry. The three analyst firms had consistent high scoresthroughout the survey, according to i3.

This survey was created to track the usage and value ofinformation gained from insurance technology analysts. The goals ofthe study were to establish trends of how the information is usedwithin a carrier and who uses the information.

The survey consisted of ten multiple choice and rating-scalequestions, according to i3. The questions were designed to askcarriers, consultants, and technicians information about theirrelationships and insights into analyst traits, but also searchedto determine carrier business plan needs, the sources in which theyuse business strategies, the value of vendor solutions, andsources used in conjunction with analysts advice.

“We are excited to release the results of our second annualindustry analyst survey,” says Frank Heaps, managing director ofi3. “The results show the value and importance of the publishedreports as insurance carriers make critical, strategic businessdecisions. In the competitive market that carriers are facing, itis clear that they value the information provided by firms thattracks important industry business trends and how vendor solutionsare enabling better business processes.” Uponexecution of the analyst survey, i3 looked to find trends on whatcarriers find useful to their decisions and what analystinformation is used to develop business plans. According to thesurvey, participants' prioritization of useful information revealedthe top three analysts to include Celent, Novarica, and StrategyMeets Action. Other notable trends include:

• Technology trends and business trends are highly regarded whenlooking at analyst research;
• Vendor analysis and original research found most useful to makedecisions;
• Vendor profiles, original thought research, and consulting arethe most significant sources from analysts' advice;
• Recommendations and research papers have most influence onbusiness strategy;
• Analyst opinions are weighed against other research whenevaluating options in vendor or technology decisions;
• Analyst information is highly preferred in reports.

Responses came mostly from those who looked for adviceconcerning technology trends (88 percent) and business trends (75percent) from their analysts. Also noted is the highpercentages of the other options: competitor information (69percent) and from their strategic advisor (56 percent).

According to the results, vendors want information organized inlonger reports (40 percent) rather than in shorter whitepapers (27percent). In addition, research papers (69 percent) are found to bemost influential within carrier strategy with recommendations fromoutside sources as a second option.

When making decisions for their business, the reportdetermined carriers find the most useful information sources fromanalysts to be original research (79 percent), vendor analysis(58 percent), and technology recommendations (42 percent). Ingeneral, when seeking advice from analysts sources used mostinclude research original thought (80 percent),vendor profiles (53 percent), and consulting (40 percent).

The survey examined the usefulness of theanalyst information and sources in relation to technology trendsand information, solution and software selection, business trends,and recommendations for technology enabling business needs. Theresults established a trend involving Celent, Novarica, andStrategy Meets Action as the most useful information producers.When information is used for technology trends, Celent (57 percent)and Novarica (54 percent) were found to be most useful, accordingto the survey. Celent (77 percent) and Novarica (60 percent) areconsidered most useful when it comes to information for solutionand software selection. Business trend information is found to bemost useful when developed by Novarica (72 percent) and Celent (59percent), followed by Strategy Meets Action (54 percent), accordingto the survey.

The survey listed Novarica (69 percent), Strategy Meets Action(58 percent), and Celent (46 percent) as leadingfor recommendations of technology-enabling business needs.

Participants were asked to pair each analyst with an attributethat they found most associated with the firm. These attributeoptions consisted of quality, independence, accountability,ethics, experience, and research. For the analysts that tookprecedence throughout the survey, Celent and Novarica were matchedin the category of Quality.

Experience was selected as the feature possessed by StrategyMeets Action.

Forrester and Gartner both were categorizedunder Research.

Analysts' opinions are weighed against other research (75percent) when evaluating options in vendor or technologydecisions. Sixty percent of respondents say they use informationother than analysts for background. This includes industrydocumentation like journals, publications, associations, andtrends.

The media is also utilized with tools such as magazines, blogs,websites, and annual reports. Within a business's internalenvironment, vendors also use their personal network, theirinternal knowledge team, case studies, and even colleagues or peersto uncover information.

As the survey reports, strategy and support initiatives are theareas of concern when using analyst sources. Relationshipsestablished with most analysts involve strategy or planninggroups (57 percent).

Chief Information Officer (45 percent) and Chief ExecutiveOfficer (34 percent) are also closely associated in thebusiness-analyst relationship. In addition, many noted that salesand marketing divisions as well as product management groupsdevelop a significant connection with analysts (36 percent). Theserelationships can generate rapport and respect between vendors andanalysts.