P&C insurers must contend with conflicting priorities, suchas fostering company growth while thwarting fraud that invariablytugs at the bottom line. Moreover, the very mechanisms that helpdrive progress—including mobile technology and data-rich socialmedia—present unique challenges and added vulnerabilities toemerging fraud schemes. In some ways, data is both insurer friendand foe, enabling ever-enterprising criminals to execute theirscams.

Such is the dilemma Forrester addresses in its new report,“Prevent Insurance Crime With The Four Cornerstones of Better FraudManagement.” According to the Cambridge, Mass.-based independentresearch and data analysis firm, insurers certainly have recourse,one that requires a fundamental shift in the way in which they viewbusiness.

In the current “age of the consumer,” insurers tend to view SIUorganizations as an expense overshadowed by customer satisfactiongoals, Forrester asserts. However, “fraud intelligence” is acritical component in “business intelligence,” and gettingsmarter relies on a proactive, multi-faceted approach to bothdetecting and deflecting fraud.

Drawing from interviews conducted with analytics vendors, SIUdepartment heads and data experts during the second quarter of2012, Forrester outlines four core strategies inaddressing the insurance fraud conundrum:

1. Rethink SIU teams.

2. Establish standard metrics.

3. Use mobile applications everywhere.

4. Improve data quality and increase dataquantity.

The firm expounds upon these concepts and other weapons in theinsurers' anti-fraud arsenal, including effectively couplingpredictive analytics with business intelligence strategies toenable early, swift detection. For more information or to purchasea copy of this report, go to www.forrester.com.