It's no surprise that insurers have consistently put ease ofdoing business for agents at the top of their priority list.Creating better and more interactive agent portals has been a focusof the industry's technological enhancement for the last decade. Ifthere have been some recent reductions in budgets devoted to agentportals for insurers, it's only because most have spent yearsbuilding out solutions and in some cases have moved into amaintenance mode. This is a sure sign that a technology hassaturated the industry and become an accepted necessity to doingbusiness.

Related: 4 technologies that are revolutionizing theinsurance industry

At the same time, policyholder portals have lagged behind.Except for large direct-channel dedicated personal lines insurerswhere policyholder toolsets are part of the core strategy, mostinsurers have put very little time and effort into them. Instead,these insurers have looked to the agent channel to manage thoserelationships, being both unwilling to disrupt the existingbusiness model and unsure of the value.

In Novarica's annual report USInsurer IT Budgets and Projects 2015, this trendcontinues, with survey results showing that "Distributer ease ofdoing business" remains towards the top of the list and"policyholder self-service" remains at the bottom.

For insurers who have put time and money into building outpolicyholder portals, the return on investment is unclear. Unlikeagent portals which involve daily interaction, the usage ofpolicyholder portals remains low, with a tiny percentage ofpolicyholders ever logging in, and those who do only logging inonce or twice a year. With numbers like that, resetting lostpasswords is likely the number one interaction policyholders havewith the portal.

Consumer expectations for self-serviceincreasing

So what is the role of the policyholder portals in 2015 andbeyond? Consumer expectations for self-service continue to rise,increasing the minimum bar for insurers. Currently, consumerscompare their insurer not to competitors but to other industrieswhere almost all business is done online. At the same time,insurers are looking to communicate more with their policyholderswithout disrupting the agent channel and are increasingly worriedabout being pushed into world where only price matters.

We can look to Specialty and Workers' Compensation insurers forinspiration, who— due to the nature of theirbusiness—often use their expertise in an area to try and educatetheir policyholders about best practices for keeping theirequipment or people safe. Many of them provide tools andcalculators for estimating ROI on safety measures in order toencourage better behavior, provide printing or ordering of safetysigns that can be hung up at work sites, or even allow schedulingof inspections. Though these features are still underutilized bypolicyholders, they are a great starting point.

This desire to educate and protect will be impacted by the nextset of emerging technologies, including Big Data, the Internet ofThings (IoT), and a vast wealth of sensor data such as automotivetelematics, smart watches, and fitness trackers. What happens whenall new vehicles in the marketplace capture driving data, not justthose where customers have plugged in insurer-provided dongles? Andwhat happens when a maturing IoT means that all customer homes andbusinesses are gathering data about safety and security? And whatabout when a significant percentage of people are wearing devicesthat monitor their health and well-being?

Policyholder portal needs to evolve

In 2015 it's likely that the industry as a whole will take somesmall steps (and maybe a few big ones) towards capturing thisplethora of data and applying it towards better underwritingdecisions and risk management. But there's more at stake than justincremental improvements to the existing business model and theunderutilized policyholder portal is actually central to wherethese changes will happen. The policyholder portal needs to evolvein insurer minds from a place to put up some infrequently usedsubmission and status forms such as billing history, first noticeof loss, and policy documents, but instead as a central place tohandle the kind of data-driven education and risk prevention thatthese emerging technologies will make available.

Right now many consumers seem to be willing to share personaldata with a host of third-party companies in return for convenienceand cool features. But will consumers be as open to sharing thisdata with their insurance company? In terms of true goal alignment,the insurance industry is actually much better positioned than manytech companies that currently control so much of the currentpersonal data flow. The main goal of these tech companies is to usepersonal data to monetize the consumer. Companies like Google andmany other less-trustworthy third parties want access to thecustomer's data in order to properly position advertisements.Companies like Apple and high-tech device makers want access to thecustomer's data in order to sell them ever more gadgets. Butinsurance companies want access to the customer's data to manage acustomer's risk, not to advertise or continually sell more tothem.

But how does an insurer convince a consumer that they will usetheir data to help them rather than to sell or advertise to them(or to penalize them with higher rates)? With automotive telematicswe've learned that the first step is monetary: provide discounts.But the second step is making use of that data for more than justunderwriting and risk management.

As the amount of real-time customer data expands and aninsurer's ability to process and understand that data grows,insurers will find themselves able to make informed insights abouta customer earlier in the process. Instead of responding to a burstpipe after a winter freeze, an insurer monitoring home sensors willbe able to alert a customer before weather damage occurs, savingboth the customer and the insurer time and money. Instead of payingclaims after an auto accident, an insurer will be able to makerecommendations to a customer about patterns that will help themavoid accidents altogether. A workers' comp insurer tracking RFIDbadges will be able to help reduce worksite mishaps andliability.

Looking out for customers' well-being

Insurers will be in the unique position of looking out for thecustomer's well-being, helping to prevent accidents, theft, andloss. Unlike most industries, the insurer wants exactly what theconsumer wants, and both are happier when claims never need to befiled.

While some insurance companies might lead this charge, it'sunlikely that all insurers will develop the technology to captureand analyze the full range of data. Instead, third party companieswill probably emerge that serve as consumer data hubs and begin tomonitor and make suggestions to their clients. Insurers who don'tbuild this technology themselves will have the opportunity topartner with these third-party companies, offering discounts andpossibly covering the cost of the services for their customers.

Related: 3 tech changes to affect the independent agent in 2015

This is forward thinking, and if history tells us anything theadoption of these technologies will be slow. But all of this startswith a rethinking of how the policyholder portal plays a role inthe insurer/consumer relationship. Instead of utilizing it as aplace to automate a few behaviors typically handled by the agent,it needs to be a place where the insurer offers distinct valuesthat agents can't provide, something that makes insurers, agents,and insureds all work together better. It starts with advice andreview, but will eventually move to a true risk prevention modelthat blends an insurer's experience with ever increasing Big Datathat policyholders will be able to provide.

Jeff Goldberg is a Vice President of Research &Consulting at Novarica and can be reached at [email protected].