Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the French journalist and novelistof the early 19th century, first coined the phrase, "the morethings change, the more they stay the same," a satirical responseto French politics in his era.

He was referring to the notion that while some things changeduring turbulent times, the underlying status quo usually stays thesame. The same might be said of the insurance industry over thepast several years, as the introduction of new technologicalcapabilities competed with the industry's ability to effectivelyabsorb and leverage them.

However, in 2015 the industry began to turn that corner as moreinsurers made progress toward, or completed, their core systemmodernization efforts.

That fact, combined with some favorable financial results forthe property and casualty industry, has the potential to enable theindustry to continue to make good technological progress in 2016.More specifically, there are a few areas of technology that holdpromise for the industry as 2016 begins.

On the following pages, here are five tech trends the insuranceindustry will see in 2016:

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1. Advanced analytics and customercentricity

As part of the larger trend around big data turned intoactionable analytics, insurers will begin to reap the benefits ofthose efforts in 2016.

The big idea behind big data and the analytics and modeling itspawns is the notion of customer centricity as the new North Starfor insurance carriers.

That's a significant change with many implications, but at itscore it is a recognition by carriers that their orientation needsto change 180 degrees, from inwardly focused to externallyfocused.

That is difficult to do without the benefit of the kinds ofinformation that allows insurers to know their customers much moreintimately than they ever have. The payoff for doing so is big.Increasing customer knowledge is a fundamental part of providing aneffective omni-channel experience and allows insurers to identifyopportunities for cross-selling products and services that theyhave not had the ability to identify in the past.

Related: How carriers can support a customer-centricperspective

This will be important in 2016, as consumers will increasinglydictate the terms of engagement with their insurance companies, afundamental change in the industry.

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2. Digitization and portal development

Another important area for insurers in2016 — and one that is part of the macro trend ofexternal technological developments imposing themselves on theindustry — is continued digitization and thepressure that puts on carriers to improve their digitalcapabilities, particularly with portals and mobile applications andservices.

This marks a shift from the industry's emphasis on websites overthe past several years, which to millennials and other influencingdemographics of customers are just too inconvenient to use.

Insurers have begun to catch on to the idea that their customersof the future will be channel agnostic, or better yet ,will telltheir insurer what kind of channel they'll use and when they'll useit.

Related: Welcome to the future: Here's what insurance 2.0means for you

That's a big change for the industry. It's a change that iscoming, though, and those insurers who dedicate the time andresources to it in 2016 may find themselves at the head of the linefor their customers of tomorrow.

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3. Cloud and software as as service

As part of the same pivot toward customer centricity anddigitization, insurers will accelerate their use of cloud-basedsolutions, including software as service and infrastructure as aservice offerings.

The motivation for insurers is the potential to streamline theirarchitecture, infrastructure and application portfolios, all as away to be able to focus more IT resources on the kinds ofinitiatives that positively affect customers and agents in a directway.

With IT talent at a premium for the foreseeable future, it'simperative that insurers orient their best talent toward thoseareas of the business where they can have the most positive anddirect impact, and that list no longer includes things such askeeping the network up.

Related: 11 signs that it's time for a new agency managementsystem

Rather, the new list will include things such as more intuitiveuser interfaces for agents and customers, and real-time access topolicy and claims information and updates. Leveraging the cloud forthe types of IT activities that don't directly add value to theultimate customer experience will continue to be a focus area forinsurers in 2016.

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4. Telematics and usage-based insurance

Telematics and usage-based insurance are among the hottesttopics in Auto insurance. And for good reason as the promise ofmore granular pricing segmentation and improved pricing accuracy byusing actual driving behaviors as the basis for rates has autoinsurers stepping over each other to get there first.

In Canada for example, the Personal Insurance Co. and DesjardinsInsurance are touting its Ajusto programs as "industry leading,"and they may just be right.

It's a safe bet that there will be broader adoption in 2016 ascarriers see the value proposition inherent in usage-basedinsurance, and customers overcome trust issues. That said, forthose insurers moving forward with telematics, there are certainlydecisions to be made.

Not the least of which is the kind of consumer model to employ:Pay as You Drive (PAYD), where customers are charged based onactual miles driven, or Pay How You Drive (PHYD), where pricing isbased on a driver's behavior (rapid acceleration and deceleration,time of day or route driven).

Related: The connected car — from threat toopportunity

There are additional considerations for insurers aroundprovisioning devices for customers, collecting the data from thedevices and on the best uses for the data once collected. Those areall questions of how to implement, however. The key questions forinsurers in 2016 around telematics will be when and how much?

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5. Core modernization and innovation

The industry is not out of the woods yet when it comes to thereplacement of decades of legacy systems with the kinds ofplatforms that set the foundation for future innovative practicesand processes.

A lot of good work has been done in the industry, but thoseinsurers who have not started their journey to more-modern systemswill find themselves at an increasingly competitive and functionaldisadvantage in 2016 and beyond.

Plus, insurers' potential for offering innovative services willbe severely limited. For those who have made significant progresson their modernization journeys, the future is wide open. Theimportant thing about core systems modernization is not the updatedfunctionality and stability a new platform brings, and it certainlybrings some, but rather the foundation it creates to allow insurersto do many other things.

New and modern core systems simplify the traditional IT resourcetime burns around activities such as maintenance, updates andconfigurability. Insurers need to be smart about how they'll usethat "found time" in their IT and business functions, and the smartones will pour that time and those resources into their innovationefforts.

In all, 2016 has the potential to be a more transformative yearfor the industry than the past few have been, but that will onlyoccur if insurers stay focused on their most importantconstituents —  agents andpolicyholders — and on the external technologicaland social forces impacting the insurance industry, for better orworse.

Sreedhar Alavalapati and Krishna Prasad are seniorarchitects at Farmington Hills, Mich.-based X by 2, a technologyconsultancy focused on the practice of architecture in theinsurance and healthcare industries.

Related: Insurance technology history: Development ofapplications

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