Are carriers going to embrace Web 2.0 technology to live in the same electronic universe as their customers? Not if external connection using social networking, blogs, or wikis is the technology under consideration, asserts Matt Josefowicz, director of the insurance practice at Novarica. However, a survey of insurers done by the research firm shows there is plenty of interest and value in the technology for internal purposes.
"In the consumer-facing stuff, there really isn't a lot going on," says Josefowicz. "People are taking tentative steps, maybe putting up a blog as part of a marketing plan or a customer engagement strategy. They aren't delivering any quantifiable results."
By contrast, there is a widespread use of Web 2.0 tools internally, observes Josefowicz, along with a tremendous use of AJAX as a programming methodology for interface. "It reminds me so much of the way the industry was looking at the Internet in the late '90s when there was all this hype around direct sales to consumers taking over everything and putting [agents] out of business," he says.
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