The world is becoming a smaller place, particularly for insurance carriers no longer limited to states but instead sharing an unlimited global view. Capgemini Financial Services released its World Insurance Report 2013 and Bill Sullivan, Capgemini's global head of market intelligence, explained the similarities and the differences in the global insurance market.

Because of those differences, Sullivan explains Capgemini struggled in the decisions over what the company wanted to include in the report.

“We found the exact numbers are not the important things but the trending as to what's happening is important,” he says “You can't do direct comparisons, but you can see how it is starting to trend and where insurers might struggle.”

One subject that is important across the globe is customer satisfaction, points out Sullivan

“Customer satisfaction levels tend to be much higher in general for the insurance industry, but when you ask customers what are the most important factors, those things don't measure as high as the general levels,” he says.

Customers are more likely to leave for a competitor than insurers are aware, adds Sullivan. The report showed only 30 percent of customers are confident they are going to stay with their firm; the other 70 percent were either expecting to leave or were unsure if they would leave or not.

“Insurers need to understand the customer segment they are going after and what their needs are,” says Sullivan. “There are needs that certain segments are looking for and by leveraging the data you get day to day it will become increasingly important to understand how the customers will interact.”

One thing the industry has in common is the need to have a better understanding of risk. Being able to leverage data more effectively has helped firms drive underwriting issues.

“The general theme we saw was that firms—as they become less reliant on investments—had to find ways to cut costs both on the claims side and the investment side,” says Sullivan. “Firms are beginning to see benefits from that although it varies by country.”

Mobility is another topic where insurance customers aren't sure what to expect from their carriers in terms of capabilities and possibilities, explains Sullivan.

“Mobility has skyrocketed over the last 24 months,” he says. “The amount of data that went across mobile channels last year is four times the amount that went over the Internet in 2000. “Companies have to get in front of it quickly and understand how it will be part of the distribution strategy. It can't be a bolt on. It has to be a fully integrated arm to how you communicate with your customers.”

Sullivan reports there are varying degrees of where money is invested in mobile. He believes the U.S. is further ahead of the rest of the world, but he points out there have been success stories in the larger firms in Europe.

“Europe, whether you look at insurance or banking, has had a challenging couple of years and as they look at priorities mobile wasn't one of them,” he says. “That has started to change especially since multi-national firms are investing in mobile there.”

There are almost as many different strategies as there are companies, but Sullivan believes the overarching theme today is no one knows what the right answer is, which means many companies are in a wait-and-see mode.

“That approach is going to become dangerous over the next year or two because some first movers are going to find great ways to leverage mobility and will be able to differentiate with their customers,” he says. “Mobility could differentiate if they do it right.”

Legacy systems remain an important issue in the U.S., but Sullivan explains it is less an issue in other parts of the world.

“If you look at policy administration systems, I haven't seen a massive investment take place (outside the U.S.),” he says. “You see refreshing and targeted investment, but not wholesale replacement.”

Insurers in Europe are making more investments in claims systems, but each country is different in terms of maturity, explains Sullivan.

“Some companies started much later in the process (than U.S. insurers) so in certain cases that gave some of them an advantage in terms of technology,” he says.

Sullivan reports Capgemini hasn't seen as much merger and acquisition in the European and Asian insurance market, but he believes M&A will continue to have an impact in the U.S. market. The biggest issue tends to be finding efficiencies and when insurers struggle with that issue operational costs tend to increase.

“I think it is more of an integration issue,” says Sullivan. “When you have different systems in place it becomes more complicated. A lot of U.S. insurers represent 10 or 12 firms and in some cases they have siloed systems within the individual organizations. That's where some of the less complex firms have a slight advantage, but we are seeing some changes as firms look at how they handle things like claims. They are looking to be more agile and efficient in their processes.”

Special Reports /

Across the World, Customer Satisfaction Ranks Highest Among Insurers: Capgemini Report

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