Commercial-lines customers will exert more influence over theinsurance-buying process over the next year, driving insurers tosupport real-time interactions, a new report says.

In its latest report, “2014 Trends to Watch: Insurance,” Ovumsays, “The insurance industry is at an inflectionpoint between operating in a product-orientated marketplace andoperating in a customer-orientated marketplace.”

The analyst firm contends insurers see it as an imperative toembrace customer-centricity due to growing customer empowerment,the increasing ubiquity of mobile capabilities and minimal economicgrowth in developed countries.

“In 2014, insurers will have to support real-time commercialinteractions not only with customers, but also with prospects andsales channels,” says Ovum. “Insurance sales channels will expectinsurers to provide them with the capabilities to create marketawareness, generate business and service clients.”

Barry Rabkin, principal analyst, Insurance Technology, Ovum,says in a statement, “The old saying that the 'customer is king'has never been more apparent in the insurance industry. However, toimprove the level of customer focus, insurers' legacy IT systemswill need modernizing. Insurers need to integrate systems ofrecord, such as core administration systems, with systems ofengagement, such as customer channels.”

Rabkin contends insurers should look at hybrid systems thatcombine the two systems, “such as customer relationship management(CRM) or customer experience management (CEM) systems.”

Rabkin concludes, “It is imperative that insurers cross theinflection point between a product- and customer-orientatedmarketplace in 2014. However, they will have difficulties inaccomplishing this with their decades-old underwriting and coreadministration legacy systems.”