There is much conversation around the overabundance of information cycling through the modern digitalized economy, and the transparency and insight it affords those who are willing and able to digest it. The exploration and exploitation of this information and the understanding provided by data analytics is not only increasingly impacting business, but our day-to-day lives as well.

The insurance industry has not been immune to the disruptive force of information. The industry also is no stranger to data analytics. From its earliest days, the business of insurance has been built on the ability to calculate and underwrite risk.

See the Forest from the Trees

What is new, however, is the staggering amount of information at disposal,including the computer-aided vision into correlations and patterns. For the previous generation of insurers, it would have seemed illogical to think that someone's occupation, homeownership or credit score could predict his or her likelihood of having an automobile claim, but all are widely excepted criteria today. Successful carriers are those who take a moment to step back and see the entire breadth of data available today, much like appreciating the multitude of species in an entire forest rather than focusing on one type of tree.

Demand Real-Time Solutions

In this modern economy, the sheer numbers of data elements available for use as possible decision points are mind boggling. I work for a software vendor and this year alone we will perform more than 100 million real-time transactions with our carrier partners. The vast majority of these transactions are new business. To say the pace of commerce has accelerated is an understatement. The information superhighway has paved the way for business at the speed of light, and carriers cannot afford to employ solutions slower than real-time. Agents have come to expect business to happen in real-time. This helps them provide superior service and creates transparency into transactional information that helps provide better overall service.

Seek Clarity from the Cloud

The vast majority of these transactions are taking place in the cloud. The volume and velocity of resulting data has proven invaluable to carriers who are taking the time to dissect it–and this only represents a faction of what is available through our industry's ecosystem. I've been in the industry for more than two decades and firmly believe a trait of successful carriers will be their ability to drivedata to and from a cloud where it can be accessed in a secure environment at any time, from anywhere.

Data is and will increasingly be important. That is not going to change. Unfortunately the exploration of information is often muddied by the debate over privacy and the fears of an Orwellian world. Data analytics as a whole is not a bad thing. It can help provide for better experiences for modern knowledge works, consumers and anyone looking to take steps out of their already over-stressed lives. Nowhere can that impact be more essential than the archaic, heavily regulated and procedurally rich world of insurance.

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