I use all the leading insurance technology analysts in the market every month and even with all the communication I exchange with—among others—Matt Josefowicz of Novarica, Craig Weber of Celent, Deb Smallwood of Strategy Meets Action, Ellen Carney of Forrester, Kimberly Harris Ferrante of Gartner, Karen Pauli of Tower Group, and all their coworkers, I couldn't possibly tell you which one is the best.
(I didn't mention Rod Travers of Robert E. Nolan Co. in the above paragraph because somehow Nolan wasn't included in the findings of a recent survey on insurance IT analysts conducted by Innovation in Insurance (i3), a student-run program from the Moore School at the University of South Carolina. That's a pretty big omission, in my view.)
Surveys often have an air of accuracy, but when you ask a subjective question such as which of these analysts provides the best insight, unless you have received some manner of insight from each of the candidates, I'm a little confused as to how you can select one over the other.
There's a lot of good information on why insurers use analyst firms and when they turn for help, but what caught my attention was the juicy stuff: how i3 ranked the analysts.
This may sound wishy-washy (OK, this is my disclaimer; I need the help of all of these analysts for me to do my job effectively), but of all the analysts studied by i3 and those not on the list, I believe each offers something special to the discussion.
There's not a week that goes by that I don't seek insight from one of the groups that was rated by i3—as well as others such as Nolan, Deloitte, PwC, CapGemini, X by 2, and Accenture. My criteria is not that much different than that of an insurance carrier: I'm looking for insight on a particular issue.
After a dozen years covering insurance technology issues I've learned a little bit about each of their sweet spots, but by and large I believe the consultants I interview have valuable insights to share. Otherwise, I wouldn't be wasting my time or yours by talking to them.
So how do insurers decide which analysts/consultant to do business with? Like any decision, you need to pore over the data to gain as much insight as possible. I believe trade magazines such as Tech Decisions offer insight into the minds of these analysts as well as sitting down and listening to them speak at conferences such as ACORD LOMA in May and IASA in June.
I don't want to cast aspersions on what i3 did in its survey, but it's always wise to make a full disclosure: Two of the four analyst firms listed as the top performers in this survey have representatives on i3's board of advisors. Does that make anything they report on this survey slanted? Not necessarily, but it certainly raised the eyebrows of at least one analyst I spoke with.
There's a science to good surveys, particularly in getting a cross-section of respondents. Some may be able to tell you how good—or how bad—one particular analyst performed, but how many respondents can realistically speak intelligently about a half dozen analysts in any way other than anecdotally?
My guess is not many.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.