Few insurers have defined a comprehensive digital strategy fit to withstand attackers at the gate. The starting point is to understand the sources of disruption.
Yet time is short- the early bird catches the worm and majority of profits - top 4 insurers can expect to gain 50% of industry profitability. See "Winner takes most in digital transformation".
It's not that carriers and brokers are not experimenting, making insurtech investments and starting digital skunk work ventures. But that is exactly what Kodak did- it developed digital photography IPR in its labs and then hid the digital innovation away so as not to disrupt its successful analogue market leadership
See "Avoid the fatal Kodak mistake".
This is not a case of immature technologies and being a first adopter. The first carriers have already started so those that are not implementing face being laggards.
Best investigate a mature digital platform optimised for insurance carriers and brokers that won't;
- Bust the bank
- Require you to change legacy or core systems
- Works and is fast to plan, test, implement & deploy
Test and benchmark against other options and your internal projects but above all do not do a Kodak and join after the tipping point has been passed.
Companies that procrastinate over such bets risk disappearing. In insurance, as in other industries, it takes a while for customers and companies to embrace digital technology, but as the pace of change accelerates incumbents’ scope to adapt diminishes. There comes a tipping point where those that have not adapted their strategies fade away—as in traditional print media, for example. The insurance industry might have been relatively slow to feel the digital effect, but personal lines in P&C cover look set on a steep trajectory toward the tipping point, with small commercial lines just behind. Life insurance and large commercial insurance, with longer-term, often more complex contracts, have further to go (see Exhibit).
http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/a-strategy-for-a-digital-age
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