Insurance was built on analysing data yet today insurers are falling behind the masters of data management and analysis. Google, Facebook, Apply, Alibaba, Tencent and, of course that digital parrot on the shoulder- Amazon. 

“Data, data, everywhere,

And all the silos did grow. 

Data, data everywhere,

Nor any drop to analyse.” 

To adapt Samuel Taylor Coleridge and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

If insurers do not master this critical gap in capabilities then they may well be eclipsed or at best left with the business of managing claims and giving away gross margin to tech giant distributors and sellers of insurance.

An intriguing scenario is another industry with data analytics expertise and technology partnerships making a flanking attack on insurers. Carrefour the  global retailer has 104 million customer households worldwide, 2 million insurance customers, a banking operation and technology collaboration with Tencent ( retail today but could be insurance tomorrow) . 

Tesco owns its own bank, has an insurance and claims management joint venture with Ageas and 16 million Tesco Clubcard customers. With the right digital vision, strategy and implementation where could that go?

But stay calm insurers- you have a proven data and analytics platform already "insurance proven" which is  also embedded in a scalable and proven digital insurance platform.

So compete now and compete hard to help ensure neither digital nor retail giants steal your premiums and profits. Nor the insurtechs like Lemonade that do master data.

"Technology and data, however, will change the insurance product because at its core, insurance is data. A digital insurance business is profoundly different from incumbent carriers, according to Schreiber. As a result, legacy insurers will have trouble in the digital age. Traditional and digital players “will not converge, they will diverge,”  Daniel Schreiber CEO & Founder Lemonade Insurance Journal Oct 8th 2018 

See Get Ready for the Insurtech Revolution, Act 2