Insurance Carriers Turning to Platform Providers for Competitive Advantage

ISG Provider Lens™ report finds insurance platform providers helping carriers improve customer experience and move to the cloud

Insurance companies are looking to technology platform partners to improve customer experience, update legacy systems and move to the cloud, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Insurance BPO Platforms Report for the U.S. finds insurers seeking help from technology providers to deal with several challenges, including growth, cost optimization and improved efficiency.

For many insurance companies, legacy technologies are hindering their ability to innovate and to respond to changing market conditions, the report adds.

“Older systems prevent carriers from getting a comprehensive view of their customers that’s needed to offer tailored products,” said insurance specialist Dennis Winkler, senior director, business services, for ISG Americas and a co-author of the report. “Insurers should empower their agents and brokers with sophisticated tools and technologies they need to do their jobs effectively.”

To deal with legacy technologies, some insurance carriers have extended the capabilities of old systems, creating even more complex environments that put them further behind, the report says. As a result, some carriers are considering modern policy administration platforms with cloud or hybrid options.

The report also sees insurance carriers embracing the cloud, which allows them to collaborate within a rich ecosystem of partners and insurtechs and gives them the ability to test and deploy new technologies quickly and easily. Cloud technology can accelerate business growth, enable quick scaling and reduce operating costs.

Insurance platform providers are also taking steps to help insurers cut costs, gain efficiencies, increase productivity and get products to market faster, the report says. In many cases, platform technology providers are automating processes across the platform, leading to reduced costs, increased reliability and improved customer service. Platform providers also are helping insurers meet a long-standing goal of automating processes by deploying technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Many platform providers are also offering analytics solutions to insurance carriers, the report says. Insurance companies are inundated with both structured and unstructured data that flows in and out of their organizations from a growing array of sources. Analytical capabilities are essential for carriers that want to leverage the data to gain deeper, actionable insights.

In addition, many platform providers are leveraging low-code or no-code services that allow non-technical business users to create new websites and apps without needing to learning programming or write a single line of code, the report says.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Insurance BPO Platforms Report evaluates the capabilities of 19 providers across two quadrants: Life and Retirement Platforms and Property and Casualty Platforms.

The report names Duck Creek, DXC Technology, EIS, FAST, Guidewire, Infosys McCamish, Insurity, OneShield and Vitech as leaders in one quadrant.

In addition, EXL and Instada were named Rising Stars—companies with “promising portfolios” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant.

Customized versions of the report are available from DXC Technology and Vitech.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Insurance BPO Platforms Report for the U.S. is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005634/en/