ISG to Publish Studies on Insurance Platform, BPO Service Providers

The two ISG Provider Lens™ reports will examine how providers are helping insurance carriers modernize their IT systems

Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm, has launched two research studies examining the capabilities of platform and business process outsourcing (BPO) providers serving the insurance industry.

The study results will be published in two comprehensive ISG Provider Lens™ reports, called Insurance Platform Solutions and Insurance BPO Services, scheduled to be released in March. The reports will evaluate service providers helping insurance carriers with digital transformation efforts and with replacing legacy IT systems.

Enterprise buyers will be able to use information from the reports to evaluate their current vendor relationships, potential new engagements and available offerings, while ISG advisors use the information to recommend providers to the firm’s buy-side clients.

The new reports focus on ways that service providers are helping insurance carriers modernize their IT systems and deliver better customer experiences, said Paul Schreiner, partner and insurance industry leader for ISG. “Insurance companies are looking to advanced technologies to help them achieve their goals,” he said. “They are turning to sourcing partners to help them leverage technology to develop innovative products and services, get them to market quickly and improve customer experience—all while achieving operational efficiencies and lowering costs.”

For the insurance platforms report, ISG has distributed surveys to more than 85 platform providers. Working in collaboration with ISG’s global advisors, the research team will produce two quadrants representing the services and products the typical enterprise client is buying in the insurance platforms space, based on ISG’s experience working with its clients. The two quadrants that will be covered are:

• Life and Retirement Platforms, covering providers targeting insurance carriers offering life and retirement policies. These platforms typically cover life insurance, annuities, supplemental benefits, retirement plans, pension risk transfer and structured settlements.

• Property and Casualty Platforms, covering carriers offering property and casualty insurance. These platforms typically cover personal lines, commercial lines and specialty lines, including directors and offers liability and kidnap and ransom coverage.

For the insurance BPO services report, ISG has distributed surveys to more than 45 insurance BPO service providers. The three quadrants that will be covered are:

• Life and Retirement, covering outsourcing services such as consulting, technology enablement, policy administration systems and managed services for insurance types such as life, annuity and supplemental healthcare products. The study will evaluate outsourcing providers based on the extent of support they offer across various areas, including backend services, front and middle office support, and technology enablement by product line. In the Australian insurance BPO report, this quadrant will be split into life insurance and annuity insurance.

• Property and Casualty Insurance, including consulting, technology enablement and managed services across coverage areas such as auto, theft, property and natural catastrophes. The report will evaluate outsourcing providers based on the extent of support offered across various areas including backend services, front and middle office support, and other support services.

• Business Process as a Service and Third-Party Administration, covering business process outsourcing that encompasses the policy administration system (PAS), ongoing technology support of the PAS, and business processing support for insurance products. BPaaS providers typically offer personnel and processes via internet-based, often automated technologies that enable them to operate on a pay-per-policy service model. Most BPaaS solutions are offered by licensed third-party administrators.

The platform report will cover the U.S. insurance market and the BPO services report will cover the U.S. and Australian insurance markets. ISG analysts Peggy Bresnick Kendler and Dennis Winkler will serve as authors of the platform report as well as the BPO services report covering the U.S. market. Craig Baty and Jarrod Magill serve as authors of the BPO services report for the Australian market.

An archetype report will also be published as part of the insurance BPO study. This report, unique to ISG, is the study of typical buyer types of insurance BPO services as observed by ISG advisors.

A list of identified providers and vendors and further details on each study are available in these digital brochures: Insurance Platform Solutions and Insurance BPO Services. Companies not listed as insurance platform or BPO providers can contact ISG and ask to be included in either study.

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.

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