As highlighted in a recent report by the World Economic Forum, insurance appears to be the sector potentially most impacted by the Internet of Things trend. Its value chain could be profoundly impacted by these technologies, so it’s time for a strategic reflection at an industry level.
Accordingly, last April, Bain & Co and ANIA (The Italian Insurance Association) established in Italy the Observatory on Telematics, Connected Insurance & Innovation; a think-tank whose goal is to spread and propagate innovation culture within the Italian insurance industry, focusing on the opportunities which can be leveraged in all lines of business through the IoT. The Observatory involves 30 insurers and three reinsurers, as well as a strong collaboration with ANIA, and the Italian regulator, IIVASS, which brings to the table its research knowledge on this topic – very relevant to the Italian insurance market.
IoT technologies represent an extraordinary opportunity for insurance companies to improve risk selection, create new products and services, innovate pricing definition, rethink and improve claim processes, help prevent (not just insure) risk, and engage customers. As a whole, in the next few years the insurance product could be completely transformed in a more personalized and customer-oriented manner. For this reason, Guidewire has chosen to become one of the main sponsors of the Observatory on Telematics, Connected Insurance & Innovation.
As a member of this think tank, Guidewire brings its global knowledge of the insurance community and its technology needs, as well as experience of innovative technology initiatives. Among these initiatives, there are both R&D projects that enrich our products to leverage on an end-to-end perspective the new capabilities enabled by the IoT, and corporate initiatives to support and collaborate with promising and disruptive new ventures, like Trov.
Guidewire’s purpose is to serve the insurance industry, helping it to serve insurance customers by having the right core processing, data and digital technology. This includes helping insurers to understand the challenges and opportunities that new technology trends present. With this, Guidewire feels the responsibility to actively contribute to any discussion which considers technologies that impact the insurance industry. Consequently, it is important for us to be involved in the Observatory and its focus on the IoT in Italy, the country which has pioneered telematics usage in the motor industry (with a 15% penetration of policies using black-boxes on vehicles) and which is showing the same positive attitude to the next innovation wave - home and health lines of business.