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Insurance industry's use of mobile devices on the rise: Study

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Insurance industry's use of mobile devices on the rise: Study

Use of mobile devices in areas such as underwriting and claims is burgeoning at commercial and specialty property/casualty insurers, a report released Monday by New York-based insurance advisory firm Novarica finds.

The report, “Mobile in Insurance Beyond Personal Lines: Current Trends and Expectations,” is based on a survey of 79 insurers and projects significant growth in mobile usage for this year and beyond.

“With mobile now incorporating tablets as well as smartphones, insurers of all kinds are seeing mobile capabilities as increasingly core to their information value chains for policyholders, agents/brokers, adjusters, field marketing reps and even underwriters,” the report states.

For example, 26% of respondents said their company reports claims via mobile devices, 26% said they expect to deploy the technology within a year, and 24% said they plan to do so in 2014 or beyond.

The report also found that property/casualty insurers had made more headway incorporating mobile devices into their operations than life/annuity insurers.

“By the end of this year, approximately one-half of the companies in the sample expect to offer the ability for their policyholders to look up information, pay bills or report a claim via mobile,” the report states. “Longer term, the vast majority of the multiline, commercial and specialty P/C insurers in the sample expect to support most policyholder capabilities via mobile.”

The report states that one factor leading to wider adoption of mobile technology is comparatively low capital costs, noting that many mobile initiatives can leverage previous investments made in Web capabilities and other areas.

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Nonetheless, chief information officers need to manage business expectations carefully when conveying the return on investment to chief financial officers and boards.

“Mobile investments are about positioning for the future, and significant short-term ROI is in short supply,” the report states.

While the cost of mobile investments may not be prohibitive, insurers do not have the luxury of time when it comes to making the choice to adopt mobile technologies, Novarica concludes.

“Avoiding mobile today is like avoiding Web browsers in 1997,” the report sates. “Insurers might get away with it for the next year or two, but soon it will be a standard communication channel, and insurers that don't support it will be left behind.”

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