Insurance Software Deal Trends 2003-2004: Insurance Reports Published by Celent

Insurance software deal flow is picking up, with carriers of all sizes actively looking for ways to improve themselves via new technology.

Boston, MA, USA — April 21, 2005 –The results of Celent Communications� most recent deal trends study show that insurers are investing in technology with increasing frequency, repeating an intriguing finding first announced in last year�s popular Celent study.

“Deal activity is definitely rising,” says senior analyst Craig Weber, author of the latest Celent reports, Insurance Software Deal Trends: 2003�2004, published in property/casualty and life/health editions. “Particularly for core activities such as policy administration, carriers are starting to more aggressively seek out solutions to help them improve operational efficiencies and deliver better service to customers.” Weber notes that the deal count for the fourth quarter of 2004 was 35 percent higher than that for the fourth quarter of 2003.

“This data set provides unique insights into carrier strategies,” Weber says. “Looking at deals by business process, carrier size, and leading providers answers important questions: What types of carriers are opening their checkbooks? What areas are they targeting for improvement? Who are the leading vendors in major deal categories?” In answer to the last question, the two reports identify leading vendors for 18 deal categories.

Other findings detailed in the report include:

  • Deal flow was distributed roughly evenly between the life/health and property/casualty segments.

  • Core processing was the most common deal metacategory, followed by document management, distribution, and infrastructure. Distribution and core processing combined made up 57 percent of the deal flow.

  • Several of the dominant software providers in the insurance vertical are leaders in one or more categories. This suggests that major players continue to find success on the strength of their products, technology, and experience in the insurance vertical.

The two reports analyze deals across four metacategories: core processing, distribution, document management, and infrastructure. Within each metacategory, deals are assigned to subcategories such as policy administration, billing, document imaging, business rules management, and so on.

The reports are based on a sample of more than 970 software deals in insurance signed in 2003 and 2004. Details about the majority of the deals analyzed�including the carrier type, carrier size, and business processes supported�were provided by more than 100 software vendors. Additional deals were captured by reviewing public data sources.

A table of contents for both reports is available online. Click here for the life/health edition, here for the property/casualty edition.

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About Celent

Celent’s service offering falls into two categories, consulting and research, each of which is dedicated to technology in the financial services industry. We help banks, brokerage firms and insurance companies use IT to enter new markets in the shortest possible timeframes. All of our services are geared towards facilitating better informed, faster decision making. For more information visit www.celent.com.