In her well received presentation at the 2011 Insurance-Canada Technology Conference, Technologies that Make a Difference, Christina Colby, Vice President, Global Business Intelligence Leader for Insurance, Capgemini, gave attendees common sense advice on how to take advantage of Social Media. In a nutshell, the advice is: Lose Control and Prosper.
Colby noted that the daily volume of social content is now measured in petabytes. That’s big … really big (the background of Colby’s slide was a fire-hose). The point is, there is a lot of traffic, and a lot of noise. However, Colby noted that within the noise, there are hidden treasures that offer opportunities if there is insight coupled with rapid response. Moreover, there are threats which require the same level of response (for example, see our comments on social media and customer service). But how does one sort through all the traffic and create a mechanism to respond?
Colby suggests that the key is to blend case management methodology with Business Process Management technology, and embed these into an organization’s customer service programme. The key, from the outset, is to form the organization to the envirnment, not attempt to modify the environment to the needs of the organization.
Many insurers and brokers, faced with all of the other business and IT issues, will see this advice as easier said than done. However, it is a viable road map, based on common sense and experience.
