By Mark Breading, Strategy Meets Action
Boston, MA (Sept. 9, 2016) – By now, you might be getting tired of hearing the term InsurTech. You may also be annoyed at everyone telling you about industry disruption. But there is no question that there is a high level of buzz, excitement, investment, and activity in the InsurTech space. The question is – does it really matter? Or is this just a phase that will fade away?
At SMA, we believe that InsurTech definitely does matter. However, the implications are vastly different by industry segment and for different parts of the insurance business. Sorting out what it means for your little (or big) corner of the insurance industry can be daunting. Guidance can be valuable, whether you are an insurer looking for investment or partnering opportunities, an incumbent tech company assessing new competition or new partners, an InsurTech company seeking success, or an investor trying to gauge where to focus. To provide assistance and a structured approach for this assessment, SMA has joined with St. Nick Media to develop the InsurTech Maturity Model, an approach which individuals, insurers, and interested investors can use to assess the InsurTech universe.
The model provides a way to create short lists of the InsurTech companies most relevant to your particular situation in specific domains. This is imperative, given that there are now well over 500 InsurTech companies, and that number is growing every day. Did you know that there are well over 100 companies focused on disrupting distribution alone? Or that approximately 10% of the companies are specifically focused on new solutions or models for the claims ecosystem?
You might believe that these companies don’t really understand insurance and are destined to fail. That will certainly be the case for many. Some have already fallen by the wayside. But making the assumption that it doesn’t really matter to your business would be a serious mistake. The InsurTech companies that are successful are bound to make an impact, and no part of the industry is immune to the potential implications of the InsurTech movement. Every company, regardless of size or market position, must take a proactive approach to assessing InsurTech to understand the both the competitive threats and the opportunities to offer new products and services, improve operations, or even introduce brand new business models.
Does InsurTech matter? History will be the judge, but all the signs point to an industry on the verge of disruption, and the many InsurTech companies are bound to play a major role in industry transformation.
For more information on the new research report, see The InsurTech Universe: Understanding Company Positioning and Maturity.
About SMA
Exclusively serving the insurance industry, Strategy Meets Action (SMA) is an advisory services firm offering retainers, research, consulting, events, and innovation offerings to both insurance companies and solution providers. Learn more about SMA at www.strategymeetsaction.com.
SOURCE: Strategy Meets Action (SMA blog)
