Insurance replaces paper for US$4 Billion
press release
London, UK - 26th April 2001, 0800 GMT - London,
UK, 6pm GMT 17 May 2001 - Zurich Financial Services, ING and Allstate Insurance
are investing US$4bn in eBusiness over the next three years. This may be the
tip of the iceberg with 150 leading insurance companies expected to increase
their spending on eBusiness by 89% by 2004. The companies are looking to generate
19% in annual savings on average compared with only 7% today; the equivalent
of US$100m annually for a global player.
"Insurance companies are merging on an almost
daily basis to attain the size they deem necessary to give them sufficient
economies of scale. But size isn't everything", said John Kemble,
Head of eCommerce, Association of British Insurers. "Without
paying sufficient attention to integration of IT resources however, they are
just creating lumbering behemoths that will lose out to more fleet of foot
competitors."
Insurance groups are taking advantage of the NASDAQ downturn by buying up
technology and intellectual property at a fraction of its value, setting up
their own synergy units or forming partnerships with technology companies.
Internet Capital Group (ICG), Swiss Re and Munich Re have invested in inreon
and Lloyd's of London recently announced the launch of Lloyds.com. "Our
goal is for Lloyds.com to one day become the B2B insurance and reinsurance
portal, the first stop for the insurance intermediary" said
Nick Prettejohn, Lloyd's CEO.
The arrival of the electronic broker, claims and insurance
portals will dramatically reduce costs in the insurance industry. Swiss Re
is looking to save US$103m annually by the application of technology to the
group's middle and back-office processing costs. It has been estimated that
the industry wastes over US$50bn on time consuming paper work.
"Global insurance companies have the most to gain
from the introduction of technology to reduce operational costs, cut time to
issue policies and settle claims promptly," said DK Matai, Managing
Director of
mi2g. "Today each insurance company
has multiple customer databases that can't interact with each other. The big
challenge is to create one universal customer database to leverage cross and
up selling of multiple products and services."
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Editor's Notes:
About mi2g:
mi2g software works with financial services groups,
both large and small, to change and eEnable their entire business. We automate
our clients' business in such a way that they and their customers can use
the World Wide Web both to increase their business volume and reduce their
overall cost base.
mi2g eBusiness Solutions Engineering pays particular
regard to security and advises on the management of eRisk, which incorporates
Bespoke Security Architecture. mi2g's clients are mainly from the banking,
insurance and reinsurance sectors.
What is Bespoke Security Architecture?
Most organisations believe that a firewall is enough to
secure their sites. Bespoke security architecture brings together firewall
layers, intrusion detection and other defensive structures, as well as automated
intelligence techniques with legal, human resource and insurance policies.
What is eRisk Management?
eRisk Management deals with a variety of issues. associated
with implementing an eBusiness. fully integrated with legacy IT systems. It
includes selecting the optimum. technology set, managing external partners
and. alliances, linking payments to targets, defining. rigorous quality control
procedures, managing. the growth in online traffic post launch, achieving.
the expected return on investment, and bringing. about the changes in the
corporate culture. required for successful and secure eBusiness.
First contact for additional information - Intelligence Unit, mi2g
Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7924 3010 - Facsimile: +44 (0)
20 7924 3310 - eMail: intelligence.unit@mi2g.com
