LONDON, UK - 25 Jul 2013: Insurance companies are failing to capitalise on the customer data they hold, a survey by IBM (NYSE: IBM) has shown. A large majority of the 50 senior information technology (IT) decision makers within UK insurance companies questioned (84 percent) said their company does not integrate customer data into a single database. Many of the companies have issues either collecting customer data or using it effectively.
Failure to integrate data and create a single view' of each consumer makes it impossible for an organisation to respond to varying and individual customer needs, in an industry where personalisation of services is increasingly important.
The survey found that:
Only 16 percent of organisations integrate customer data across their IT systems into one central database. For 38 percent there was no integration, with each line of business or broker operating their own database. At other companies there was some form of data integration, but silos still existed.
Data generated by quote engines across various sales channels (such as face-to-face, call centre, website, mobile or broker) is totally integrated and accessible at fewer than a quarter (24 percent) of organisations.
54 percent of companies said that six or more separate IT systems / databases exist within their company
Only 4 percent of companies said they capture and retain one hundred percent of customer data based on their transactions with them. On average companies captured and retained 64 percent of customer data
The findings will worry Chief Marketing Officers (CMO) responsible for the customer experience, as IBM's 2011 CMO survey found that the explosion in data is the biggest challenge CMOs expect to face and 43 percent claimed lack of integration is the main barrier to using technology. As getting close to the customer is the top priority for both the insurance CEOs (IBM 2012 CEO study) and insurance CMOs, the inability to optimise the data for insight - and respond to the customers as individuals is problematic.
Insurance must be sold rather than purchased in mature competitive market, and lack of data integration will affect companies' ability to drive sales, as loyalty and advocacy increasingly depend on businesses being able to provide a personalised customer experience, based on customer insight, said Danny Lee, worldwide insurance industry Smarter Commerce Leader, IBM.
The survey found that over half (57 percent) of insurance companies claiming to use basic databases and spreadsheets to collect, manage and analyse customer data felt they were performing poorly at winning or retaining customers; this compares with only 8 percent of those using business analytical tools for the same purpose who felt the same way. Almost nine out of ten (88 percent) expressed concern at how a lack of customer data integration could affect sales.
The companies using business analytical tools claimed to be able to collect 76 percent of data generated during customer transactions; while those using basic databases and spreadsheets could only collect 57 percent of it.
Insurance companies often operate in silos for each line of business. In order to strengthen the brand perception in each customer interaction, IT and marketing need to work together to provide that consistent experience that reflects the insurers overall business strategy. The IT and marketing teams have to be the glue and enabler to a consistent customer experience by looking at their customer holistically across line of business, said Lee. There are company-wide aspects to business intelligence and customer insight but the insurer must also accommodate the needs and access that vary department by department. That is why business and IT alignment and integration are critical elements to better selling and servicing the insurance customers.
When it comes to their websites, organisations said that on average fewer than one in five (19 percent) of their quote requests came via their website/online (the largest proportion - 28 percent - of quote requests being made via call centres).
34 percent of companies rated their website poor at delivering new business
Only 2 in 5 companies have the ability to follow-up abandoned baskets' on their websites
Only 5 percent of companies with the ability to follow up on abandoned baskets rated it as very effective
The servicing of a claim and policy changes are the ultimate opportunities to gain more insight about a customer's needs, address potential issues pro-actively, create that positive experience, and gain customer mindshare / loyalty - and therefore, provide the opportunities to effectively upsell to them; but insurance companies are potentially missing the opportunity to improve the interactions with the customers - and improve the overall level of satisfaction, said Lee.
When asked about their IT priorities for 2013, the companies rated streamlining processes as the most important (88 percent rated this as important to very important), even above meeting regulatory requirements (66 percent), data security (64 percent) or cost savings (62 percent). Greater customer understanding' came last on the list of priorities at only 50 percent of companies rating this as important to very important.
The research was conducted by Vanson Bourne, a research based technology marketing consultancy offering clients analysis and advice based on incisive, rigorous research into their market environment. For more information, visit www.vansonbourne.com
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
LONDON, UK - 25 Jul 2013: Insurance companies are failing to capitalise on the customer data they hold, a survey by IBM (NYSE: IBM) has shown. A large majority of the 50 senior information technology (IT) decision makers within UK insurance companies questioned (84 percent) said their company does not integrate customer data into a single database. Many of the companies have issues either collecting customer data or using it effectively. 
