Insurance Impacts of FIS-Sungard Merger

We will see more mergers, to strengthen offerings, broaden footprints, position for growth and ultimately seize the pot of gold in insurance.

Deb Smallwood

August 23, 2015

Here we go again: Out of the blue, FIS agreed to acquire SunGard. The joining of two more global technology firms creates another giant in the financial services space. Why so many?

Power of scale. Size allows companies to consolidate overhead, with the merger of people, processes, infrastructure and product offerings, allowing for profitable growth.
Market dominance. Buying market share and client footprint across industries certainly is faster than organic growth, and it allows for performance balancing across industries as the market swings and shifts.
Diversification of offerings and clients. The broadening of offerings, rather than deepening capabilities, allows for an expanded footprint in customers across many industries.

What does this mean to us in insurance?

Fills the gap. Combining creates opportunities to bring together a suite of offerings that better align to the changing needs of insurers as they continue to transform and innovate toward becoming the Next-Gen insurer.
Reflects financial strength. Many M&As reflect the health and wealth of the financial services industry, especially in insurance. Insurance is a top target industry for many solution providers because of growing technology investments, expanding needs and demand and solutions providing more offerings.
Presents fewer options. As we see more solution providers consolidate, there are fewer company options. But on the flip side, the solution providers will bring together all these technologies and services.

So don’t blink, there will be more to come. We will see more consolidation – all with the goal to strengthen offerings, broaden footprints, position for growth and ultimately seize the pot of gold in insurance.

Deb Smallwood

Deb Smallwood is the founder and CEO of SelfPowerment.

She spent four decades in corporate leadership across the insurance industry, operating at the intersection of business, technology, and organizational transformation. Her leadership inflection point led her to research the experiences of more than 50 high-achieving women and 10 men leaders. This formed the foundation of her book, SelfPowerment: The Inner Shift for High-Achieving Women Who Want More Than Just Success. The work introduces a research-informed framework that redefines success from within and invites women to shift the question from, “Will they choose me?” to “Do I choose them?”