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Product Managers Needed for Analysis?

Some data science teams have matured beyond offering advice and are making products. Do they need a data science product manager?

Paul Laughlin

May 2, 2019

I mentioned, in a debrief from the Data Leaders Summit, the rise of the product manager role within data science teams. This surprised me. I’ve become used to hearing about the need for more data engineers or analysts to complement data scientists. But the focus on product managers and product development life-cycles was a new one. This was not an isolated incident from only a speaker or two. Many leaders confirmed that they had product manager roles. What is going on? In this post, I will share a combination of my initial thoughts and resources I have discovered. I hope to help you decide whether product managers are needed in your team. What Is a Data Science Product Manager? Let’s define what is meant by this new job title. Some data science teams have matured beyond offering advice. Their output was no longer decision support analysis, providing models or insight to influence leaders. Increasingly, these teams were making products. These could be deployable models (for decisions, optimization, categorization) or even entire automated processes. Developing and deploying these into live business operation requires some additional skills. It is to meet that need that product manager roles have evolved. Taken from the historical role of product managers in operational or marketing teams, these roles own a life cycle, from initial innovation (e.g. insight generation sessions) through design and development into deployment. See also: 5 Key Effects From AI and Data Science This article, from the IoT for All blog, helps bring the role to life. It is not prescriptive (as frankly the role is still evolving) but highlights some of the key skills needed. The references to facilitation and communication skills reminded me of the need for softer skills. Those matter across so many data science or analytics roles. But the product manager skillset also reminded me of how I used to define analytics business partners. One key difference is the judgment and knowledge needed to manage a production line and pilots. How Do You Develop Data Science Products? How do product managers and others develop data science products? A number of skills are needed, and the most appropriate development methodology will vary by business. But product managers sound some common themes. I've heard speakers draw on influences from analytics, systems thinking, agile working and design thinking and stress the role of product development workflow. In this article from Harvard Business Review, Emily Glassberg Sands shares a high-level view of how to build great data products. Is This an Opportunity for Other Product Managers? Given the emphasis on product management skills, does this role represent an opportunity for product managers working outside any data or analytics field. My experience with crossovers is mixed, but the data science product manager may be a different case. The mastery of product development and management skills appears to be key. See also: The Entrepreneur as Leader and Manager This interesting blog post from Cohort Plus reads as if aimed at product managers in the technology space but is still a useful introduction for others in such a role. If you are a product manager and interested in making the move into a data science team, this introduction should help (apologies, but posts from Medium will not display snippets). Do You Need a Data Science Product Manager? It would be great to have comments or feedback from both those who see the value of a product manager in these teams and those who think it’s a fad. I’m sure more roles will evolve as these teams mature. Customer Insight Leader blog will keep a weather eye on ones that matter.

Paul Laughlin

Paul Laughlin is the founder of Laughlin Consultancy, which helps companies generate sustainable value from their customer insight. This includes growing their bottom line, improving customer retention and demonstrating to regulators that they treat customers fairly.

Leadership

How to 'Detangle' Your IT Issues

Trying to detangle the spider-web information systems that exist in organizations today is a lot like bargaining with a four-year-old.

Bobbie Shrivastav

May 1, 2019

If you have ever experienced detangling a four-year-old’s hair, you know it is a mess! The amount of fighting and screaming along with negotiations (I will give you ice cream), sometimes threats (no iPad for you) that go into that process can be unbelievable. The situation is not so different a scenario when we try to detangle the spider-web systems that exist in organizations today. Business folks fight with IT, have back-door negotiations with leadership about priorities and engage in countless back-and-forth exchanges of business requirements. Sound familiar? How can organizations cope in a “detangle” situation? Here are three recommendations:

1. Comb through your systems one small section at a time. If you have tried to comb through a large section of tangled hair, what happens? You get stuck, or your comb breaks. If you comb a small section at a time, you could effectively detangle. Take one part of your process, application, module, etc. and determine ways to streamline the operation. “Eat the elephant one bite at a time” to ensure you won’t get stuck in your innovation and transformation efforts or end up in a mental asylum.

2. Use a detangle spray. I love detangle spray! Taking a small section of the hair and applying the detangle spray makes the combing faster. Here is where I would recommend organizations look at outside help. Is there a service like virtual transformation office that can expedite your transformation or innovation efforts? Transformational consultants are of a different breed. They cut through the BS; if they don’t, you don’t have the right one working for your organization. These folks bring outside technology, industry-level perspectives and agile processes to act as a “detangler” in your initiatives. For most organizations, operational needs tend to outweigh innovation efforts. An external perspective can ensure organizations are looking beyond the operations and focusing on innovation.

3. Chop it off. Chopping off the hair was my final resort with my toddler’s hair. I went to the barber and had her hair cut. Why? It was just too painful to continue to maintain. With your spider-web systems, you will come at a point where you have to say good-bye--good-bye to your green screen friends, VB screens from the early 2000s and old funky .asp apps. Are there startups that you can bring to your organization to provide new tech that can eliminate multiple legacy applications? At Benekiva, we pride ourselves on eliminating four to nine systems leveraged by claims staff to process one claim. How many systems are your teams using to complete a task or work unit? You may not be ready to chop everything off, but you can do it gradually. Change takes time.

Disrupting is the name of the game for all organizations. Even if you are a giant company, you have to keep up or you risk going bald, at which point no amount of combing, spraying or chopping will help.

Bobbie Shrivastav

Bobbie Shrivastav is founder and managing principal of Solvrays.

Previously, she was co-founder and CEO of Docsmore, where she introduced an interactive, workflow-driven document management solution to optimize operations. She then co-founded Benekiva, where, as COO, she spearheaded initiatives to improve efficiency and customer engagement in life insurance.

She co-hosts the Insurance Sync podcast with Laurel Jordan, where they explore industry trends and innovations. She is co-author of the book series "Momentum: Makers and Builders" with Renu Ann Joseph.

Personal Lines

Drugged Driving Kills; Why Can't We Stop?

While Americans know that driving after smoking or ingesting marijuana is dangerous, one-fourth of them admit to doing so.

Andrea Leptinsky

May 1, 2019

DriversEd.com has released a new study on the awareness and prevalence of marijuana-impaired driving, finding that while an overwhelming number of Americans have an understanding that driving after smoking or ingesting marijuana is dangerous, one-fourth of them have admitted to doing so themselves. According to DriversEd.com’s 2019 Cannabis and Cars Report, 58% of Americans believe that legalized recreational marijuana use leads to increased danger on roads, and 91% of Americans believe marijuana can impair a driver’s ability. Even so, 20% of drivers admit to driving after smoking marijuana, and 6% admit to driving after ingesting it. This may come as no surprise, as 34 states, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands have approved a comprehensive, publicly available medical marijuana/cannabis program as of March 2019. Marijuana is more out in the open than it ever has been before, but its accessibility is preceding development of proper oversight. Without correct traffic safety measures in place, the prevalence of drugged driving is growing, as drivers likely believe they won’t get caught, aren’t noticeably driving dangerously or don’t consider marijuana’s side effects to be risky enough to stay out of the driver’s seat. See also: Pledge to Put Your #phonedown According to the Brain Injury Society, significant cognitive impairment begins the moment marijuana is consumed. THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the chemical responsible for most of marijuana's psychological effects. It interferes with the natural communication of cannabinoids between neurons in the brain, especially in the cerebral cortex—which plays a huge role in how memory, thinking and consciousness are affected.

A 2018 Governors Highway Safety Association study, Drug-Impaired Driving: Marijuana and Opioids Raise Critical Issues for States, found that, in 2016, 44% of fatally injured drivers with known results tested positive for drugs, up from 28% just 10 years prior. More than half of these drivers had marijuana, opioids or a combination of the two in their system. The best way to reduce drugged driving, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), is the use of standardized field sobriety testing (SFST), the foundation of impaired driving detection and enforcement for 800,000 law enforcement officials across the country. Some states, however, do not require SFST training for officers assigned to patrol functions. As MADD says: Myths and misinformation are part of the problem. Get the facts—and share them with your loved ones, especially young adults. Why? More than one-third of teens mistakenly believe they drive better under the influence of marijuana. The 2019 Cars and Cannabis survey was conducted online using Survey Monkey. One thousand and sixty-three participants were polled, spanning the U.S., with the U.S. driving population represented by the 997 respondents who, before completing the survey, answered that they have a driver’s license. The demographics of those polled represented a broad range of household income, geographic location, age and gender. This article was originally published on DriversEd.com.

Andrea Leptinsky

Andrea Leptinsky is a 15-year news veteran with experience in community journalism, automotive reporting and traffic safety marketing. She started as managing editor at DriversEd.com in 2017.

Resilience & Sustainability

Some Hope in the Face of the Wildfire Threat

There are lots of reasons why fires get out of control, and it turns out the biggest issue is a lack of real-time information.

Insurance Thought Leadership

April 30, 2019

In 2018, there were over 6,000 wildfires in California alone, destroying well over 10,000 structures, producing over $9 billion in property damage and claiming the lives of at least 88 people. Horrific. But there’s hope. More than 95% of the wildfires in California are controlled within the first 24 hours and are contained to 10 acres or less. In other words, fewer than 5% of wildfires grow out of control and move into day 2, producing most of the devastation. And improvements in technology can help us tackle that 5%.

I say that after having had the privilege of being invited to a workshop hosted by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Maryland, last week. (Yes, that Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel and author of what has come to be known as Moore’s law.) The workshop pulled together 28 of the smartest people I have ever met, all committed to curbing the impact of wildfire, not only in California, but also across the globe.

There are lots of reasons why fires get out of control, and it turns out the biggest issue is a lack of real-time information. The best technology available to the commanders making strategic decisions and firefighters in the field gives them information that is usually six to 12 hours old. Fire can do a lot in six to 12 hours.

The workshop identified a number of technologies that could greatly improve the information flow, three of which stood out to me: offerings from Planet Labs, Jupiter Intelligence and Descartes Labs.

Planet Labs has deployed a pearl-like string of shoe-box-sized satellites that provide an image of the entire globe every 24 hours. The image is accurate to about three meters—you won’t be able to pick out a person, but if you’re looking for anything as big as a pick-up truck or bigger, you’re good—and will let firefighters watch for danger.

Jupiter Intelligence provides a supercomputer platform that models potential dangers from one hour to 50 years out and could be used to monitor fires in near-real-time.

Descartes Labs combines data from lots of different sources, including sensors and imagery, and refines that data so it can be used for modeling that can spot and monitor potential problems as well as actual fires.

The folks at the workshop are committed to pulling together these and other technologies to better understand the traits (weather, terrain, vegetation, humidity, wind, etc.) that might signal the right conditions for an uncontrollable wildfire. The group will also integrate technologies and other capabilities to provide firefighters with real-time data about a fire and its movement.

We have written many times in this commentary about how technology is moving insurance and risk management into a predictive and (we hope) preventive role, rather than simply helping us get better at responding after losses occur, and that change will need to extend beyond technological improvements. I learned last week, for instance, that we are probably a decade behind in controlled burns. We should be control-burning about 2 million acres per year to limit wildfires, but we have been control-burning only approximately 100,000 acres a year for a long while. No wonder there is so much fuel to feed those wildfires. (Some environmentalists may push back on the need for controlled burning, but the wildfires seem to have created a new level of realism all around. Unless we’re going to unleash tens of thousands of goats on our forests, controlled burns are the only alternative.)

As always, we in the insurance industry can help. While the data we use for making decisions about risk and pricing may not be the same as what authorities need to prevent or fight fires, there is significant overlap, and we must all work together in this time of acute need.

I’d love to hear any thoughts about what the Moore/Maryland group or we as an industry should be doing in the face of the wildfire threat.

Wayne Allen
CEO

Insurance Thought Leadership

Insurance Thought Leadership (ITL) delivers engaging, informative articles from our global network of thought leaders and decision makers. Their insights are transforming the insurance and risk management marketplace through knowledge sharing, big ideas on a wide variety of topics, and lessons learned through real-life applications of innovative technology.

We also connect our network of authors and readers in ways that help them uncover opportunities and that lead to innovation and strategic advantage.

Agent & Broker

Service as a Differentiator? Hmm

If you find yourself claiming that your agency wins by providing better service, you really need to rethink your message.

Kevin Trokey

April 30, 2019

If only I had a dollar for every time I heard an insurance agency claim, “What really sets us apart from our competition is the level of service we provide.” If I did, I’d likely be writing this blog from the cabin with my 40-foot yacht moored behind my oh-so-big beach house. If you find yourself making this service claim, you really need to rethink your message. If it isn’t downright killing your growth, it is, at the very least, holding you way back. I understand the spirit and intent of the service as a differentiator (SaaD) message, but it’s a total cop-out, and it's doing harm in ways that you never recognize as unintended consequences of the claim. Avoid the bad mojo When promoting their great service, most agencies are talking about how fast they respond to the needs of their clients, helping them fix something that is broken. They only get to demonstrate their supposed greatest value when something has gone wrong. Do you really want every interaction with you and your team to be attached to a negative event? Especially when you are likely the one who advised them to engage with the guilty party in the first place? See also: How to Use AI in Customer Service No wonder they think all brokers are the same This SAAD message is often the go-to play when trying to close a new deal. After you and your competition have all rolled out the same spreadsheet and the same capabilities presentation, you pull out your SAAD card. But guess what? Every one of your competitors is making the same SAAD claim. Think of how ridiculous this play is. There is NO WAY your prospects can experience your service until they hire you and something goes wrong with the plans you put in place. (Sounds crazy just typing it out.) Minimum expectations Perhaps the saddest part of the SAAD message: If brokers don’t provide good (even great) service, what do you think would happen? THEY’D GET FIRED!! And rightfully so. The broker wouldn’t even be meeting the minimum expectations of the client. When you are suggesting someone hire you because you provide great service, you are suggesting they hire you simply because you can meet their minimum expectations. Is this really brag-worthy? Of course not! You know it’s true Yet, somehow this is ingrained in the very fiber of most agencies. We know this is the case because we ask. And, it is this obsessive focus on promoting great service that is holding back your growth. When we take insurance agencies through an analysis to get a clear picture of what is working and isn't working in their business, we always ask, "Would you describe yourself as a sales or service organization?" The answer is almost always an emphatic "service!" Many times, the agencies dislike being thought of a sales organization. Even when the leadership team aspires to be more of a sales organization, there are many on the team who are completely turned off by the idea of selling. See also: Insurance Service Rates Zero Stars "Sale" may be a four letter word, but so is "help." When a sale takes place, it shows that you helped another business see a way to improve its situation. You’ve earned that business' confidence in your ability to help deliver better results. I don’t know about you, but I think most prospects/clients are going to be much more impressed when you promote and demonstrate your ability to help them proactively achieve better results than they are with your promises of great reactive service. If everyone saw themselves as being on the "helping team" instead of getting hung up on the idea of "I don't sell," agencies would have much healthier top and bottom line growth. You can find the article originally published here.

Kevin Trokey

Kevin Trokey is founding partner and coach at Q4intelligence. He is driven to ignite curiosity and to push the industry through the barriers that hold it back. As a student of the insurance industry, he channels his own curiosity by observing and studying the players, the changing regulations, and the business climate that influence us all.

Customer Experience

Who Is Your Customer; How Is the Experience?

The amount of low-hanging fruit with few costs and high impact for both the customer experience and optimized operations is incredible.

Deb Smallwood

April 30, 2019

In today’s digital world, companies have to focus on customers and their experience. No longer is it just about optimizing the business and processing the transaction; the overall experience matters for retention and renewal. It is essential to create a seamless digital experience that is tailored and personalized, based on understanding customers and their needs. The first thing an insurer must do is define who the customer is. Depending on a company’s channel – direct, captive or independent agents – the definition becomes not only complex but political and even cultural and structural. Historically, for many insurers whose channels have been independent agencies, the agent or broker has always been the customer. But more insurers have embraced the reality that the policyholder is also the customer. There is often a debate as to where the CX focus should be: on the policyholder or the agent? I believe insurers need to consider both as customers – different customers, but both customers. In most cases, agents own and manage the relationship with the policyholder, and the insurer provides services to the policyholder. Insurers need to embrace both agent and policyholder and the connectivity of the triad relationship, and how these relationships and connections fuel one another. See also: Bold Prediction on Customer Experience Ease of doing business is the requirement for any insurance customer in today’s digital, connected world. Agents choose where to place the business based on ease of doing business (along with the relationship, product coverages and pricing). There are a few key areas to focus on to improve the agent experience, like providing agents with the right technology solutions and tools to quickly and painlessly quote, bind, issue, endorse and renew. Agents expect it to be fast and easy to understand each insurer’s product and risk appetite and to have clear visibility into the status of all interactions between the agency and insurer – as well as the policyholder and insurer. While the agent may have a personal relationship with the insured, insurers do interact with policyholders: making payments, changing pay plans, asking questions around a final audit invoice, having loss control visits and, of course, experience the whole claims process. The key to providing a really great customer experience for the policyholder includes providing a personalized touchpoint in any channel – whether it is paper, digital or face-to-face – and ensuring communications are easy, accurate, consistent and straightforward. Last, but not least, minimizing or even eliminating the need to call, maximizing the experience when customers do need to call to a one-call-resolution and providing the option to go to the self-service portal are all goals of the transformed customer experience. As we look at the customer experience today, there is tremendous opportunity to transform not only the customer experience but your company, as well. As we work with insurers on their CX transformation journeys, the amount of low-hanging fruit with minimal costs and high impact for improvement to both the customer experience and the optimization of operations is incredible. But first, you must be clear as to who your customer is. Then, declare that your company is on a CX transformation journey. Now, you are ready to move forward.

Deb Smallwood

Deb Smallwood, the founder of Strategy Meets Action, is highly respected throughout the insurance industry for strategic thinking, thought-provoking research and advisory skills. Insurers and solution providers turn to Smallwood for insight and guidance on business and IT linkage, IT strategy, IT architecture and e-business.

Risk Management

Curve Ahead: Managing Autos

As a safety manager, what’s the best practice for managing the ever-decreasing road capacity along with the host of new exposures?

Tony Hughes

April 29, 2019

My first job out of college was very hands-on. I worked in a laboratory testing the bituminous materials used in road construction. Every month or so, I’d move to a different, temporary laboratory/trailer in a strange city near another highway being resurfaced, and I’d get to work ensuring the road materials were in compliance with the requisite specifications. I quit that job when I noticed that the chemical solution used to separate bitumen from rocks was dissolving my fingerprints. Hands on. Fingerprints off. Unless I wanted to be a burglar full-time, I needed to find a different occupation. I got a job designing traffic signals and road junctions. While there is a lot of math involved, there is also a lot of studying human behavior. The role was more of a black art than a science. Quite often, people – both pedestrians and drivers – do something other than what you expect them to do. Someone goes straight in a right-turn-only lane. It happens. Run a red light because the two cars in front of you did? That, too. My specialty was designing traffic light junctions. Humans are hugely inefficient at negotiating junctions, even those that have colored lights telling you what to do. Sit third or fourth in a line of cars at a set of traffic lights and see for yourself. It was a problem I worked on for years as a traffic engineer. It is worse now, of course, with many more distractions available via smartphone. Next time you’re in traffic, look at how many other people on your gridlocked commute are messing with something they shouldn’t be rather than paying attention. A conservative estimate would suggest that a third of drivers are distracted by their smartphone when they should be driving. That has to have an effect. To this day, I cannot help but critique road junctions and their layouts. I will be sitting in unnecessary traffic studying the layout of a junction, then perhaps remarking to my wife – or, worse, my kids – about some deficiency, then, of course, hate myself for doing so. I save the majority of my angst for new installations. I can’t criticize a traffic engineer from the 1960s who never envisioned a four-fold increase in vehicles passing through his carefully designed intersection. I am sure you have been driving somewhere on the highway when, for no apparent reason, you suddenly find yourself braking and eventually grind to a complete halt. You sit there for a while, pondering what choices led you to this point in your life (whipping out your smartphone to check the length of backed-up traffic), then, just like that, you and everyone else around you start to move and, within a relatively short time, you are back to your regular speed. The thing is, the wreck you assumed was holding you up is not there. It is gone by the time you get to it, or, more likely, it never existed. Instead, you got caught up on a section of highway that was over capacity. Oh, and congratulations, you just survived a shock wave. As a nascent traffic engineer back in the 1990s, I learned about road capacity. That is the measure of how many vehicles a certain stretch or road can handle before things become inefficient and congestion occurs. Say it is Friday circa 4 p.m. Cars in all lanes, in front and behind you. When someone enters from the on ramp, those in the far right lane have to start braking because there is too much traffic around them to allow them to change lanes. That braking makes its way down the line of traffic, growing as it moves backward. If the first guy has to tap his brakes to allow a car in his lane, the car 50 cars behind him is coming to a complete stop. Now imagine that at every on ramp or every time someone rashly changes lane without signaling. The more traffic you direct onto a road, the higher the frequency of traffic jams. Absent a few years directly after the 2008 financial crisis, the number of miles driven in the U.S. has increased year over year, with lower gas prices aiding this. In short: Our roads are filling up with cars faster than we can build new roads. At some point, things stop working. Gridlock ensues. So what, right? Nothing new here. There have always been traffic jams, and autonomous vehicles will solve all of our woes, after all. Move along, nothing to see here. Maybe AVs will make all the problems go away, but that claim has yet to be tested. It is a hypothesis, and we do not yet know whether cars that drive themselves will do anything to solve traffic issues. They will certainly help with traffic flows, particularly in congested cities, but, even then, the benefits will likely be temporary and finite. More vehicles should get through busy road junctions, but maybe we're just pushing the issue down the same road a little. If you free up space on the roads, what will happen? Absent another fuel crisis, the empty spaces on roads will be filled by more vehicles wishing to drive on them. Automated vehicles or not, once you reach capacity, passengers and drivers will suffer. Road capacity is finite. There are only so many vehicles and people you can get on them at any one time. Since the turn of the century, we have seen a huge reduction in accident frequency, but a lot of that is down to significant technological increases in vehicles braking, improved tire design and a plethora of safety features that no one had thought about in the 1990s. The increase in lift from each technological advance will tend to be smaller. You now have to share the road with many other commuters, big-box delivery trucks, last-mile Amazon deliveries, ridesharing independent contractors, utility service workers and the sidewalks with 20 mph scooters, pedestrians preoccupied with cell phones and, soon, robotic pizza delivery drones. Despite the technological advances in safety, it is becoming increasingly hard to prevent auto losses from occurring. How do you combat this? As a safety manager, what’s the best practice for managing the ever-decreasing road capacity along with these new exposures? I recommend the following:

Keep your vehicle use guidelines updated and communicate to your drivers as often as possible, at least every time there’s a modification to them.
Read. Every day a new challenge arrives and there is a new safety feature to deal with it. Perhaps in-cab cameras would benefit your fleet? Perhaps it is additional training for your drivers on the risks that scooters pose.
Understand the inherent exposures that your fleet possesses. Is there a vehicle in your fleet that can drive autonomously already? Do your large truck drivers have difficulty viewing vehicles approaching from adjacent lanes?
Minimize distractions in the vehicle. Address the use of cellphones when driving and limit consumption of food in the vehicle to when it is parked.
Factor in a likely increase in journey times for your drivers. There should be nothing gained by speeding.
Talk. Provide training to your drivers, particularly on the new hazards. Discuss techniques for handling these hazards as a group.

Tony Hughes

Tony Hughes is a commercial auto product manager at Safety National, with more than 15 years of experience in operations, claims, product management and underwriting. His comprehensive knowledge about the auto insurance industry results from having worked in related fields in the 1990s.

IOT

How Insurers Are Innovating Right Now

Connected insurance is the biggest potential for transformation that insurance has witnessed since the invention of the computer.

Graham Proud

April 29, 2019

From day-to-day operations, to the very relationship between insurers and policy-holders, it is no exaggeration to say that connected insurance represents the biggest potential for transformation that insurance has witnessed since the invention of the computer. See, for example, the ability of an insurance carrier to react to live data, in real time, and prevent a loss from occurring. From simply mitigating the effects of a loss, they become partners in risk-prevention. In an increasingly competitive, technology-driven market, insurance carriers must continually innovate to deliver connected products and services that resonate with customers and provide what they need, rather than what the insurer can offer. Likewise, as technology develops and the digital distribution of insurance products increases, product development itself must become similarly agile and responsive. Squeezed between decreasing profit margins, increasing customer expectations and greater competition, however, all insurance companies find themselves in a potentially make-or-break position; innovate or die. See also: Understanding New Generations of Data Yet while technology represents insurers’ best chance at outstripping competitors in terms of product development, efficiency and customer experience, with so many new technical possibilities available (many of which are relatively unexplored), there is also ample opportunity for them to overspend and underdeliver. To provide some clarity, Insurance Nexus recently interviewed over 300 executives to understand where insurance companies are concentrating their efforts to improve connected product and service innovation, who is responsible for these projects and how things are expected to progress in the future. In the course of our research, it was striking to note the degree of importance with which executives are now viewing connected insurance innovation. 50% of respondents believe that CEOs and heads of strategy must take the lead in connected product development--a clear indication that innovation is rightly regarded as an enterprise-wide undertaking. Our results also suggest that insurers recognize the scale of these projects and that, in many cases, they do not have the required competencies in house; 54% said that leveraging the expertise of external technology partners and insurtechs has been of greater value than relying solely on in-house talent. On the subject of departmental collaboration, the results show that data and analytics departments feature heavily in connected product innovation. This is significant principally because the success of the AI and machine learning systems that underpin so much of connected products is predicated first and foremost on data, both volume and quality. If insurers can maximize the potential of the data they already possess and then intelligently insert aspects of AI (as opposed to hastily implementing an AI system and feeding it on poor-quality, invalid or disparate data), they will see the greatest results. One particularly eye-catching statistic was that over half of respondents claim that their most successful channel for communicating product development and new services is by word of mouth. Although initially surprising to us in the digital age, this will be of great comfort to marketing teams everywhere because it tends to support the idea that product development should begin with the customer and their needs. If those needs are met, customers are showing themselves willing to become brand ambassadors themselves, a particular boon to insurers in such a saturated marketplace. Download the infographic for detailed statistics on:

Which technologies are insurers embracing and actually integrating into their everyday procedures and products, including AI, ML, data analytics, automation and IoT?
Where are insurers prioritizing investment: operational efficiencies and internal procedures or customer-facing UX technologies?
What are the proven internal blends of skill sets that drive transformation forward, including leadership buy-in and recruitment initiatives in IT and data analytics?
How to incorporate external technology experts and insurtech that supercharge what you can offer your customer.

This infographic was created in association with Insurance Nexus’ coming Connected Insurance Europe Summit, taking place May 15-16 at the Novotel Hotel in Amsterdam. Welcoming more than 350 senior executives from across departments, the event will provide organizations with the necessary strategies and insights to transform each core pillar of product development, strategy and innovation and communication of value to the customer. For more information about Connected Insurance Europe, please visit the website.

Graham Proud

Graham Proud works closely with insurer senior-management teams to identify the challenges and solutions in bringing about transformation. Proud produces a number of white papers, webinars and major industry events to reflect the industry's latest trends.

Regulation & Public Policy

Google and Applied Systems: 6 Months In

The big Google investment suggests it sees a great future for independent agents. So, what's the verdict after six months?

Mark Breading

April 26, 2019

The insurance world was caught by surprise last October when Google’s Capital G investment arm announced a substantial investment in Applied Systems (north of $100 million). It was seen by many as an endorsement of the independent agent (IA) channel. If Google believes it will make a nice return on investment in a company serving the IA channel, then it must believe the channel will survive and grow. From the Applied Systems viewpoint, in addition to the extra capital to invest in the platform, it was anticipating access to world-class technology and expertise from Google. So now that the investment/partnership is six months in, what can we say about the progress? Recently, I was fortunate to witness some of the activity first-hand, as Applied invited me to join them at the Google Cloud Next event in San Francisco. For me, it was a chance to “experience” Google and meet some of the players in the Applied/Google partnership. I’ve come away with several observations about Google and Applied Systems.

Deep partnership: As originally promised, the Google investment was more than money looking for a return. Applied and Google are collaborating at the development level, with dozens of Applied developers being trained and exposed to Google tech.
Future promise: It is still early in terms of how Google tech and expertise will influence Applied/IVANS systems, but there are indications that the first fruits will be visible this summer, and more enhancements and capabilities will be built into the product road map over the next several years.
New era of computing: The shift to a new era of computing is well underway. The event was focused on developers, and the entire event was filled with sessions and discussions about containers, connectors, Kubernetes, APIs, big data, cloud, edge computing security, AI/machine learning and other technologies and approaches that are transforming how computing systems are designed, built and managed.

See also: Whole New World for Customer Contact My one disappointment at the event was that insurance was not very visible. There were hundreds of speakers and dozens of use cases, but nothing for insurance. Banking, retail and healthcare use cases and solutions were prominent (as were those from many other industries), but insurance only received a passing mention. Let's hope the Applied/Google relationship will change that, and that more technology harnessed to address specific insurance use cases will be in evidence by next year’s event.

Mark Breading

Mark Breading is a partner at Strategy Meets Action, a Resource Pro company that helps insurers develop and validate their IT strategies and plans, better understand how their investments measure up in today's highly competitive environment and gain clarity on solution options and vendor selection.

Cyber

Myth Busting on GDPR Insurance Policies

If companies with as many resources as Google are facing fines related to GDPR, how can far smaller businesses address this risk?

Shawn Ram

April 26, 2019

As we approach the one year anniversary of GDPR implementation, we have seen that many companies still don’t understand how the privacy regulation works or how to properly mitigate the risk. Earlier this year, Google, one of the largest technology companies in the world, was fined $57 million for a GDPR breach in France. If companies with as many resources as Google are facing fines, how can far smaller businesses address this risk? One effective solution is to mitigate the risk through cyber insurance policies. Insurance helps businesses self-regulate their actions and acts as the last line of defense in the event of a major fine. But, not all policies are created equal, and it can be difficult to navigate the oftentimes confusing language in various insurance policies. I've spent time evaluating numerous policies and examining GDPR-specific risks—even more so since my company, Coalition, developed a policy tailored to address GDPR. From this review, some myths and truths from GDPR became clear. Here are a few: Myth: Only big companies and big fines matter It is important to recognize that big businesses are not the only target of GDPR. While it is true that any business can be penalized, it’s safe to say that the largest fines are for the largest companies and the most egregious violations. However, this doesn’t mean that smaller fines and smaller offences aren’t being monitored. In fact, smaller fines are levied on a regular basis. For example, one GDPR fine of $5,400 was issued for a retail establishment’s CCTV camera system that partially surveyed a public sidewalk. Even though it didn’t involve an egregious failure, nor an enormous company, action was taken and a fine levied. This points out two elements of GDPR that are myths: that only large companies and large fines matter. To a smaller company, any fine and attorney’s fees is enough to be deadly, and countries are monitoring activity for all companies. See also: What GDPR Means for Insurtech Myth: Only European businesses need to comply with GPDR Last year, the number of companies offering cyber insurance in the Lloyd’s of London commercial insurance market jumped more than 20%. According to Lloyd’s chief executive, gross written premiums for European cyber insurance could reach more than $2 billion annually by 2020, partly as a result of GDPR. While this growth supports the fact that E.U. businesses need to mitigate the risk of compliance with GDPR, it fails to acknowledge that U.S. companies are also subject to GDPR. This is because GDPR has a much wider scope than just European companies. It protects personal data even across the Atlantic. Accordingly, a U.S. company can just as easily violate GDPR when collecting, using or maintaining data regarding E.U. citizens. Come time for fines, if a business only collects a third of its revenue from European customers, it will still be fined on its revenue from all markets. Therefore, businesses outside of Europe need to evaluate GDPR compliance and insurance, as well. Myth: A vendor’s breach does not affect my company Your business is liable if your trusted vendor lost your data. Therefore, you may consider requiring that your vendors procure GDPR insurance policies, naming your company as an additional insured. If your company was entrusted with data, you are liable even if one of your vendors loses the information. Truth: Risk mitigation can help A 2018 study of privacy professionals found that 56% of respondents were at companies that were not yet compliant with GDPR, and 19% said that their companies would never be fully compliant. This is clearly an unsustainable approach to GDPR. Mitigation techniques are a crucial aspect of a good policy. Leading insurance companies help businesses comply with regulations by educating them and evaluating their privacy practices. The use of these techniques, in turn, help protect businesses against allegations. Truth: The right cyber insurance policy could save your business. From the day GDPR went into effect, May 25 of last year, to the end of this past January, there have been 91 GDPR fines issued. That is more than two fines per week. To purchase an insurance policy that will allow your business to survive a fine, it is paramount to review what specifically is covered. It is important to protect your company with a policy that covers you not only in the event of security failures and data breaches but also when often-forgotten repercussions arise regardless of whether data was compromised. GDPR is unique in that it codifies privacy regulations. Not only are companies fined if they expose customer data as a result of a cyber breach, but companies are also receiving penalties for failure to follow their own privacy policies. See also: Europe’s New Data Breach Requirements Not following your own privacy policies is called “failure to comply” and can result in fines from GDPR. For example, if your company says in its privacy policy that it will delete certain information, which is also known as “the right to be forgotten,” it must hold up its promise. Failure to comply with that very privacy policy could result in fines and penalties. To mitigate this risk, companies should review their privacy policies regularly and also ensure that failure to comply is included in their chosen GDPR insurance policy. Truth: Take action now GDPR has been in effect for almost a year, so, if you haven’t yet taken measures to prepare your company for the event of a fine, do so now. Whether your company is big or small, it’s important you consider a GDPR insurance policy, and when you look be sure to find a policy that both covers fines resulting from a cyber breach and from failure to comply. Additionally, look to see if the insurance provider offers risk mitigation techniques and evaluate the provider's payout limit. It can also be important to review the vendors critical to your business and encourage them to procure coverage as well to avoid a business disruption or third-party liability. With these considerations in mind, your business will be ready to purchase a policy that will prevent you from going under in the event of a fine.

Shawn Ram

Shawn Ram is head of insurance at Coalition, a company founded at the intersection of the insurance and cybersecurity industries by a team of insurance, technology and intelligence community veterans.