Celent report shows property and casualty e-business is on the rise

Property and casualty insurance e-business is a more important element of distribution strategy than it was three years ago, according to a report recently published by Celent.The report is based on survey data from 44 property and casualty insurer executives based in North America. Budget percentages devoted to e-business have remained steady at an average of 515%, with a dominant focus on agent e-business and homegrown or custom-built solutions, Celent notes in its report. Policyholder portals continue to be a check-list item for property and casualty insurers, but even there usage is growing, with a third of survey participants reporting more than 50% growth in usage. Prospect-facing e-business and online marketing have gained mind share among insurers over the past three years.Based on these trends, Celent makes a number of observations looking forward to 2010. They include: more sophisticated interfaces, built on AJAX or the next generation of Web technology; a steady increase in the percentage of new business submitted online; an incremental increase in policyholder portal adoption; ubiquity of online quoting and other rich functionality for prospect-facing Web sites in personal lines, as well as more informational tools for risk managers in commercial lines. at least a 50% increase in online marketing spending and a greater increase on search engine optimization.