According to a recent Nielsen study, some 61 percent of mobile subscribers own a smartphone of some kind, an increase of more than 10 percent over 2012, the first year smartphones became the majority in mobile devices. The highest penetration is among users aged 25-34 at 78 percent, but use of such devices is growing in all demographic groups. An increasing number of Americans are spending more time with their phones than they are with their computers, their televisions or any other kind of media.

The majority of this time is not spent making calls, texting or using the web, it is spent in mobile applications. According to app analytics firm Furry, roughly 80 percent of the time mobile users spend on their devices is spent in apps. What company in their right mind wouldn't pay attention to that?

In March, ABI research reported downloads of applications for mobile smartphones will be in the range of 56 billion for 2013. Additionally, mobile users will download around 14 billion applications for their tablets. Given 365 days a year, 24 hours in a day, this equates to close to 8 million applications downloaded per hour or more than 133,000 downloads per minute. There are currently more than 800 applications in the Apps store under the category of “insurance.” Everything from insurance glossary and dictionaries, to insurance industry journals, life insurance, homeowners, even home inventory management applications, auto insurance, healthcare, home mortgage insurance, and patient check-in applications to streamline the check-in at healthcare providers' offices. Every major provider—Allstate, USAA, Progressive, Humana, United, Aetna, Blue Cross, Anthem, and Geico—have applications in the mobile application stores. This is true for many brokers and agents as well.

Insurance companies may not see the need for mobile applications as clearly as, say, a banking institution or a retailer. However, the truth is, while insurance customers may not need to access services as often as customers of other business sectors, believing that the mobile capabilities are not needed or should be limited to what amounts to brochures is a dangerous path. Such thinking ignores the myriad advantages of offering a mobile application:

• Extending the image of the company
• Increased self-service and straight-through processing
• Expense reduction in postage, labor to answer calls, and processing customer requests

One could argue that for insurance users, policyholders may not need remote access very often, but when they do, they'll want it immediately. For example, some companies offer a digital insurance card (where states allow) that the customer can access through a mobile application, a service the customer will want immediately in the case of anything from a traffic citation to a visit to the doctor's office.

For insurance companies, the advantage of putting information at their customers' fingertips can add critical functionality to maintain that “stickiness” in the relationship, giving the customer something that can be used more often than simply whenever the customer needs to access insurance information. Health insurance companies may augment their mobile application with an exercise tracker or calorie counter; auto insurance companies may add in a mileage log or automated reminders for oil changes.

These aspects of added functionality, related to the central business of the insurance company, can dramatically increase the “face time” the mobile customer spends with the application, serving to strengthen the relationship between company and customer. Every section of the insurance industry is beginning to adapt to mobile applications. The ones that will be successful are the ones that are providing more functionality, a use beyond simply accessing insurance information. Interactive, daily use keeps people coming back to the app, and keeps customers engaged with the company.

For policyholders and members, insurance carriers are improving customer service with mobile applications to assist in finding covered medical providers, linking hours of operations, maps, and other information on the provider. Obviously many carriers are providing mobile applications for claims inquiry, deposit notifications, adjuster status and other traditional functionality that once required a phone call or a connection to the insurance company's web site. Healthcare carriers have built mobile applications for wellness and health maintenance that aid members in tracking physical fitness activity and other ­wellness activity.

A mobile application for an insurance company can go far beyond policyholders or members and extend to agents, brokers, and employer groups.

P&C carriers have jumped at providing some of the same claims and traditional call-center support via the mobile device, as well as the ability to track and report workflow activities in a much more real-time fashion via the mobile device. Taking pictures of an auto accident or of storm damage on the device and attaching them within a mobile claim application provides functionality that allows the claimant to provide all necessary information straight from the mobile device at the scene of the accident or event.

Something as simple as a claim on homeowner's insurance has changed dramatically in the past few years, simply because of the mobile technology now available to adjusters. An adjuster can come out to the home, take pictures from his mobile devices, fill out the forms and have them signed by the policyholder on the mobile devices and wirelessly transmit payment to a blue tooth printer in his truck to print the check for the policyholder. That's a lot of functionality and service in 15 minutes from a mobile device.

While many carriers have enhanced their website for mobile access, best practice is moving to a much richer device-resident application that interfaces with the web to provide a robust and interactive user experience.

Perhaps the greatest usage for many carriers has been the increased functionality to the agents and brokers. This is an area where the carriers have not only been able to reduce cost by moving work to the field, they have also streamlined transactions to reduce time and float in the system to gain a more real-time understanding of the activities in the field.

It can be a powerful tool in the carrier-to-agent relationship, expanding the agent's image and putting a wealth of information at the agent's fingertips, allowing them to focus on what they need to do.

The amount of mobile functionality being rolled out to the agent and broker community is staggering. For example, interactive sales presentations can be customized by industry in a matter of minutes for an iPad. In one case a company developed a “sales presentation application”, that allowed the agent to pick and choose the elements in the application, determine which products to present, industry specifics, and other ­customizable options.

The application built an interactive presentation tailored to an individual client. Halfway through the presentation, the client, who was an owner of a mid-sized company, stopped the agent and said he was so impressed with the technology for the sales discussion that he was confident the company was ahead of the competition in the use of technology and that this was the carrier for his company.

In another instance, an agent on a visit to an existing client was told the company hadn't paid on a claim by one of the client's employees. In the space of a few minutes, the agent was able to use his mobile app to find the claim and show when the check was issued, and then show the check was endorsed and deposited weeks earlier. Giving agents the tools and functionality to do all these things “in the field” saves the agent time and effort.

A robust and powerful mobile app, one that shoulders part of the agent's burden, creates a more efficient, more effective sales force. Most of all, a mobile app improves the company's reach, giving your organization access to new policyholders, new accounts, new agents that may have been beyond your grasp.

Technology always marches on. A decade ago, no one considered the mobile app a realistic or important business tool. Before the rise of the iPhone in 2007 and the flood of smartphones that followed, not many even knew what a mobile app was. In the next decade, there's a chance something new will come along and rise up to dominate the market. But for now, today is the age of the mobile app. Embrace it or be left behind.