Companies in the insurance industry have always possessed a great deal of data, primarily from policy, billing and claims systems.

New real-time data sources — such as wearables, connected devices and social media streams — are increasingly available to add behavioral and contextual data for deeper assessment.

Advanced analytics

With the modernization of core systems, increasing affordability of large compute power and newer analytical tools such as machine learning, insurance carriers and brokers are primed to do more than traditional risk analysis. Advanced analytics allow them to identify new revenue opportunities, enhance customer and agent experience, assess operations for improvement and improve controls. Yet, our recent survey revealed that organizations are not fully realizing the benefits of analytics — even though they inherently recognize the potential to lift their businesses.

This article highlights some key findings from the online survey, conducted in the Fall of 2016, and published in the report, "Data Driven Insurance: Harness Disruption and Lead the Way." Executives from 122 companies representing brokers and carriers in the property and casualty and life and annuity sectors completed the survey.

Few taking full advantage of data and analytics

Just 11 percent of survey respondents agreed strongly that their organization is realizing the full benefits of advanced analytics. Just under half (46 percent) agreed somewhat.