1st takeaway from Insuretech 2019 confrence in LVegas

[shawnmwalker]

1st Insuretech Takeaway:
On the first day I must have heard 5 times from Tech companies, "This whole Insuretech thing would move a lot faster if Insurance companies would be more willing to share their data!"

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! That's how they make money- by having a better algorithm and data than the next company.

I then heard (On day one) there are social reasons for sharing the data, "it is better if they shared for the Greater social good."

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! That's how they make money- By having a Better algorithm and more data than the next company.





your thoughts on this topic please.

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

Lots of potentially good conversations there. The most glaring, to me, is the "Greater social good," attitude. For a a multitude of reasons (some good, more bad), many in the tech industry incorporate this concept into their business plans. This is in absolute conflict with the insurance industry, which is as "bottom line" as it gets.

 

[JazzInk]

Lots of clueless startups coming into the industry. Big data, AI, machine learning...but have no idea how the insurance biz works.

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

Lots of clueless startups coming into the industry. Big data, AI, machine learning...but have no idea how the insurance biz works.

Insurance companies are all about "sharing" data when the roles are reversed. I've seen a small tech company encouraged to "share" their information with a big insurance company in hopes of landing a big corporate deal only to see the company incorporate the things they liked into their own software.

 

[somarco]

Sounds like the FB and Google brass kind of comments.

Any talk about saving the planet, or cow farts?

 

[Robert Barney]

1st Insuretech Takeaway:
On the first day I must have heard 5 times from Tech companies, "This whole Insuretech thing would move a lot faster if Insurance companies would be more willing to share their data!"

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! That's how they make money- by having a better algorithm and data than the next company.

I then heard (On day one) there are social reasons for sharing the data, "it is better if they shared for the Greater social good."

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! That's how they make money- By having a Better algorithm and more data than the next company.

your thoughts on this topic please.

If I was a life insurance company I would not do it either. They have to be forced into it - GENTLY... And the people they have to hear from are their agents/brokers.

 

[Robert Barney]

Insurance companies are all about "sharing" data when the roles are reversed. I've seen a small tech company encouraged to "share" their information with a big insurance company in hopes of landing a big corporate deal only to see the company incorporate the things they liked into their own software.

Of course. Who doesn't WANT information.

Compulife has a new product that we sell to life insurance companies called the "Compulife Batch Analyzer". It lets a life insurance company produce about 100 quotes per second, for a RANGE of scenarios they set up, and all the results are exported to a spreadsheet for analysis. That's 6,000 quotes a minute by the way.

Do companies want that kind of easy competitive intelligence. OH YEAH, you bet. Want to know why the pace of some companies rates changes has picked up in the last year. It's a rhetorical question.

But one of the conditions we attached to buying the CBA is that the company had to give us the product and rate information so that their products could be put in the software. Now the vast majority of the customers who buy it are already do that.

But one company, who shall remain nameless, didn't want us to have their data but still wanted to buy the CBA software. Can't help you I said, I need your rates. Oh, but they wanted it BADLY but more badly did not want to give us their rates. I finally said, OK, you can buy it but you have to pay DOUBLE our normal annual subscription of $1,920. They did.

That's how bad they want it from you, but don't want to give it to you. And I FULLY understand their position.

 

[Newby]

Of course. Who doesn't WANT information.

Compulife has a new product that we sell to life insurance companies called the "Compulife Batch Analyzer". It lets a life insurance company produce about 100 quotes per second, for a RANGE of scenarios they set up, and all the results are exported to a spreadsheet for analysis. That's 6,000 quotes a minute by the way.

Do companies want that kind of easy competitive intelligence. OH YEAH, you bet. Want to know why the pace of some companies rates changes has picked up in the last year. It's a rhetorical question.

But one of the conditions we attached to buying the CBA is that the company had to give us the product and rate information so that their products could be put in the software. Now the vast majority of the customers who buy it are already do that.

But one company, who shall remain nameless, didn't want us to have their data but still wanted to buy the CBA software. Can't help you I said, I need your rates. Oh, but they wanted it BADLY but more badly did not want to give us their rates. I finally said, OK, you can buy it but you have to pay DOUBLE our normal annual subscription of $1,920. They did.

That's how bad they want it from you, but don't want to give it to you. And I FULLY understand their position.

You should not have sold it to them at that double rate. You should have stood your ground. Your condition was fair. $4,000 is peanuts to an insurance company.

 

[Robert Barney]

You should not have sold it to them at that double rate. You should have stood your ground. Your condition was fair. $4,000 is peanuts to an insurance company.

One thing I learned a long time ago, I'm in a business. Saying NO you can't buy my product is the quickest way to induce (create) competition. Charging too much is the quickest way to build strength in your competition.

Heck I have former customers who have started to compete with me because they think I make too much (?????) while they were making more money reselling my product than I was; fascinating business model.

To summarize, you can't say no (absolutely) and you can't jack a price beyond reason, or someone else will create and sell that prospect what they want. I'm in business to stay in business, and while I hear what you are saying, there are realities that must be dealt with.

I only shared the story as a way to illustrate that the "free flow" of information is, for the most part, a one way street between life insurance companies and the people that they use to sell their products. In a captive company they treat agents like mushrooms and brokerage companies will only part with information when the demand for that information is greater than the embarrassment of declining to provide it.

 

[rousemark]

Lots of potentially good conversations there. The most glaring, to me, is the "Greater social good," attitude. For a a multitude of reasons (some good, more bad), many in the tech industry incorporate this concept into their business plans. This is in absolute conflict with the insurance industry, which is as "bottom line" as it gets.

They are intrested in the "social good" as long as it is the other guys sharing thier data with them.... But when asked about sharing their proprietary data.? Then, the social good is not all that important. ..