Is Insurance Always a Low-Touch Industry for Mobile?

Insurers across lines of business hold a belief that while creating mobile capabilities is important, those capabilities aren't going to be used that much. In fact, one might say if insurers aren't getting lots of hits through their mobile apps, they're doing a good job elsewhere and not dealing with a high volume of claims, which is good all around.

But there are mobile capabilities that are being created that must come with an expectation of high usage — the ones being created for agents. While there may be a much smaller use base for those applications, it is important that they meet all the requirements of the agent population, as they will depend on them to bring in business for themselves and the insurers they represent. That's what Faraz Syed, president of Keynote DeviceAnywhere, a company that provides mobile testing infrastructure, told me in a conversation last week.

"We're seeing our insurer customer build two kinds of applications," Syed says. "One is for the consumers, which aren't high-touch. But they're also building a ton of applications for their brokers and agents. Those agents need high-touch applications, and that's where the imperative for insurance companies comes in."

[We talked to insurers who busted four other myths about mobile development.]

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio