Demand for new claims management modules strong, Gartner says

Overall demand for new claims management modules is strong, but those vendors moving toward suite offerings are poised for more new customer wins than those without such offerings,  according to a recent market report from research and analysis firm Gartner.

The firm’s MarketScope report from 2012, updated in late March 2013, looked at the overall market for property and casualty claims management modules in North America.

The report profiled six companies and their claims management modules, including Accenture, CSC, Guidewire, Innovation Group, Insuresoft and Systema Software,  though the report is not a comprehensive look at all the offerings in the market.

Overall, the demand for claims management systems is strong, according to Gartner analyst Jeff Haner, who authored the report.

“Changing customer expectations about interactions with insurers — especially in terms of demand for new technologies such as mobile devices and immediate availability of policy and claims information — have placed a significant strain on legacy claims systems and existing, often very manual procedures,” Haner wrote.

“Insurers view the implementation of claims management modules as a key investment to support improved customer service levels,” the report added.

However, in the past year, the market has reached a “tipping point,” Haner wrote, as some vendors are struggling to remain competitive with those who have large install bases and are gaining more new customers.

“Those vendors that remain viable are investing in their offerings to close gaps and/or exploit niches in the market, such as growing interest in software as a service (SaaS) deployments, where they are still able to compete,” the report said.

There is also a trend of insurers looking for core system suite offerings, which typically include claims, policy and billing modules, from a single vendor, according to the report. “This shift toward suites has significantly diminished the prospects of some best-of-breed claims vendors without suite offerings,” Haner noted.

The full MarketScope analysis is available on Gartner’s website.