Growth, retention top business goals affecting IT investments: Celent

Insurance carriers in the United States are focusing on improving their distribution practices as a key technique for driving growth, but are facing limited growth opportunities as a result of continuing marketplace pressures, suggests a new report issued Wednesday by Celent.

“Growth and retention continue to be the top business goals affecting IT investments. However, in our current hypercompetitive marketplace with continued pressure on rates, growth opportunities for insurers are limited,” says Karlyn Carnahan, a research director with Celent’s Insurance practice and author of the report, Distribution Management System Vendors: North America Insurance 2015.

“Designing, developing, maintaining and managing productive channel relationships can create a sustainable competitive advantage. Distribution management systems provide tools and technologies to help carriers with the administrative aspects of distribution management,” Carnahan says in a statement from Celent, a U.S.-based research and advisory firm that helps financial institutions formulate business and technology strategies.

The report – which includes profiles of 14 distribution management solutions (DMSs), used to manage the different administrative functions involved in managing the distribution channel – found that solutions fall into three categories of functions: compliance, compensation and performance management.

The report also includes an overview of key features and functionality provided in a DMS and profiles for 13 vendors. Each profile offers an overview of the functionality, the customer base, the lines of business supported, the technology, implementation, pricing and support.