Don Canning, Director – Insurance, Worldwide Financial Services Group, Microsoft Corporation

“We have to be better able to react to or capitalize on the unknown, and that calls for flexible IT infrastructure, improved collaboration and workflow, and systems that support agility.”

Welcome to our forum Don. What would you say separated the successes from the failures last year?

Two factors certainly appeared to separate the successes from failures: one, staying the course on investments related to improving the customer experience; and two, looking at the current state of CRM and realizing there is an opportunity to invest in CRM to improve customer insight and niche targeting, without the risk associated a decade ago with CRM investments.

Your advice on critical next steps?

It’s tough to select a short list of critical next steps, as there are so many opportunities for carriers today to improve their operations and target growth opportunities, but I think three critical areas are: be able to introduce new products more quickly than competitors; better know and target customers, especially to introduce niche products as a growth strategy; and get on the expansion into Asia Pacific countries for growth, when perhaps growth opportunities are harder to find at home. If you agree with those three, then they all point to investments to improve new product configuration and introduction capabilities; CRM as mentioned earlier, paired with better business intelligence systems; and collaboration and workflow portals, especially for life and annuity products, to take advantage of the wealth management opportunities in Asia.

The more exciting technologies becoming available?

There are a number of exciting areas becoming available for insurers. Certainly, as discussed, the combination of CRM and business intelligence is creating exciting opportunities for improved customer service, customer knowledge, and niche product identification. The advances in portal and workflow technologies also are exciting in that they not only will give us a good boost in personal and organizational productivity again, but we’re seeing where the companies we work with can use those technologies not only for the internal productivity, but they can face those very same assets toward their customers in both personal and commercial areas, improving the customer experience and providing customers with very compelling, and hard to drop, services. My two personal favorites currently are one, Silverlight, which provides one of the key ways we can help customers move to Web 2.0, and two, what our investments in .NET, Silverlight, and mobile devices can do to assist in the growth of microinsurance.

Your parting message of advice?

It goes without saying that the one thing we can’t predict is the future. We don’t know how reserves will perform, what unforeseen risks are around the corner, and how the growth opportunities in new and emerging markets will play out. One thing we can say though is that we have to be better able to react to or capitalize on the unknown, and that calls for flexible IT infrastructure, improved collaboration and workflow, and systems that support agility. There are technologies that can support these overriding needs, and carriers need to make sure their investments are in line with these needs and don’t work against them.