Today’s customers are more and more self supporting, deciding for themselves when, where and how to interact with the insurer or agents/brokers. They value multi-channel integration and expect all interactions to be fully harmonized. Delivering high-quality service across all customer channels requires a new working model between agents and brokers and the insurer, in response to the changing environment. Ignoring this market demand may lead to profitability challenges; a coordinated, comprehensive response is needed. A better multi-channel strategy includes the direct and online as well as offline channels—agents and brokers and prevents potential channel conflicts.

1. Thought Leadership White Paper
IBM Industry Solutions Insurance
Achieving optimized
customer service for
cross-channel profitability
Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts
Executive summary
Today’s customers are more and more self supporting, deciding for
themselves when, where and how to interact with the insurer or agents/
brokers. They value multi-channel integration and expect all inter-
actions to be fully harmonized. Delivering high-quality service across
all customer channels requires a new working model between agents
and brokers and the insurer, in response to the changing environment.
Ignoring this market demand may lead to profitability challenges; a
coordinated, comprehensive response is needed. A better multi-channel
strategy includes the direct and online as well as offline channels—
agents and brokers and prevents potential channel conflicts.
This paper describes the opportunity available to insurers to com-
petitively differentiate based on a superb integrated cross channel
customer experience, and the levers available to prevent and manage
channel conflicts and create valuable relationships across the complete
value chain. Innovating the insurance enterprise via a consumer-centric
strategy can provide both agility and profitability. This topic should be
seen in the light of an overall multi-channel distribution strategy which
is centered on customer behavior, wants and needs.
Insurers must strike a very careful balance, embrac-
ing and capitalizing on the new while enhancing
currentsuccessfulavenuestostrongbusinessproduction.
In the end, it’s about the customer and doing business
in a way that best meets his needs and preferences.
—Mark Breading, SMA Partner, June 20101
Contents
1 Executive Summary
2 Introduction: Addressing the trust gap
2 The benefits of multi-channel
integration
2 Knowing your customer
3 Creating a single view of the
customer
3 High tech,high touch care
4 The value of agents and brokers
5 Using levers to prevent and manage
channel conflicts
6 Configuring the levers
6 Customer relationship
management
7 Services to customers
8 Services to agents and brokers
8 Product and price
9 Commission and incentives
9 Agent and broker enablement
9 Tools and technology
10 Conclusion
10 About the authors
10 Getting started

2. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 2
Introduction: Addressing the trust gap
The recent economic upheavals have resulted in a trust gap
between insurers, agents and brokers, and their customers.
Despite an increasing number of touch points, more than half
of insurance customers responding in an IBM Institute for
Business Value survey said they did not trust the industry per se.2
Prospects and customers demand multiple ways to interact
with insurers, and insurers must provide direct and online
channels next to traditional agent and broker channels to re-
main competitive. Minimum table stakes require insurers to
provide online quotes, research, applications and claims track-
ing. But simply being available 24 hours a day is insufficient
for strategic advantage.
The 2010 IBM CEO Study3
revealed that insurance industry
“standouts” who outdo the market regularly reinvent custo-
mer relationships. They ‘get closer’ to customers, better under-
stand customer needs and use information to deliver first class
services. Today’s customers are more and more self support-
ing, deciding for themselves when, where and how to interact
with the insurer or agents/brokers. They value multi-channel
integration and expect all interactions to be fully harmonized.
The benefits of multi-channel integration
Delivering high-quality service across all customer channels
requires a new working model between agents and brokers
and the insurer, in response to the changing environment.
Ignoring this market demand may lead to profitability challenges; a
coordinated, comprehensive response is needed. A better multi-
channel strategy includes the direct and online as well as off-
line channels—agents and brokers and prevents potential
channel conflicts.
The customer perceives the insurer as the institution that
meets his wants and understands his needs—in context with
his latest interaction, regardless of point of entry. Customers
expect high-quality services and rich customer experience in
all channels which involve insurers, agents and brokers. Insur-
ers must therefore deliver seamless, personalized and infor-
med interaction across all.
Insurers struggle with the impact of new direct and digital
interaction capabilities on existing relationships. Leaving
agents and brokers out of the scope of a direct/digital channel
strategy may cause resistance, lead to channel conflict and
threaten return. Involve agents and brokers in strategic
collaboration, planning and reward, however, and such
resistance can be bent to cooperation and exhilaration.
Knowing your customer
How well do you know your customer? Traditional relation-
ships between the customer and insurer, or agent/broker, have
changed due to the availability of multiple interaction possi-
bilities. Contact center proliferation, online customer support,
click-to-call, non-traditional agent and broker venues, and
new internet-enabled devices—smartphones, tablet readers
and web-enabled TVs—make it as easy to switch insurers as
switch channels.
A clear majority of insurers realize that understanding their
customers is the key to future success yet fail to accurately
assess their customers’ preferences beyond product purchas-
ing, as demonstrated in Figure 1. When asked what features
for which they believed their customers would pay higher pre-
miums, insurers generally overestimated customer willing-
ness, sometimes by wide margins.
The key question in a customer-centric
approach is not how valuable a customer is
for the insurance company, but what value
customers believetheygetfromaninsurance
relationship.
—IBM Institute for Business Value, 2008.4
“I don’t think the insurance industry and its
customers will change in the long term—and
we know pretty well what they need.”
—Insurance executive, Europe, IBM CEO Study, 2008

3. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 3
Creating a single view of the customer
To obtain a thorough understanding of customers, insurers
must employ customer segmentation, and advanced and pre-
dictive analytics, to create a single view of each customer.
This thorough insight can help strengthen the relationships
with customers, agents and brokers, and provide more
effective customer care across channels.6
• Customer demographics—Defining customers by demo-
graphic preferences, values and attitudes. These character-
istics can determine the way a particular segment interacts
with the insurer. Familiar demographic groups include baby
boomers, “Generation X” and “Gen Y.”
• Value drivers—An IBM study of insurance customers
grouped segments based on values: support-seeking individ-
ualists, product optimizers, uninterested minimalists, price-
sensitive analyzers or relationship-oriented traditionalists.
For more, read the report, Trust, transparency and technology:
European customers’ perspectives on insurance and innovation.7
• Spaces—Another way of learning about your customers is to
be where they are, using the same tools—of particular impor-
tance in the online space. User experience, along with ease of
use and high availability on multiple devices, is crucial.
• Analytical insight—Over time, advanced predictive analytics
can be applied to propose new products and offer advice on
which channel will provide the most satisfying customer exper-
ience. The goal is to capture and enrich relevant, accurate and
consistent information with application data to create informed
interactions with customers. This information must be shared
across the enterprise, agents and brokers.
High tech, high touch care
Depending on the type of contact wanted—personal or more
anonymous—customers and prospects today look for different
interaction possibilities. Further distinction can be made in
face-to-face versus remote personal touchpoints, and exclusive
response versus multiple in anonymous touchpoints. Each
customer will interact in different ways with the insurer, and
most likely there will be a mix of communication styles. Cus-
tomers more and more relate to a brand (the insurance com-
pany) and choose the channel and device of their preference
for the service needed at a certain moment.
Channel groupings
Channels can be grouped by provider:
• Channels provided and managed by the insurance
company
–– Direct internet, including social media
–– Contact centers
–– Branches
–– Advisors
• Independent channels
–– Agents
–– Brokers
–– Banks
–– Aggregators
• Channels provided by business partners
–– Affiliates
–– Retailers
Figure 1: Disconnects about what customers value.5

4. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 4
Insurers must deliver informed and personalized interaction
across all channels and integrate these channels seamlessly—
combining traditional, ‘high touch’ interactions with contin-
uously evolving, ‘high tech’ ones. Customers will reward those
standout insurers that use new or different channels8
while
‘remembering’ them when they ‘channel hop’.
Insurers can evaluate which channels to support as part of the
distribution strategy and the overall company strategy and
goals. There is no one answer about how to deal with all chan-
nels, but insurers who ignore forward channel integration can
find their firm acting as a risk capacity supplier.
High tech, high touch care: Case study
To retain and capture market share while mitigating costs, a
U.S. Fortune 100 insurance company sought to increase
speed to market for its most competitive products. It became
critical for the company to present a single face to the cus-
tomer, regardless of their choice of venue. The online channel
needed to show parity but also innovate and deliver quality
service, quickly, to the marketplace.
The company executed a multi-channel strategy by creating
an approach that explicitly integrates the agent and broker in
the overall strategy. Taking advantage of Web 2.0 technology,
the company engaged IBM to build a nationwide online auto
quote and bind application that would serve as the e-business
channel going forward. More than half of the company’s new
auto customers enter through this channel.
With the new channel and working model in place, the
company has tripled new monthly business and purchase
percentages. The new platform will continue to serve as a
flexible, agile space to realize future growth goals, which
include broadening its agency network and product scope.
The value of agents and brokers
With increased individualism and consumerization9
it may be
expected that direct and online channels will increase in popu-
larity at the expense of agent and broker channels. This expec-
tation might lead to resistance from agents and brokers to sup-
port new channels due to the fear of lost business.
However, research shows that face-to-face contact remains an
important driver for the industry. The advice of an experienced,
knowledgeable agent or broker is appreciated by customer
segments for different reasons. Agents remain therefore an
important distribution channel for insurers for sales.
Figure 2: Multi-channel contact moments between customer and insurer.

5. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 5
Issues with the agent/broker channel still exist, however, that
must be addressed according to the insurer’s overall corporate
strategy for this channel:
• Loss of trust in the industry—With the financial crisis,
consumers lost trust in financial institutions, a reality that
affects insurance. Research by the Dutch Association of
Insurers indicated that trust in insurers is lower than trust
in the economy as a whole.10
• Brand reputations die quickly—Customers have more
trust in social networks and peer opinions. In social networks,
reputations can be repaired with the right mix of communi-
cators and collaborative tools.
• Financial instability—While product margins are lowering,
commissions and incentives are under pressure, and better
earning models are needed.
• Employee retention—A serious challenge for the industry
is the capture and retention of qualified advisors.
Agents and brokers who have a small customer base or emphasize
low margin property and casualty product portfolios will be agi-
tated by multi-channel initiatives. On the other end are agents
and brokers who will embrace the possibility to improve the
overall customer experience. These are typically agents and bro-
kers that focus on more complex products and have a larger
customer base.
Insurers, agents and brokers have to work together to deter-
mine the best business model for service, and which services
to provide in the various channels. The mutual needs of insur-
ance companies and agents and brokers to solve the issues
around multi-channel distribution, become innovative, and
stay in business are obvious.
The common area of agreement is the customer. Regardless
of choice of venue, it is in the best interest of all parties to
manage channel conflicts and present a single face to the
customer. The key to managing channel conflicts is leverage.
Using levers to prevent and manage
channel conflicts
Every insurer must develop a company vision and define a
distribution strategy with clear ambitions and goals. This
requires collaboration with both internal and external stake-
holders to obtain involvement and commitment for the real-
ization of the overall strategy. The insurer can explain the
company’s direction and discuss how to achieve the desired
distribution model, with incorporation of a direct channel.
Insurers, agents and brokers are dependent on each other to
create an alliance that leads to the high customer satisfaction
which empowers competitive advantage. There are many levers
that can be applied to create harmony and cooperation in the
relationships between customer, broker and insurer. The app-
lication of the levers on relationships is shown in Figure 3 and
listed here:
1. Customer relationship management
2. Services to customers
3. Services to agents and brokers
4. Product and price
5. Commissions and incentives
6. Agent and broker enablement
7. Tools and technology
The key to managing insurance channel
conflict is leverage. Figure 3: Levers for managing relations between customers, agents,
brokers and the insurer.

6. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 6
Configuring the levers
The best way to get started configuring the levers is to ask
customers how they want to engage with the insurer and their
agents and brokers. As previously mentioned, the IBM Insti-
tute for Business Value has discovered that there is a large gap
between what customers expect and what insurers think that
customers expect.11
Using customer panels, valuable insight can be gained which
might lead to different views. In these panel sessions customers
can be asked which services they expect through which channel,
and what the channel experience must be. Real customer under-
standing will prevent an ineffective, undervalued distribution
strategy from being implemented, and can specify actual needs
across channels saving valuable time and money. The same
approach can be followed to discover the expectations of
agents and brokers.
Unfortunately there is no one golden rule on how to define a
multi-channel distribution strategy which incorporates a direct
channel while preventing channel conflicts and gaining the
maximum business benefits for all stakeholders. The levers
discussed here, however, provide some means to apply and
deal with channel conflict by describing models and tools to
consider when applying each lever.
Customer relationship management
Customers are in the lead, and a variety of customer infor-
mation is available and captured. Each moment of contact
with a customer in a channel will result in additional data.
All the data available must be analyzed and used to provide
the best customer insight and experience.
Issues with the agent/broker channel still exist, however, that
must be addressed according to the insurer’s overall corporate
strategy for this channel:
• Customer ownership is changing. Traditionally the party
who had first contact ‘owned’ the customer, but today’s
customers desire self control and a point of contact that
already ‘knows’ them. A way to manage this new reality is to
make clear arrangements on how to contact each customer;
segmentation can provide the basic engagement model. New
direct channel customers can be asked to choose an agent for
service or to prefer direct contact with the insurer. The com-
bination of personal relationships combined with advanced
technology can create a strong offering.
• Customer information and insight must be shared.
There is a need for a central repository that is accessible by
the insurer as well as agents and brokers. All use the information
and must update it accordingly. Complimentary to the agents
and brokers channel the insurer must actively reach out across
the borders of the organization to capture information, trans-
actions and communications from other business participants
to create a single and integrated view of the customer.
• A plan of action to direct referrals must be in place. The
insurer might direct leads of online abandonment to high
performing agents and brokers to determine the reason and
provide additional information which might transform browsers
into customers. On the other hand agents and brokers should
be able to refer to the online channel for self-service features.
• Advanced customer analytics is important to understand
customer segments and customer behavior. Analytics can
offer significant competitive advantage when an enterprise
data strategy is implemented.12
A simple example is segmen-
tation on basic customer data like location to determine pre-
ferred agents or brokers who can be aligned to customers.
State-of-the-art tools can be implemented by the insurer and
used in all channels.
• Proactive use of customer insight derived from advanced
analytics is the basis for actions undertaken toward
customers. Actions must be taken by the entity best capable
of bringing about the wanted results—whether this is an
agent, broker or the insurer. Feedback from the actions must
again be available to all channels to be used in other customer
contacts and to maintain a rich customer experience.

7. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 7
Services to customers
Which services will you provide to which customer segment
via which channel at what stage of the insurance value chain?
This is the lever that triggers innovation in customer experience.
• Consistent information and prices across all channels.
Customers expect a wealth of information about products
and services which is easy to understand. Many customers will
begin their research online. Quotation tools are a must-have
function for the online channel. The calculation engines for
quotes must be transparent and deliver the same quotes in all
channels for the same parameters. Customer information and
data provided by the customer must be shared across all channels.
• Service level definition. Based on customer segmentation
various types of services can be offered to customers. Customers
can choose between self service, assisted self service through
a contact center or agents and brokers, or full service through
agents/brokers. Some direction or push can be given based
on the business model and distribution strategy. Concepts
that have been successful in other service industries, such as
memberships levels (in the travel industry) customer groups
(banks often have normal, preferred, and private clients) and/
or loyalty programs can be applied. Banks are reinventing
their branches, and insurers using banks as distribution chan-
nels can take advantage of this to implement innovative so-
lutions. Finally, some customer segments will be prepared to
pay fees for services on top of the premium, but any additional
fees must be transparent.
• Calibrated self service. Assisted self service functions can be
increased to lower workloads. Some administrative tasks can
be performed by the customer that gives him control over his
insurances. For instance, address change or increasing cover-
age of existing travel insurance is easy to complete via assisted
self service applications. Insurers can provide online claim
tools to support the First Notice of Loss process. The tools can
also be used by agents and brokers. A new trend is to provide mo-
bile device applications for easy initial claim registration for auto
accidents. All provided data must be shared across all channels.
• Single view of the customer. A consistent customer profile
must be shared and used across channels, media, divisions
and customer touch points.13
An important enabler for a true
multi-channel experience is an online customer folder acces-
sible in all channels to view and update information by the
customer, agents and brokers, and the insurer (which includes
the company’s contact center). Customer privacy rules and
laws must never be violated to prevent reputation damage.
This customer folder can contain customer information like
quotation, policies and claims, and provides services to work
with the stored information, such as quotation updates or
claim tracking.
• Communication. Customers are more assertive and demand
instantaneous response. The quality of information must be
high, personalized and convenient to receive. The customer
will decide who, how, when and where to contact the insurer.
The channels must support this by telephone, face-to-face
contact and web-enabled tools like chat, co-browsing and/or
social networking. Insurers, agents and brokers can deter-
mine who will respond and how. It must be clear when to
hand over or refer the customer to another channel. Insurers
must be careful with unsolicited communication; especially
electronic communication should be in the context of the receiver.

8. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 8
Services to agents and brokers
With the rise of direct and online channels, agents, brokers
and insurers must define new business models and use advanced
technology to attract customers. Insurers can provide services
to agents and brokers to build strong and successful business relations.
• Solutions that lower workloads and increase efficiency,
including effective tools to do business and collaborate with
the insurer will have a positive impact on agents and brokers.
Through an extranet, the insurer can provide access to infor-
mation, processes and systems. Additional analytic reports on
customers, commission and portfolio can be delivered to agents
and brokers. The customer file, for example, must be available
to agents and brokers as it is to the customer and insurer.
• Innovative, portable tools for advice and quotations, such
as a web-enabled tablet or multi-touch surface table can be
employed to enhance customer experience. The insurer can
provide applications and devices for the agents and brokers
which enable interactivity with the customer.
• Consider leveraging the insurer’s contact center for
agents and brokers. The contact center can support agents and
brokers by providing after-hours service answering phone
calls into the agent’s office. Contact center agents answer the
phone as the individual agency or broker office instead of an
anonymous contact center or message recorder.
• New collaboration tools enable faster and richer two-way
communication between the insurer and agents and brokers.
Tools like blogs, wikis, chat and co-browsing are available to
share information and communicate. These tools can also be
used to communicate with customers.
Product and price
Insurers can differentiate channels on product and price. Part
of an effective multi-channel distribution strategy is to define
which products and prices are offered through each channel.
• Launch a specific brand for the direct or online channel.
It is particular expensive to develop and market the brand
and keep a new brand viable. New web-enabled tools like
social media help launch the brand but can also damage a
brand rapidly. Insurers who do launch a new brand must
optimize operations across brands to compensate for the
additional costs—operations must be white-labeled.
• Products can be adapted to the channel or customer
segment in which they are sold. Price, coverage, conditions,
advice and service are the product components that can be
differentiated for various channels. Direct channels may offer
less complexity to attract customers. Referral to agents and
brokers can be done when a more sophisticated product or
service is wanted. Insurers must make product difference clear
so customers may make informed decisions. Agent and broker
services can also be a product component. The customer can
choose to have support from an agent or broker for an
additional fee.

9. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 9
Commissions and incentives
The lever that may lead to the most discussion between
insurers, agents and brokers will be the reward model for
services provided. With multi-channel distribution and the
ability of customers to randomly switch between channels,
it becomes necessary to define new ways of rewarding chan-
nel partners. Regulatory changes for fee-based services make
it even more challenging.
• Incentives agents and brokers receive should be in line
with the insurer’s long-term strategy. It should reward
multi-channel collaboration and encourage harmony.14
Commissions can be awarded based on new business, cross
sell or up sell, renewal and services provided by the agents
and brokers for the insurer. The height of the commission
must be dependent on the channel, how the channel got
involved, value added and the effort undertaken. For example,
new business through an agent or broker may be awarded
differently than when a lead passed on by the insurer leads
to new business. The role and rewarding of contact center
agents must also be considered.
• Provide non-financial rewards to recognize achievements.
As mentioned before, insurers can pass on leads to high per-
forming agents and brokers. Other options are promotion of
agents or brokers to prospects and customers, or granting
product exclusivity.
• Measure the effectiveness of all channels to determine
incentives. All stakeholders should be involved in defining
key performance indicators (KPIs) for a specific channel.
Once defined, the next challenge is capturing all the data.
Advanced analytics on a repository which records all rele-
vant data is the basis.
Agent and broker enablement
Insurers must enable agents and brokers to do business,
while agent and broker effort must be aligned with the
insurer’s multi-channel distribution strategy.
• Finding the right people to successfully execute the strat-
egy requires recruiting people with the right cultural fit.
Insurers can assist in recruiting through their brand. Social
networks are a new way to connect to potential employees.
• Training and sharing knowledge are important enablers
insurers already use. This should incorporate aspects of multi-
channel distribution, its importance and implementations. Cus-
tomer centricity and customer empathy must be developed to
make every employee a customer and insurers advocate.
Tools and technology
Insurance is an electronic product and therefore IT is ideal
to optimize the processes of insurers, agents and brokers. It
should be determined how IT can be used by to gain the most
successful combination of high touch, high care and high tech.
• Centralization and reuse. For agents and brokers it may
not be possible to implement the advanced technology
needed to remain competitive. The insurer can facilitate IT
by implementing it centrally and allowing channel partners
to make use of it. Reuse of technology across channels is a
best practice to minimize costs and provide a consistent
customer experience across channels. Components of
technology to consider include analytics, electronic bill
presentment and payment (EBPP), e-forms, e-signatures,
customer relationship management (CRM), business process
management and document management.
• Optimization across the enterprise. There is a tight link
between the front and back office of the insurance process.
The complete value chain must be optimized to deliver
superior customer service. To deliver faster responses, straight
though processing capabilities can be implemented by the
insurer, but these capabilities require input accuracy on the
part of the customer or agents and brokers.
“Organizationsthathaveinformationadvan-
tages know how to identify and optimize data
from many sources and use the information
in many different ways. In particular, they
combineinternalandexternaldataintegra-
tion; predictive analytics and econometrics;
data warehousing; data visualization;
layering and advanced systems dynamics and
agent-based simulation to help them under-
stand customer experiences so they can quickly
actonopportunities.Theseactionscanultimately
drive enterprise-wide financial performance.”
—Jamie Yoder, Insurance Networking News, October 13, 201015

10. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 10
• Social business tools. Communication tools can be provided
to agents and brokers, including but not necessarily limited
to click-to-call, co-browsing, text and video chat. Social
networks can be leveraged to create company profiles and
connect to customers as well as agents and brokers.
• Innovative applications. These can be developed for use in
the channels using state of the art technology. Mobile devices
are becoming more integral into the lives of customers, agent
and brokers, and providing appealing applications will lead
to an innovative brand image and improved customer ratings.
The mobile channel also allows the insurer to connect to a
new generation of customers.
Conclusion
Implementation of a multi-channel distribution strategy is key
for insurers, agents and brokers to survive and remain com-
petitive. The potential channel conflicts that can arise must be
dealt with in early stages. Handling channel conflicts is not an
easy topic; there are many stakeholders involved and there is
no clear answer on how to prevent or solve it. Key aspects for
guidance include customer centricity, vision, strategy and
collaboration among all stakeholders.
Insurance business models must innovate to keep up with mar-
ket demands. Insurers that will reinvent themselves, leverage
data and information, and use all available channels will have
a major advantage. Empowered agents and brokers can expect
more opportunities to be successful, and develop long lasting
relations with customers and insurers. In the end, the winner
will be the satisfied customer who receives superior service.
About the authors
Paul de Wildt is an IBM Global Business Services Senior
Managing Consultant for the Financial Services Sector in the
Netherlands. He has worked in various roles within insurance
companies defining and implementing multi-channel solutions
and improving operations. Paul can be contacted by email at
paul.de.wildt@nl.ibm.com.
David Lipien, PMP, MCP is an IBM Global Business Services
Senior Managing Consultant for the Financial Services Sector
in the United States. His specialties include complex systems
integration, release management, internet-based technologies,
wireless technologies and object-based project methodologies.
David can be contacted at lipien@us.ibm.com.
Getting started
The IBM Insurance Industry Framework is an integrated
approach to insurance business transformation. Built by IBM
from years of experience meeting industry-specific challenges,
it holds the vision and blueprints for creating innovative pro-
ducts and services that are intuitive to the user, and building
dynamic value chains using new information and capabilities.
Accelerating innovation and enabling effective change is
highly dependent on the ability to manage effective business
transformation and software delivery. The IBM Insurance
Industry Framework provides strategic solutions organized
around IBM capabilities in critical business areas, or domains,
enabling smarter industries to:
• Deliver enhanced customer care and insight.
• Coordinate and collaborate across distribution channels for
streamlined business development.
• Support a holistic approach to fraud analysis and preven-
tion, compliance, and operational and IT risk.
• Improve operational effectiveness, automation and product-
ivity while strengthening customer loyalty.
The IBM Insurance Industry Framework approach meets the
needs of an insurer for an agile business infrastructure. Apart
from a strong foundation of software that is scalable on dynamic
infrastructure, the Framework brings insurance-specific capa-
bilities in the form of:
• Accelerators and assets—Jump-starts delivery of insurance
solutions and ensures reuse across different projects.
• Methods, architecture and patterns—Provides gover-
nance for configurability and extensibility of solutions.
• Customization—Solution can be tailored to an insurer’s
specific business needs without starting from scratch.
For more information about the IBM Insurance Industry
Framework, please contact your IBM marketing representative
or IBM Business Partner, or visit the following website:
ibm.com/software/industry/insurance/framework.

11. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 11
About IBM Global Business Services
With business experts in more than 160 countries, IBM Global
Business Services provides clients with deep business process
and industry expertise across 17 industries, using innovation
to identify, create and deliver value faster. We draw on the full
breadth of IBM capabilities, standing behind our advice to help
clients implement solutions designed to deliver business out-
comes with far-reaching impact and sustainable results.
For more information
To learn more about the IBM solutions for insurance or the
IBM Insurance Industry Framework, please contact your IBM
marketing representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit the
following website: ibm.com/software/industry/insurance.
For more information on the insurance industry from IBM and
thought leaders and others, visit: ibm.com/services/insurance.
Additionally, financing solutions from IBM Global Financing
can enable effective cash management, protection from tech-
nology obsolescence, improved total cost of ownership and
return on investment. Also, our Global Asset Recovery Services
help address environmental concerns with new, more energy-
efficient solutions. For more information about IBM Global
Financing, visit: ibm.com/financing.
References
1 Mark Breading, Back to the future: customer relationships in
insurance, SMA (Strategy Meets Action), June 2010.
2 Christian Bieck, Mareike Bodderas, Peter Maas and Tobias
Schlager, Powerful interaction points: Saying goodbye to the
channel, IBM Institute for Business Value, December, 2010.
3 Capitalizing on complexity: Insights from the global CEO
study—Insurance industry perspective, IBM Institute for
Business Value, May 2010.
4 Peter Maas, Albert Graf and Christian Bieck, Trust, trans-
parency and technology: European customers’ perspectives on
insurance and innovation, IBM Institute for Business Value,
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5 Christian Bieck and David Notestein, Balancing the scales:
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12. Preventing and managing insurance channel conflicts 12
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