For businesses, IoT offers a huge opportunity to harness data, optimise their operations and deliver ever more relevant experiences to their customers. It also represents a significant challenge. By connecting more and more devices to one another, businesses are leaving themselves exposed to security threats in ways never previously thought possible.

Insurers are being challenged to offer new services and products to their customers, delivered in new ways. This is already having a significant impact on the make-up of IT departments, and is set to further ramp up in the months and years ahead.

IoT can dramatically improve a huge number of the ways in which we work and live. Yet for every silver lining, there’s a cloud.

Insurance is a careful balancing act. Since it’s typically based on a risk-distribution model, individuals or companies are grouped together based on certain behaviours or attributes, and premiums are charged accordingly. Charge too much, and potential customers will look elsewhere. But if you charge too little, or if there are more claims than anticipated, then it’s the insurer that will feel the pinch.

The insurance industry is being transformed, because people and businesses want different things from their insurers than they did in the past. They’re looking for insurers that offer greater personalisation, ultra-flexibility, increased convenience, and better value for money – all this, without making any compromises on their cover or taking on additional risk.

Innovation is a baseline expectation for all organisations. It’s something that every business strives for, yet many struggle to achieve. What does it really mean to be innovative?