Ellen Carney

Principal Analyst Serving eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

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Ellen is a principal analyst serving insurance eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals. Her research focuses on the eBusiness strategies, technologies, adoption trends, and best practices of property and casualty, life, group, and health insurers globally. Ellen works with insurance clients to understand how market forces are changing how consumers, groups, and distributors engage with insurance carriers and the role that technology plays in maximizing new opportunities.

Ellen most recently served the technology sales enablement role, writing research and providing advisory on how technology vendors sell and market their solution value to industry buyers, with a particular focus on the insurance, banking, and securities industries.

Previous Work Experience

Ellen brings nearly 20 years of experience in delivering technical and professional services to clients in a variety of industries and markets. She joined Forrester from ThruPoint, a New York-based professional services firm, where she was a principal consultant focusing on IT service business strategy to Global 100 clients in securities, banking, and insurance; telecommunications; and media and entertainment. Before joining ThruPoint, Ellen was a director and principal analyst for Gartner, following the infrastructure services market, including consulting, support, and managed services. Prior to her Gartner experience, Ellen spent seven years in a variety of sales enablement and support roles at the former Cabletron Systems, including strategic bid and proposal management; inclusion on approved vendor lists for corporate and global accounts; and master sales and GSA contract management.

Ellen has presented on vertical industry and role-based marketing in a variety of Forrester and client events. She has been cited in a number of publications, including Forbes, Fast Company, The Wall Street Journal, Best's Review, Insurance & Technology, and American Banker.

Education

Ellen received a B.S. in economics from Southern New Hampshire University.

Print Bio

Ellen Carney

Principal Analyst Serving eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

Read Ellen's blog posts

Previous Work Experience

Education

Ellen received a B.S. in economics from Southern New Hampshire University.

Research Coverage

Ellen Carney's Research

Most RecentMost Popular

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: Case Study: Geoffrey Insurance Boosts Customer Engagement With Personalized Interactive Video

Personalized Video Increases The Value Of New Customer Communications

September 17, 2018 Nick Barber, Ellen Carney

Insurers struggle to communicate effectively with customers. In an industry rife with dense language and even denser business processes, how can digital business leaders engage customers and sustain their attention to ensure that communications have the intended impact? The UK's Geoffrey Insurance turned to personalized videos to onboard new customers, increase customer engagement, and improve operating performance.
For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: Help Customers Connect With You When They Need Answers To Insurance Questions

Digital Feature Fix: Offer Customers Both Self-Service And Human Help

August 1, 2018Ellen Carney, August Du Pont

Digital insurance teams have made their firm's sites and apps much easier to use to speed up quoting, buying, and servicing for customers. But customers will always have questions, even when visiting the best-designed insurance sites. Digital teams must get customers' questions answered quickly or risk losing potential new customers to a competitor that can provide the needed help. This brief explains how digital insurance teams can expand the contact options available to customers and make them easier to use and illustrates good practices from leading firms.
For Customer Experience Professionals

REPORT: The US Auto And Home Insurers Customer Experience Index, 2018

How US Auto And Home Insurers Earn Loyalty With The Quality Of Their Experience

June 20, 2018Ellen Carney, Faith Adams, August Du Pont

How well do leading auto and home insurers earn loyalty with the quality of their customer experience (CX)? This year, we reveal the complete rankings of 19 insurers that were analyzed as part of the US CX Index. We also unveil trends in CX quality and the role that emotion plays in CX. Customer experience professionals can use this report to inform their ongoing improvement efforts.
For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Auto Insurance Wave™: US Mobile Sites, Q2 2018

US Auto Insurers Undermine Their Websites' Rich Functionality With Cumbersome Navigation

June 18, 2018Ellen Carney, Gina Bhawalkar

To win and retain customers, auto insurers offer mobile websites that let a vehicle owner research and buy their products, as well as get service from them in a moment of need. To gauge how helpful these sites are to customers, we evaluated those of six US private passenger auto (PPA) insurance mobile sites. This report lays out where these companies excel — and where they lag — and what digital business strategy and customer experience professionals can learn from them.
For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: Case Study: Pinnacol Assurance Fights Disruption By Launching A Digital Venture

How Pinnacol Launched Digital Subsidiary Cake In 12 Months

June 12, 2018Ellen Carney

No insurance company is immune from the impact of digital transformation. Established insurers are dealing with an onslaught of forces that range from escalating customer expectations to the hundreds of monoline disruptors and big tech firms like Amazon and Google exerting growing influence as platforms. These forces spurred the Colorado workers' compensation insurer Pinnacol Assurance to launch a new digital subsidiary, Cake. This case study examines how the century-old insurer beat expectations and deadlines in its quest to outrun these emerging threats.

For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: The Future Of Insurance Is Mobile

February 2, 2015Ellen Carney

Smart, portable devices in pockets, purses, and now wrists are opening up a series of opportunities and challenges for insurance eBusiness. The unrelenting pace of innovation means that mobile insurance strategies must be dynamic and fluid to stay relevant. This report lays out Forrester's vision of how digital insurance teams can capitalize on the opportunities being created by mobile devices. This is an update of a report originally published on September 28, 2012; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy, and we substantially revised this edition to factor in new ideas.
For B2B Marketing Professionals

REPORT: Industry Essential: The US Insurance Market

August 10, 2007Ellen Carney, Marc Cecere

The US insurance industry is the fifth largest industry sector in the country. The industry generated almost $1.4 trillion in revenues in 2002, yet, on average, it earns less than a penny for every premium dollar received. Insurance is regulated at the federal and state level, and the need to comply with 51 regulatory bodies drives a number of IT solution considerations. What do you need to know when selling technology goods and services into the US insurance market? This market overview describes the structure of the US insurance industry, its business and technology trends, industry leaders, strategic technology suppliers, and technology investment forecasts. It addresses the property and casualty, life and annuities, and reinsurance segments. Health insurance will be treated in a separate document.
For B2B Marketing Professionals

REPORT: Industry Essential: The US Retail Banking Market

May 19, 2008Ellen Carney

At the end of 2007, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)-insured banks in the US held nearly $6.9 trillion in deposits, supported more than 73,000 branches, and employed 1.8 million people. With changing demographics, increasing choices for consumer financial services, and pressures to reduce costs, retail banks are looking to improve the efficiency and productivity of their assets and create enduring relationships with customers. Even in a challenging economic climate, the banking industry is more dependent on information technology than ever before. How should vendors position their technology to buyers and influencers in the US retail banking market? Forrester's Industry Essential report explains the structure of the US retail banking industry, its business and technology trends, and technology investment forecasts.?
For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: The Digital Insurance Imperative

Vision: The Digital Insurance Strategy Playbook

April 26, 2017Ellen Carney, Oliwia Berdak

Digital technologies will change the insurance industry irrevocably over the coming decade. New entrants will disrupt the value chain. Vertically integrated firms will be too slow to adapt. Firms that fail to change will find their very existence under threat. Digital insurance strategy leaders must reinvent their companies to become fundamentally digital, from underwriting through to claims settlement. Insurers will differentiate based on core competencies around rapid product development, intense personalization, the ability to drive volume through distribution, and back-office operational efficiency.
For eBusiness & Channel Strategy Professionals

REPORT: The Mobile Insurance Metrics That Matter

October 6, 2015Ellen Carney

Mobile is now serious business for digital insurance teams, and it's rare to find an insurer that doesn't offer at least one mobile service to help customers research, buy, and service their insurance needs. For mobile strategies to pay off, insurance eBusiness professionals need to provide management with the insights and metrics that will justify current mobile investments and validate future ones. This report outlines the need for metrics to drive the actions required to ensure the success of a mobile insurance strategy. This is an update of a previously published report; Forrester reviews and updates it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.