LOMA Talks To Industry Analysts About Life Insurers' IT Investments in 2011

ATLANTA, May 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Life insurance companies are investing more money in 2011 towards modernizing and transforming existing core policy systems, like claims and policy administration, according to a panel of industry analysts interviewed by LOMA's Resource magazine.

Recently, Resource magazine talked with some of the top life insurance analysts in the industry to get some insight into the technology trends, initiatives and challenges that they are seeing. The panel included: Craig Weber, senior vice president, Celent; Don Desiderato, insurance principal, Novarica; Deb Smallwood, founder, Strategy Meets Action; and Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, vice president and distinguished analyst, Gartner.

While the increase is considered modest (4–7 percent) and not back to pre-recession levels, the analysts agreed that life insurers are feeling the pressure to improve efficiencies to remain competitive as the economy recovers.  Most companies are taking the steps to improve IT infrastructure, building better systems to improve data management and analytics and expand distribution support through technology.

"Additionally, insurers are increasing discretionary investments to include new initiatives and emerging technologies. This would include initiatives such as social media, predictive analytics and mobility," said Smallwood.

Looking toward the future, analysts outlined the top IT challenges that insurers face in the coming years.  Leading the list was updating legacy systems and infrastructure to ensure company-wide integration.  This would allow insurers to leverage all of their data through improved analysis techniques, providing critical knowledge of emerging market trends.  The analysts also noted that companies will need to address the growing gap between their current IT staff and the skill set needed to support IT needs now and in the future.  

An article summarizing the analysts' views on spending, new technologies and challenges facing CIOs is featured in an article in the May issue of LOMA's Resource Magazine. The article, entitled: "Technology Horizons," may be read on the public section of the LOMA website, at  http://www.loma.org/research/resource.aspx.

About LOMA:

Established in 1924, with 1,200 plus member companies in over 80 countries, LOMA is committed to a business partnership with its world-wide members in the insurance and financial services industry to improve their management and operations through quality employee development, research, information sharing, and related products and services. To find out more about LOMA and the learning opportunities it offers, visit LOMA's Web site at www.loma.org.

SOURCE LOMA

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