Loosening
the Grip
On IT Spending
Four insurance technology experts reveal how close IT-business collaboration works to facilitate IT budgets that foster long- term growth.
By
Carrie
Burns
As has been the case for the past few years, in- surers’ 2012 I T bud- gets are projected to be here, there and ever y where. Some predict a flat budget,
some a decreased budget, and a few predict increased I T spend. The one aspect of
IT budget development that insurers appear to have in common is that CIOs and
IT execs are experiencing a closer budget
collaboration process with the business.
While IT has for years relied on the mandates of the business, the need to work
together has become more apparent, as
a rocky economic environment, a fresh
focus on business growth, and rapidly
changing technology place growing demands on the insurance IT department.
Conducted from October 2010 to January 2011, an IBM-backed study of 3,000
global information leaders—223 of which
were CIOs representing the insurance industry—revealed that CIOs are focused on
employing technology that will help their
businesses grow, versus simply gaining efficiencies or cutting costs.
Gone are the days of employing tech-
nology just to maintain “what is.” Joanne
Correia, managing VP at Gartner, says
organizations, including insurance, will
invest in technology, but “to keep their
jobs, IT must work to make the technol-
ogy work for business. The biggest hole
is between line of business and IT. [Line
of business] won’t invest unless it gets
them new customers and markets or the
ability to increase their valuation. Throw-
ing IT at IT for IT’s sake is just not there
anymore.”
While Gartner projects continued
growth in 2012 for the enterprise software
market—forecasted revenue to reach $288
billion—Correia says the bottom line mes-
sage for IT is to better manage cost controls,
customers and efficiencies in supply chains
help to meet changing business needs.
insurancenetworking.com
July/august 2011 insurance networking news 15
