Insurance Networking News - September 2011

Cover Story

As the primary point of account- ability for information technology assets throughout the insurance en- terprise, the care and maintenance of an IT asset management (ITAM) program is an inherent part of the IT executive’s job.

Historically, the use of integrated software solutions and processes that track the procurement, deployment and lifecycle of hardware and software assets has made IT asset management, well, manageable. But a changing landscape teeming with mobile handhelds of all sizes and types is making that management difficult. Indeed, recent statistics (see “By the Numbers” on page 10) buttress the fact that mobile technologies, including smartphones, tablets, notebook computers and PDAs, and their attendant storage devices, such as USB drives or SD cards, have come to represent a challenge to asset managers that insurers cannot afford to ignore.

Thus, for the insurer’s ITAM program, the proliferation of mobile devices and associated apps means organizing chaos—from creating corporate usage policies that cover everything from the types of devices being made available to users, to how and when they can use them (and for what purpose), to the corporate resources (network, applications) they include, and of course, to the security measures that will overlay all usage.

As a result, ITAM has taken on a different, albeit larger,
role within the insurance organization. And not surpris-
ingly, insurers are, in some cases, having difficulty keeping
up. “Insurers are looking at the thin end of the wedge in
terms of corporate ownership of [mobile] hardware,” says
Matt Josefowicz, insurance practice lead at Novarica. “For
the first time in history, mobile computing is outperforming
personal hardware in terms of user experience.”
Yet, says Josefowicz, there’s a certain lack of urgency
and momentum exhibited by insurers to apply a variety
of mobile technologies to their formal ITAM programs.
For some, it’s a matter of evaluating whether their cur-
rent mobile strategy is good enough or needs to be re-
vised based on additional features/functionality of newer
devices, notes Josefowicz. “People are still committed to
their original mobile platform (Blackberry still being the
most common corporate mobile device used by insur-
ers),” he says. “For the new tablets, it’s something of a
‘wait and see.’”
Brad Tomkins, director of technology services for in-
surance and technology services firm The Seibels Bruce
Insurance Group, concurs. His insurance clients are still
investigating the merits of making mobile devices avail-
able and if so, incorporating them into their ITAM pro-
grams. “They use it in a research & development fashion,”
Tomkins says. “For example, they are evaluating various
tablets to determine how they can use them for every-
thing from expediting claims handling, to development
of in-house applications that let customer experience
managers get a real-time snapshot of what’s going on in
their call centers.”
Josefowicz agrees that tablets offer more utility in most
circumstances than do phones, but doesn’t see the devic-
es supplanting the smartphone any time soon. “Its form
factor is different; it’s still a difficult device to have with
you at all times. It’s not a pocket device,” he says.

THE PERSONAL CHALLENGE
At Secura Insurance, an Appleton, Wis.-based provider of
personal and commercial lines insurance, tablets are not
yet the device of choice, but may be in the future as IT is
asked to support them. The company is currently “test-
ing the waters” with tablets says Ernie Pearson, Secura’s
IT director, applications development. With the excep-
tion of a few netbooks, the “weapon of choice” is still the
venerable Blackberry, which has grown in popularity to
include not just executives, but also mobile workers, field
adjusters and field underwriters, he says.

Continued on page 10

Weathering
Mobile Downpour the
The exponential growth of mobile devices and applications
is forcing insurance IT asset managers to ask new questions
about their place within the insurance organization, their
safe use by employees, and even their efficacy.