Insurance: Strategic IT Investment Critical to Competitive Edge

S.R. Ramaswami

Partner & Executive Vice President

Polaris Software Lab Limited

Welcome S.R.R. How important would you say strategic IT investment is right now?

In this current climate, insurance carriers have a pressing need to adopt a conservative and solvent investment strategy. Insurance carriers should focus their efforts on improving profit from core operations. Operational efficiency is essential to this, requiring improvement in claims management, policy administration and risk management/reinsurance management.

What should be the goals?

There are five key goals insurance carriers should be focusing on: Communication with customers and channels through IVR, ATM and Web; claim processing improvements and transparency; fraud prevention; streamlining operations to get a single view of the customer; and risk management to achieve solvency norms.

Is there anything that companies should avoid doing in this current climate?

Companies should not try to develop custom built or long lead product implementations in this environment. Instead, they should seek to meet their IT needs without disturbing proven legacy implementations.

Any new capabilities that deserve mention?

The ACORD standards-based SOA approach is exciting because the CIOs and the business can introduce more cross-sell offerings and better customer management in a very short timeframe using existing investment in the front office. HPC initiatives also provide a better view of risks for managing risks and reinsurance by familiar Excel technology embedded with simulation. Surface computers is still another capability with potential for companies, with user-friendly, GPS-enabled desktops replacing wooden tables and current desktops.