What factors are holding back e-commerce in the insurance industry? Is it user-unfriendly technology? Or is it the reluctance of shoppers to purchase a policy online? The debate has raged for years and is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. Theres little doubt some customer reluctance exists, but industry insiders such as consultant Gil Irwin point out: Part of it is the technology is just now coming together in terms of really being able to integrate with the customer.

Maximizing sales online is a noble goal, says Irwin, managing partner for U.S. IT practice for technology consultant Booz Allen Hamilton, but not entirely realistic. What [the customer experience] should be is to explore online, price online, maybe learn online, he says of insurance Web sites.

Phil Swift, CIO of online insurer Esurance, asserts the toughest part of online selling is the speed. People want rates quickly. Esurance has business rules that call for a user to get rates within two seconds. People arent going to hang around, he says. As we get more complex programs, we are constantly running them through our load [testing] labs to see how long its taking. We are constantly stress testing to see how we are performing.

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