If theres one point of agreement among industry analysts and those in the trenches at insurance companies, its that IT spending will remain relatively flat industrywide in 2004, as it has in 2003. To wit: The insurers we spoke to all reported seeing that general trend among their peers; TowerGroup projects a stable or modest one- to three-percent increased budget in general; and BearingPoint sees the insurance industry maintaining or even slightly decreasing its IT spending.
Of course, every industry average is made up of companies at all points along the curve. Carriers that are slashing their IT budgets are reluctant to talk about it, compared to those that are maintaining a steady budgetary course or are actually bullish on IT spending.
Some in the latter group, in fact, maintain now is precisely not the time to retrench. Today, youre able to get better programming talent precisely because the economy has struggled. The technology industry also has solved key integration problems, and the technology is falling into place to allow you to cross different platforms and complete the circuit between agent, company, and policyholder in real time, says Ben Salzmann, president and CEO (and former CIO) of ACUITY, Sheboygan, Wisc.
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