Top 10 Technology Trends 1999-2009

As Tech Decisions celebrates its 10th anniversary, the editors have selected the 10 top technology trends the insurance industry has experienced over the last decade. Here they are with a few thoughts on each from several leading industry analysts.

1 The Web Ten years ago, the Web, as we know and love it, did not exist in the insurance industry. Today, points out Larry Danielson, principal with Deloitte Consulting, it has become the way many insurers do business, not only from a distribution standpoint–the way many insurers sell their products–but the way people actually gain information. “There was a void 10 years ago,” he says. “The Web has filled the void around direct communication. Policy administration and claims are Web-enabled applications that didn’t exist before. It’s opened up whole new ways for companies to process business.”

2 Content Management Ten years ago almost all content was managed via paper and produced manually, recalls Karen Pauli, research director at TowerGroup. “The expense was enormous, and access to content was very labor intensive,” she says. “Today’s content management technology allows content to be an enterprise asset without the access constraints of old.” Pauli believes the definition of “content” will continue to unfold as wikis, blogs, and instant messages drive information into carrier operations. “Enterprise content management will form the base for future knowledge management systems, which will be transformational for carriers,” she says.