1. Most insurers plan modest budget increases

Spending ratios are up slightly to 3.8%, from 3.5% or 3.6% in previous years. A small percentage of respondents reported that budgets will be "much higher." Average IT spending ratios remain consistent with historical norms, of which Novarica hypothesizes that budget increases are tracking premium growth rather than exceeding it.

2. Supporting growth continues to be a dominant strategic goal of insurance IT spending

Growth and operational effectiveness are the key drivers of IT strategy development, Novarica reports, with competitive parity also ranking highly. Of average importance is expense reduction, compliance pressures and economic environment. Not registering on the radar? Insurers rarely factor in recent operating losses and investment losses when planning 2015′s IT strategy.

3. Less than half of insurers are happy with their current IT capabilities

Insurers remain critical of thier technology, with the exception of financials and IT security. CRM and customer portal capabilties are considered weak, and more than one third of insurers say that their analytics technology is in need of considerable improvement.

Novarica maintains that this self-assessment illustrates the current state of insurance IT and indicates why most current investments are "focused on getting insurers up to the bar rather than on leapfrogging competitors or on innovation."

4. Core policy administration remains the most active area for replacement

Nearly 40% of insurers are in the process of or are planning a policy administration system replacement in 2015. More than 80% of large P&C insurers rank it in their top three priorities.

Agent and customer portals are business intelligence enviroments are less likely to be replaced, but insurers are planning enhancements in these areas.

5. Business intelligence is the most active area for enhancement

More than half of the insurer CIOs are planning major enhancements in reporting, data repositories and analytics.

For P&C insurers, business intelligence and anlytics have surpassed distributor ease of doing business as the most commonly requested capabilities.