Report Summary:

Amidst the economic crisis, insurers continue to look to IT to be part of the solution. The mandate is not to cut IT but to use IT to improve the business and help it ride out the storm.

Nonetheless, budgets are under pressure, with 2/3 of life/annuity insurers and 1/3 of property/casualty insurers surveyed cutting budgets from earlier expectations of 2009 spending.

Business/IT partnership remains strong at most insurers.

Policy administration systems, business intelligence, and agent portals remain top priorities, but many life/annuity insurers are delaying major investments due to market conditions.

Although trust in strategic vendors remains generally high, many insurers are seeking pricing concessions from incumbents.

Interest in outsourcing, while not surging, is growing slightly.

This report is based on a survey of 45 insurer executives, conducted during March 2009.

CONTENTS

Introduction…2
2009 Budgets…3
Effects of Economic Crisis on Technology Planning…4
Top Projects for 2009…6
Projects Postponed…7
Self-Diagnosing Internal Capabilities…8
Vendors and Outsourcing…10
Conclusions…12
About Novarica…13