IT In The Insurance World: Walkin' On Clouds

The first-ever Benelux version of the Insurance Systems Survey is out, looking at insurance technology trends throughout the Benelux region. We found that cloud computing is already in orbit, green IT has yet to lift off, big insurers are not looking to hire, and a healthy minority of insurance companies can't stand their IT outsourcing service. (We even found out why). Our survey sample covers a diversity of market sizes, company types, and countries, and we feel that this sampling, and the insights we garnered from it, are a success. Check out the full text here or read on for a few key highlights.

Trends: the best and the rest

In the realm of IT trends, cloud computing is the runaway favourite, with two-thirds of our respondents reporting that it's on their agendas. Indeed, cloud computing in general is currently enjoying quite an uptick, with Statista recently estimating that the market will reach $160 billion by 2020 (compared to $97 billion in 2015). The confidence in this area might suggest that the long-term bugbear of cloud computing critics—the security issue—is being improved.

Unsurprisingly, there are professional secrecy rules in Luxembourg governing how sensitive data is stored. For a start, it must be within the country, which poses a problem to companies wishing to outsource, since with many cloud storage offerings you don't even know where the data is kept. This could also be an opportunity for data centres in Luxembourg to offer cloud services on a European level.

Another major trend is mobile/apps, as insurers continue to adapt to changing consumer habits. Indeed, the new generation of insurance clients are being raised in a world where smartphones and wifi are omnipresent, and for whom the concept of "office hours" is a relic of the past. Data analytics was also mentioned by many of the survey respondents, suggesting that opportunities within big data are perhaps not yet being taken full advantage of.

In contrast, the Internet of Things (IoT) did not rank high on the list of IT priorities, and green IT, last in line, hardly qualifies as a trend at all.

The geeks downstairs

Unlike what previous surveys told us, we have found that a company's size does not appear to influence the relative size of its IT department, which on average makes up about 11% of the total number of employees. Previous data had shown that small- and mid-sized insurers tended to have relatively smaller IT departments compared to large companies.

Our...