As the Asian insurance market continues to grow, it faces constraints and opportunities not unlike their North American competitors. A recent report by Boston-based research and consulting firm
Based on interviews with 25 insurance CIOs from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, India, South Korea, and Thailand in March and April 2011, the annual survey, points to insurers’ increased spending on distribution, notes Wenli Yuan, senior analyst with Celent’s Asia Financial Services Group and coauthor of the report. "The major channel priority for technology investment is still agent/tied salesforce. With regard to technology investment, Internet, bank, and mobile channels are more important to Asian insurers compared to 2010."
Cloud computing and mobile applications are being increasingly used in the Asia-Pacific region, adds KyongSun Kong, analyst with Celent's Asia Financial Services Group and coauthor of the report.
In its report, “2011 Asia Insurance CIO Survey: Pressures, Priorities, and Practices,” Celent notes that IT spend is on the increase as more than 60% of the survey participant companies increased their IT budget for 2011. Additionally, half of the survey participant companies will spend 1% to 3% of gross written premium on IT in 2011.
Further, Asia is moving from build to buy, notes the report. More than 40% of companies surveyed prefer an end-to-end solution from a single vendor, while 30% of companies prefer assembling best-of-breed components from multiple vendors. According to the report, 26% of companies surveyed said they prefer custom builds with development partners and only 22% of companies prefer custom builds by internal IT staff.
