Technological Changes in IT and Their Influence on Insurance: The Change Ahead (I)

Abstract

For decades the insurance industry has been using computer systems to optimize its business. From simple list processing in the early 1960s we made our way over batch applications to online systems based on databases in the 1970s. We dealt with the PC revolution in the 1980s and mastered the challenge of client/server in the 1990s. The focus of our work was very much directed to the optimization of our internal processes, the reduction of our expenses, and the automation of previously manual steps. We were striving to improve efficiency and increase productivity: cost cutting was a focal point in our strategies. We have achieved excellent results in that area. We even used these techniques to improve the productivity of our IT departments by using standards for the architectures of our computer applications. Reuse of components reduced the expenses for development and increased the speed of deployment. Portability enabled the use of the same application both on the central mainframe and on the laptop of the sales agent. In this way a quote for a specific coverage is calculated on the laptop and the mainframe with the identical software. A lot of applications in the insurance industry have been developed over years and are still heavily used today. We still allocate a significant part of our IT staff both to provide more functionality and to optimize these applications from a technical point of view.