As Tech Decisions celebrates its 10th anniversary, the editorshave selected the 10 top technology trends the insurance industryhas experienced over the last decade. Here they are with a fewthoughts on each from several leading industry analysts.

1 The Web
Ten years ago, the Web, as weknow and love it, did not exist in the insurance industry. Today,points out Larry Danielson, principal with Deloitte Consulting, ithas become the way many insurers do business, not only from adistribution standpoint–the way many insurers sell theirproducts–but the way people actually gain information. "There was avoid 10 years ago," he says. "The Web has filled the void arounddirect communication. Policy administration and claims areWeb-enabled applications that didn't exist before. It's opened upwhole new ways for companies to process business."

2 Content Management
Ten years ago almostall content was managed via paper and produced manually, recallsKaren Pauli, research director at TowerGroup. "The expense wasenormous, and access to content was very labor intensive," shesays. "Today's content management technology allows content to bean enterprise asset without the access constraints of old." Paulibelieves the definition of "content" will continue to unfold aswikis, blogs, and instant messages drive information into carrieroperations. "Enterprise content management will form the base forfuture knowledge management systems, which will be transformationalfor carriers," she says.

3 Predictive Analytics
The blending ofpredictive analytics engines along with business intelligence anddata strategies have changed the landscape of the insuranceindustry, according to Deb Smallwood, founder of SMA. "Insurers noware able to align the right product to the right customer to theright distribution channel; expand risk appetite and price withmore precision; process, adjust, and report claims more timely andthoroughly; and manage financials in real time looking forwardrather than through the rear-view mirror," she says. "This is onlythe beginning of the infinite possibilities that can be achieved byleveraging these tools and our internal and external datasources."

4 Enterprise Risk Management
Before theacronym ERM existed, IT's role in this arena began as availability,continuity, and disaster recovery initiatives, explains RodTravers, senior vice president of Robert E. Nolan Co. "ERM hasevolved to encompass the realm of corporate risk management, whichincludes liability protection, people and behaviors, process designand adherence, operations resiliency, technology, finance,compliance, and perhaps more, depending on how you define ERM," hesays. "IT's role today is to: a) provide a reliable, resilienttechnology infrastructure; b) enable the organization to apply theright technologies to support ERM; c) maintain a vigil on evolvingERM technology solutions, and implement those that materiallyimprove ERM programs."

5 Disaster Recovery
Prior to theSeptember 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and thePentagon, disaster recovery was all about making certain computersystems were backed up at a secure, off-site location, according toPauli. "This was an IT project, and line-of-business heads were notinvolved," she says. "Business interruption really was not onanyone's radar." The events of 9/11 illustrated the degree to whichbusinesses have to establish alternatives for data access,work-site locations, service access, and hardware, adds Pauli."Hurricane Katrina reinforced the imperative everyone–from agentsand brokers right to carrier home offices–must plan for large-scaleoperational shifts to alternate locations, including workersworking out of their homes."

6 Outsourcing
The development of talentwithin IT operations has been a major improvement for insurancecarriers, Danielson maintains. In particular, that includes thearrival of outsourcing. "Ten years ago, technology companies weresaying they didn't have enough talent," says Danielson. "There area lot of very smart folks throughout the world, and we can't bemyopic by looking just at things in the United States. As we lookedat people who can do things in all countries of the world, westarted looking at 24/7 applications of talent. As you are able toaggregate people with certain talents, we see the advent of centersof expertise popping up through companies that have set upoperations in different geographies."

7 Business Process Management
BPM hasbecome a natural fit for the insurance industry, points out MattJosefowicz, director of insurance for Novarica. The two coreprocesses of insurance–underwriting/issuance and claims–arecomplex, multiparty processes that require accessing andinteracting with a wide variety of documents and data. "Optimizingthose processes and making them more transparent to managers,distribution partners, and customers is key to creatingefficiencies and improving service levels," he says. "Few insurersreally have adopted an enterprise BPM platform that manages mostaspects of their business, but many have created underwriting,servicing, or claims process environments using BPM tools."

8 Compliance and Security
Sarbanes-Oxleydramatically changed how financial processes are structured,automated, and monitored, notes Travers. "IT was thrust intoproviding a new level of support and greater responsibility, and insome cases, the CIO/CFO relationship was strained beyond what iscommonly a tense balance," he says. IT leaders found a way to turncompliance to a positive by implementing cost-saving processautomation tools and putting their support behind process retoolingefforts. Security always has been a challenge and has balloonedinto a huge problem. "With so many points of access, so manyendpoints, and so many opportunities for breaches to occur, ITnever can completely mitigate all the risks," says Travers.

9 Aging IT Systems and Work Force
Mostinsurers are faced with the lethal combination of the aging IT workforce and legacy systems, explains Smallwood. "Many insurerscontinue to nibble away at the issue through legacy replacement andmigration plans, staff augmentation, and formal documentation, butthis continues to be a high-risk area," she says. "Gen Y will notlikely maintain those COBOL programs, and the extensive knowledgethat is trapped in the baby boomers' heads soon will be gone.Unbundling legacy code into technology tools and developingenterprise architecture with IT road maps are the best ways totackle this challenge."

10 Service-oriented Architecture
SOAbecame a top-of-mind issue for insurer carriers in 2002 and 2003,according to Josefowicz. "The true value of SOA for the insuranceindustry has been tactical rather than strategic," he says. "Bycreating reusable integration points using SOAP/XML, insurers havereduced the complexity and cost of integration by as much as halfor more. SOA has been a critical tool for insurers to deploy newbusiness capabilities over the past five years."