Governance for IT is a pesky problem on which many business and technology leaders spend countless hours and dollars, seeking to improve, streamline, and just plain fix. With the insurance industry spending more than $40 billion annually on IT, any misalignment is costly.

There have been breakthroughs across the industry, with pockets of success. However, as I continue to talk to carriers and vendors, and based on my own experience as a CIO, these pockets are muted by the overwhelming reports of a widening gap between business and IT. The gap is compounded by ineffective IT governance processes, a lack of clear roles and responsibility, and an inability to achieve the right balance of accountability.

Ineffective governance creates a myriad of problems for insurers: misaligned investments, missed milestones, blown budgets, and the delivery of nonstrategic functionality in IT applications that are not related to business plans. It also creates dysfunction within the organization that produces frustration, paralysis, and spinning. Many have been there, and some are experiencing it.