Today, Chief Information and Technology Officers are pressuredto automate and modernize systems while staying within theconstraints of budgets that have shrunk in recent years. Tuesday’sCIO/CTO Roundtable focused on how technology executives aremeeting that challenge.

“Our presenters are people who have “been there, done that,”says roundtable coordinator Ernie Pearson, IT director -applications development, SECURA. “These sessions are very muchpeer-to-peer. It’s not theory; it’s examples. It’s not hypotheticalsituations; it’s case studies. It’s how we applied technology, howit worked, and what lessons were learned.”

Although CIOs and CTOs face common challenges, each deals withunique scenarios that are influenced by different businesspriorities and impacted by different markets, budgets, and companymakeup.

“We sought out and found a variety of speakers for thisroundtable, representing large multiline carriers as well assmaller, single-product carriers,” Pearson says. “We looked for areal diversity of perspective and experience.”

The roundtable opens with a two-part session. The first part,“Defining Today’s Insurance Economic Environment,” features FrankConde, chief investment strategist, Prime Advisors, Inc. Conde willprovide insights into how the insurance industry is faring and whatmay be coming next in terms of economic trends, profitability, andexpense pressures. This presentation will provide a high-impactoverview of the economic state of the insurance industry, includingspecific details for life, health, and property/casualtyinsurers.

“The key takeaway will be learning how companies areresponding to the economic climate,” Pearson says. “Have carriersbecome more cautious? Are they looking for a more immediate ROI andsteering clear of things that are abstract or that offer a lessclearly defined benefit? How are areas such as outsourcing beingaffected? Those are all topics attendees will be interestedin.”

Conde’s remarks will set up the second half of the session,focused on “Cost Justifying New Technology Investment.” Moderatingthe session is Mike Foerst, vice president information systems andCIO, Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance. Panel members includeDoug Allen, vice president/director of information technology,State Auto; Victor Carneiro, director, information systems/CIO,CompSource; and Barrie Parker, CTO, Pharmacists Mutual InsuranceCompany.

“With constant pressure to the business applied by economicchallenges, strategic objectives, and competing priorities, CIOsare often asked to justify the cost of new IT investments,” Pearsonsays. “On one hand, companies are looking for ways to improveoperational efficiency or even to find that ‘game changing’ projectthat will transform the way they do business. But on the otherhand, they may be reluctant to make an investment in technologiesthat can deliver those capabilities if there is not a clear costjustification.”

The next session looks at “Information Overload” and the needfor insurers to become data-driven. “One of the criticisms of ourindustry is that we collect a ton of data, then don’t turn aroundand make effective use of it,” says Pearson.

Insurers continue to struggle not only with the sheer volume ofdata, but with data that comes in different formats and resides inmany different places. This session will detail proven applicationsof tools that turn data into actionable information, such asbusiness intelligence and predictive analytics solutions.

“There has been strong interest in business intelligenceprojects that allow insurers to organize and query the data so thatthey can drill down and determine where they are making money andwhere they are losing money. This is being done not just at theproduct or geographic level, but at an increasingly fine level ofgranularity,” Pearson says.

Moderating the session is Jeff Bemis, CIO, SECURA InsuranceCompanies. Panelists include Paul Friedmann, divisional senior vicepresident, Great American Insurance; Al Parisian, CIO, MontanaState Fund; and Paul Ayoub, CIO, Hastings Mutual InsuranceCompany.

The session’s luncheon program will provide attendees theopportunity to learn more about analytics. Featuring Craig Bedell,worldwide industry executive, insurance business analytics, IBM,the luncheon will detail the role analytics technology plays intoday’s business of insurance and provide examples of whereleading-edge systems are now focused.

Predictive analytics is proving its worth to help companiesoperate better at both the strategic and tactical level.Strategically, analytics are essential to the highly tiered ratingstructures used by leading carriers. Tactically, analytics cansupplement the years of experience and knowledge of expert staff byusing algorithms to determine future account performance, claimsoutcomes, and more.

After the luncheon, the roundtable will shift its focus fromCIOs and CTOs to provide a perspective on how CEOs view technologyand its strategic use in the insurance enterprise.

“The way the IT function is perceived and how it can be usedstrategically differs from the CIO to the CEO suite,” Pearson says.“At some carriers, technology is an afterthought—an enabling tool.At other companies, technology is viewed as a differentiator. Wewant to look at ways that both of these viewpoints can createsuccessful technology outcomes for insurance carriers.”

Matthew Josefowicz, partner and managing director, Novarica,will moderate the session. Panelists include Mark A. Robison,chairman and president, Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company; andTom Mulligan, CEO, Western World Insurance Group.

Lastly, the CIO/CTO roundtable will feature a look at emergingtechnologies. Going beyond the buzzwords, the final session willfocus on how to use emerging technologies to achieve tangiblebenefits. Topics may include cloud computing, software as a service(SaaS), social networking, and more.

Moderator Bill Freitag, CEO and managing partner, AgileTechnologies, will be joined by panel members Matthew McKernan,President, Vertafore Carrier & MGA Markets; Sloan Plumer, ChiefTechnology Officer, Computer Sciences Corporation; RobertPuccinelli, Director of Financial Services Solutions Marketing,EMC; and Andy Scurto, President, ISCS, Inc.

“This session is not focused on any one product, or even any onetype of technology,” Pearson says. “We will take a customer-focusedapproach and look at ways insurers can use emerging technology tosell products, deliver information, and better servecustomers.”