More than 50 members of the Novarica Insurance TechnologyResearch Council, a moderated knowledge-sharing community forinsurer CIOs and senior IT executives, met last week to discuss theissues they face as CIOs in the industry.

Among the points discussed at the meeting were:

• Despite the hype around new areas like mobile, social media,and cloud, the story of insurer IT budgets and projects for 2012 isone of continuity.
• Insurers are investing, through replacements and enhancements,in delivering the business capabilities needed to support growth,achieve competitive parity, and improve operationaleffectiveness.
• Insurers' systems are clearly not up to the challenge of thecurrent business environment. In recent research conducted amongthe more than 300 insurer CIO members of the Novarica InsuranceTechnology Research Council, most insurers rate nearly half oftheir systems below the level of "acceptable."
• The need to enable business capabilities drives IT strategy.Top priorities vary widely, but top priorities generally includesupporting business intelligence and data analytics, reducingoperating expenses, increasing speed to market, and improvingdistributor ease of doing business.

Novarica published a report presenting some of the key pointsfrom these discussions along with relevant research.

"The Novarica council event is the only place where the door isshut and CIOs from around the industry speak openly and honestlyabout how to solve real world problems," says council member StuartTainsky, CIO of PURE.

Council members at the meeting represented a wide swath of theindustry, from top-tier multinationals and national insurers toregionals and start-ups, across all lines of life/annuity/benefitsand property/casualty, including specialty and workers' comp.

Also at the meeting, Novarica announced the Novarica ResearchCouncil Impact Awards, which will honor best practices across abroad range of areas important to insurer CIOs, includinginnovation, business impact, efficiency, and others.

Novarica will be collecting case studies from council membersand other insurers throughout the second quarter of this year andthey will be reviewed by a nominating committee of 11 Councilmembers.

The awards will be handed out this fall. More information andsubmission forms are online.