Forty-one percent of large p&c insurance carriers and 23percent of midsize carriers rank upgrades to claims systems amongtheir top three projects for 2012, according to a report releasedby Novarica.

 The report, Novarica Market Navigator: USProperty/Casualty Claims Solutions 2012, also estimates thatp&c insurers completed between 50 to 60 claims systems newsales last year, and 65 to 75 will be selected in 2012. Like otherNovarica Market Navigator reports, it provides an overview of thecurrent solution provider marketplace and profiles 34 vendorsolutions.

"P & C carriers are looking for ways to drive growth andimprove operations, and claims is one of the areas they areinvesting in," says Karlyn Carnahan, Novarica principal and anauthor of the report. "It's clear that claims plays a critical rolein the overall success of the carrier."

For many carriers, claims solutions were installed twenty yearsago or more, making them hard to maintain and rendering the claimshandling process a labor-intensive one. Whereas carriers had alimited number of choices for modern systems a few years ago, thereis now a broad range of claims solutions available.

These newer solutions include features that support automatedprocessing and management of claims functions, and provideintegrated workflow management, and task or process management.With this large number of solutions now in the marketplace, thesurge in plans for modernization projects comes as no surprise,according to Carnahan.

The report is based on information collected directly from thesolution providers using Novarica's proprietary universal RFI, andincludes profiles of vendor solutions from Accenture, AGO InsuranceSoftware, Aon eSolutions, B2-USA, Brightwork, CGI, Cover-AllTechnologies, CS STARS, CSC Exceed Claims, CSC RISKMASTERAccelerator, DAVID Corporation, DRC, eBaoTech, Exigen, FINEOSCorporation, Finys, Guidewire, IDP, Innovation Group, Insuresoft,Insurity, ISCS, JW Software, MajescoMastek, Maximum Processing,MphasiS-Wyde, PCIS, Ravello Solutions, SAP, StoneRiver ClaimsStream, StoneRiver Claims Workstation, StoneRiver PowerSuite,Systema, TCS, Tropics Software Technologies, and VikaranSolutions.

It is the latest report in the Novarica Market Navigator series,which provides an overview of a solution provider marketplace toassist insurers in drawing up their shortlists of potentialproviders based on vendor market position and offering details.