In an industry as conservative as insurance, it shouldnt come as a revelation researchers arent expecting many changes in the marketplace over the last half of this decade.

Not many observers of the insurance industry would have predicted five years ago Web services would have such a profound effect on the industry landscape. As Celent Communications insurance group manager Matt Josefowicz looks at the next five years, he doesnt see anything as important as Web services affecting the industry but admits there always is the possibility something special may pop up.Id say [Web services] probably is the biggest IT change weve seen over the last five years. That and the way the Web really has taken center stage in a very integral way, says Josefowicz, author of U.S. IT Spending, 2005-2010, for both the property/casualty industry and the life/health market.

Web services is replacing a lot of traditional integration, and it is making that integration a lot more effective, efficient, and reusable, enabling [insurers] to do more, explains Josefowicz. We tried to focus on the broad categorieshardware, software, staff services, telecomand then look at the insurance life cycle from product definition through claims and reinsurance asset management.