There are three phases of what Celent senior analyst Jeff Goldberg calls "producer portal maturity." In his new study, "The Ideal Producer Portal," Goldberg explains phase one is adopting the technology as the cost of doing business. The second stage for carriers goes to a higher level–developing a competitive portal. The third and final phase is to make the portal an industry differentiator.

Goldberg believes the bulk of carriers–particularly large carriers–currently fall into the competitive portal stage. "Smaller carriers have not put as much investment in their portals and are using them more as informational sources," he says. "That's more of the cost-of-doing-business phase."

Celent's e-business trends reports bear this out, according to Goldberg. "The larger insurers tend to put more money into their portals and not just because they have bigger budgets," he says. "A larger percentage of their IT budget goes into portals."

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