Is business process management (BPM) underappreciated in the insurance industry? The answer is most certainly yes, according to Marek Jakubik, cofounder and managing director of the Insurance Technology Group. "It's like anything else you and I do in life," he says. "When we automate something and we repeat it, it has two effects–it becomes easier and more efficient. So, it's a double win."

Still, while BPM may not garner a lot of praise, it certainly isn't neglected. Janelle Hill, research vice president for Gartner, believes just about every carrier in the insurance industry is doing something with business process management. "It's way beyond just the top tier of insurers," she says. "It's much, much deeper."

Jakubik takes a different view, though, seeing most BPM investments being made by large insurers. Some have gone to the level of adopting stringent programs and procedures, such as Six Sigma. "That's a very complex and expensive program," he points out. "It's only done by the largest insurers." For smaller companies, Jakubik suggests the interest dissipates proportionally with size. "The smallest carriers have the least of the [process] problems, but they also do the least," he says. "[Process] is simpler for them because they usually have single channels, and the whole process of communication is much shorter for them. If I had to guess, I would say probably 30 percent in total are doing something about BPM, 30 percent talk or pretend they do, and the rest just don't pretend–they don't do anything."