With apologies to Punxsutawney Phil, the economy has been seeing its shadow for well over two years now. It's also been a long winter for the insurance industry, and it's about time we had some springtime weather around here. The economy is beginning a fragile recovery, tempered by factors such as housing and automobile sales, which continue to fluctuate and even contradict expectations from one month to the next. And unemployment remains uncomfortably high.

With all of these factors in play, IT has to perform a balancing act to support present-day priorities such as cost containment and efficiency while preparing for and helping to enable a return to growth. It will be a while before premium growth returns to pre-recessionary levels, but we know it will come. In the meantime, how can IT help carriers maximize profitability right now as well be ready to smoothly handle increasing demand as it returns? Here are some suggestions:

- Improving process performance should be a top priority in good times and bad. The cost savings potential is huge. IT can play a key role here by pushing underutilized process automation tools, such as BPM and workflow, deeper into the organization. Seek and destroy manual workarounds and shadow systems.