Not everyone has good reasons to be thankful as we approach this week's Thanksgiving holiday. Many of our friends—and co-workers at PropertyCasualty360—are still digging out from the mess caused by Sandy and even those who weren't flooded or burned out of their homes remain greatly inconvenienced as they try to get their lives back to something resembling normal.
But no matter what challenges face us, there is always something to be thankful for, even if it's just a random act of kindness from a stranger. Since this is a technology blog, though, it feels like an opportune time to give thanks for what technology does to make so many aspects of our lives easier.
Of course, when you are sitting in the middle of the forest, you don't always notice the trees. It's that way with information technology. It has become such an important factor in our lives—both in the office and away, and at work or play—that we tend to gripe and growl at minute problems and sometimes forget the important steps that have taken place in the past decade that we couldn't imagine living without.
We spend a lot of time in this space looking at what the future holds—things like the article I wrote yesterday on collision avoidance technology—that we fail to appreciate the here and now and what IT does to make things work so smoothly.
The future has endless possibilities that can be scary for technophobes. Jobs once deemed vital to the operation of an insurance company a decade ago seem much less so today thanks to software solutions that automatically apply business rules, analyze how the data will affect risk exposures, and flow from desk to desk in an instant.
Combine that with the fact that it won't be long before all of us will be carrying a computer in our pocket disguised as a phone with the ability to shop for and purchase what some in the industry felt was too complex a product for consumers to ever understand on their own.
Yet the number of independent insurance agencies in this country has grown in the past two years, according to the IIABA, and you can't find a CIO anywhere who doesn't wish he or she could find more qualified people to work in their IT shops.
Is that reason enough to be thankful? I believe so. And technology deserves much of the credit for what likely is an exciting future in insurance.
For me, I'm thankful that I get to watch what will enfold over the next five years with the same amazement I've seen over the last five.
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