A minority of insurers expect higher 2017 spending in their information technology budgets.

Just 37 percent say that they expect an increase in their IT spending. That compares to 45 percent of respondents from multiple industries, according to the 2016 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey.

More than 160 insurance companies sent in responses to the survey, Harvey Nash/KPMG said. Close to 3,400 respondents took part from 82 countries, representing more than $200 billion of IT budget spending around the world.

Many insurance companies say their IT spending may actually go down or stay static over the coming year. Approximately 24 percent of insurance company respondents said they expect IT spending to dip in 2017, versus 22 percent from across all industries. A larger number of insurer respondents expect IT spending to stay the same – 38 percent, compared to 33 percent for all industries, the survey noted.

Majority of Insurers Don’t Have Clear Digital Strategy

A large minority of insurers – 37 percent – said that their organizations have a clear digital business vision and strategy, versus 34 percent for all industries. About 21 percent of insurer respondents said they have such a strategy for within their business units, versus 24 percent for the all-industry average. Another 29 percent said they don’t have a strategy but are working on one, matching the all-industry average.

Thirteen percent of insurer respondents said they don’t have any digital business vision or strategy, also matching the all-industry responses.

Other insurance industry survey findings:

• Insurance companies score higher than the “all-industries average” in terms of want to develop innovative new products and delivering business intelligence and analytics.

• Insurance companies are more likely to implement agile methodologies and DevOps than the all-industries average.

• Insurance companies plan to spend close to the all-industry average on laaS and PaaS cloud services. But only 41 percent plan significant SaaS (software as a service) investments, versus 49 percent for the all industry average.

• Insurance companies rank cost savings as the number 2 reason for investing in cloud services; cost savings ranked 4^th place for the all-industry average.

Source: Harvey Nash/KPMG