I am looking for estimates of spending for information technology by
the insurance industry.  I would like trend estimates and any
projected spending.  Breakdowns by type of purchases--hardware,
etc.--is desirable.

Hi dlf


  The IT slowdown shows no strong signs of recovery in the mist of
this current econmic climate but the insurance industry appears to be
a bright spot. In this economy , the insurance sector is one of the
few industries that have been able to raise prices. "The time to
invest in IT is when premium revenue remains strong, says CIO Saul at
Zurich North America, the U.S. operation of the Swiss insurance
companys.." reported by Eric Chabrow of Information Week in
Conflicting market signals erode confidence in the economy and signal
a slow recovery June 24,2002 .
 Visit http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020620S0009


Research company Celent in thier recent June 2002 report: IT Spending
in US Insurance  "estimates that U.S. insurance companies are
continuing to increase their technology spending, with 2002 budgets an
average of 7% higher than in 2001, for an industry-wide total of US$18
billion. Celent estimates that this average growth rate will hold
steady for the next 2 years."
http://www.celent.com/PressReleases/20020610/ITSpendingIns.htm

Celent predicts purchase types IT budgets spending to go mainly toward
internal staffing 44% and 11% to consultants. In the software area a
20% budget share, 15% for hardware and connectivity 8%. Overall IT
spending by US Insurance companies is expected to grow from 18 Bn in
2002 to 21.6 billion by 2005. (See graph at bottom of
page...http://www.celent.com/PressReleases/20020610/ITSpendingIns.htm)

Another strong area in the insurance industry is CRM spending. "A
Meridien Research study shows that insurance CRM spending is up
slightly and will grow to $2.5 billion in 2006." mentioned Julie
Gallagher of InsuranceTech in a Special Report: Achieving ROI CRM
Still Insurance Spending Priority. See
http://www.insurancetech.com/it2/story/IST20020531S0005

You can also checkout a great CTO interview by Susan E. Fisher in
IDG.net (January 30th,2002) titled Insurance industry imposes unique
burdens on its CTO's. Her inteview with Jeetu Patel of Doculabs gives
some insight into project spending. As Patel states "Three areas where
most IT dollars are currently spent include integration and IT
infrastructure, customer-relationship management, and overall IT
strategy/optimization". See
http://www.idg.net/crd_idgsearch_800801.html

Greg MacSweeney of Insurance Tech in JUne 12, 2002 article titled 
Insurers Will Increase IT Spending In 2002, Celent Study Forecasts;
 interviewed Celent analyst Matthew Josefowicz who sees "Insurance
companies are looking at Web portals for both policyholders and
agents, new policy administration initiatives and electronic billing
technologies'.
Checkout http://www.insurancetech.com/story/mmStaff/IST20020612S0005

Hope this info helps. Any other in depth data comes at a cost but is
available at http://oracle.bitpipe.com/data/detail?id=1020110849_931&type=RES&x=1632183987
or http://www.towergroup.com/customer/passthrough.asp?strNoteNumber=v31_18i&strNoteVolume=v31&intSecBitCode=1024&strURLSource=search.

Good searching

bizWhiz-ga

Search terms: "IT spending" than search within results insurance
Advanced search include all words insurance 2002 with exact phrase it
spending with at least one word network software hardware crm.

Strong answer, multiple sources, good summary.