Survey finds security, web portals, imaging top IT issues

March 26, 2007/For Immediate Release Release No. 04-07 

Security, developing web portals, and going paperless are among the top focus areas for IT staff, according to a survey of NAPSLO members conducted in February by the Association’s Communications & Technology Committee.

The survey was sent to NAPSLO wholesale broker and company members and the questions were a follow-up to the 2003 survey conducted by NAPSLO. A copy of the current survey and the 2003 survey are available on the NAPSLO website (www.napslo.org), in the Technology Section, under Technology Survey.

One change occurring in the industry since the 2003 survey is the movement by brokers and MGAs to using third party agency management systems as opposed to in-house or custom programs. In 2003 approximately 20% reported using in-house programs, compared to 11% in 2007.

Among the other areas examined in the survey included asking about the top focus areas for IT departments. Security was the top issue with 47% of respondents noting it, going paperless was second at 45% and developing a web portal was third at 43%.

While these were important issues for IT staff, approximately 40% of brokers and MGAs reported no in-house IT staff and added that most IT services were outsourced. Most brokers and MGAs reported their IT budgets were 0% to 3% of net revenue, however half of company respondents reporting IT budgets were 3% to 5%.

Regarding how firms conduct transactions, nearly all receive policy information via e-mail and fax and more than half get information via postal mail. On e-mail, the most common formats supported were DOC, PDF, and TIF and most firms also reported that they archive or store email. Most firms also reported inbound and outbound faxes were processed electronically.

To handle transactions on their technology systems, approximately a third of respondents reported on relying on ACORD standards, a quarter reported developing in-house standards and the remainder used both types of standards. Companies and MGAs reported a larger use of XML for data transactions than brokers.

With additional employees working remotely, most firms reported that their systems allow remote access to e-mail, corporate processing systems, and working from home. Most firms also reported providing traveling employees laptops, cell phones and 

General findings of the survey included that nearly all employees have internet access and individual e-mail addresses, Windows XP is the dominate operating system for desktops and Windows 2003 was the top reported server OS and most firms connect to the Internet via a T1 line.

BACKGROUND
NAPSLO  is a national trade association representing the surplus lines insurance industry.  Surplus lines is a specialized segment of the insurance business that is also referred to as nonadmitted, specialty and/or excess lines.  Risks are placed in this market when they cannot be placed in the admitted/licensed market.