http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/May09/05-18ACORD2009.mspx

The Insurance Industry Enters the “Cloud” Era

Q&A: Bill Hartnett, U.S. insurance industry solutions director, and Colin Cole, U.S. insurance industry technical strategist, discuss how Microsoft tools and technology can help the insurance industry speed up product cycles, cut costs and move from paper systems to “cloud” datacenters.

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REDMOND, Wash. — May 18, 2009 — Although the U.S. insurance industry has not had to deal with any Katrina-type natural catastrophes in recent years, it has hardly been smooth sailing. The financial crash has severely cut insurers’ earnings on their investments, while the near-collapse of insurance giant AIG has damaged the reputation of the industry. Today, insurers look to technology to help weather economic storms and build stronger relationships with customers. There is much ground to make up. Most insurers retain systems heavily reliant on mainframe computers and paper-based forms. This means that transaction costs are high, and insurers lack the agility to respond quickly to customer needs or a changing business environment. This week, many in the insurance industry are meeting in Florida for the ACORD-LOMA Insurance Systems Forum 2009, the industry’s largest business and technology conference. Microsoft is demonstrating its software-plus-services offerings and announcing organizations, including Esurance Inc. and the ACORD standards body itself, that are turning to some aspect of Microsoft’s software plus services strategy to solve their business problems. PressPass spoke withBill Hartnett, U.S. insurance industry solutions director, and Colin Cole, U.S. insurance industry technical strategist, about Microsoft’s offerings for the insurance industry. Cloud computing can be very helpful to insurance providers. We insure against risk and catastrophic events, and cloud computing seems to be a tool we can use to manage our internal business risks pertaining to IT infrastructure. As a result of these catastrophic events, part of the legislation around insurance companies is having data centers that are geographically dispersed. So, instead of paying full costs to physically host this infrastructure in different locations, as well as costs to maintain and upgrade, cloud computing can save insurers from a lot of these costs. One of the participants in the article says that he would not be surprised if within 10-15 years some major carriers will not have data centers on their premises.