Goa,India, November 15, 2016

Insurers Must Invest in IT Skills to Remain Competitive

Analysts Discuss Latest Industry Trends During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2016, November 15-18, in Goa

Indian insurer investment in IT products and services remains robust; overall spending is expected to increase to 150 billion rupees in 2017 – a 9.1 percent increase over 2016 estimates, according to Gartner Inc. This forecast includes spending by insurers on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications.

Wages growth and increased competition for skills in the market is driving increased costs for insurers – and opportunity for IT services providers. The highest growth category for IT spending in 2017 will again be IT services, which is expected to increase by over 15 percent compared to 2016. This market will reach over 49 billion rupees — or one third of all insurance IT spending. Insurers’ internal spending on their IT talent is forecast to increase in 2017 by nearly 10 percent.

"We are seeing insurers grapple with the challenge of finding, attracting and retaining specialist IT skills – particularly in high demand areas like analytics, mobility and security all around the world, and the Indian insurance market is also experiencing this tension," said Derry Finkeldey, research director at Gartner. "The ability to attract skilled professionals represents a competitive advantage that insurers must plan to achieve."

Further information on insurance sector IT spending is available in the Gartner report, ‘Forecast: Enterprise IT Spending by Vertical Industry Market, Worldwide, 2013-2019, 1Q15 Update’, available at https://www.gartner.com/doc/3028817. This vertical industries forecast provides total enterprise IT spending, including internal spending and multiple lines of detail for spending on hardware, software, IT services, and telecommunications for vertical industries and 43 countries within seven geographies.

About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the world's most important gathering of CIOs and senior IT leaders, uniting a global community of CIOs with the tools and strategies to help them lead the next generation of IT and achieve business outcomes. More than 23,000 CIOs, senior business and IT leaders worldwide will gather for the insights they need to ensure that their IT initiatives are key contributors to, and drivers of, their enterprise's success.