| dc.description.abstract | Traditionally, Insurance industry in Kenya has been associated with a lot of inefficiencies
and being ineffective especially when it comes to settlement of claims. In the recent
past however, some prominent changes triggered mainly by competition, customer
demands, mergers & acquisitions and international links are being observed. The
industry is trying new strategies and tactics including some aspects of corporate
governance. Regulation has made insurance companies to adopt ICT while the factors
mentioned above have been the major drivers for ICT adoption by the insurance
brokers.
ICT has been identified as key strategy for any business today. Businesses show their
realization of this fact by investing in various ICTS. However ICT adoption without IT
Governance can lead to a dreadlock. Furthermore, investing in ICT without well skilled
ICTleaders can leader to investments without results. For this reason, as most sectors of
the economy try to look at how best they can leverage technology for competitive
advantage, IT governance is qaininq some ground in Kenya. The insurance industry on
its part is actively seeking ways to improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of Policy
management& claims processing. Competition and regulation are making companies
to restructure business processes and re-evaluate IT investments in an effort to increase
the ROIof legacy systems and improve customer satisfaction and retention.
ICT is essentially meant to be an enhancer of efficiency & effectiveness in business.
However, this is not always the case. Factors such as wrong investment in ICT due to
poor leadership, lack of IT governance & involvement of senior management in
decisions related to ICTinvestment and lack of skills necessary to tap on the benefits of
ICTs can make organizations regret ICTinvestments.
The objective of this study is to evaluate the ICT in place & assess if there is any form
of IT governance in this sector with a keen interest in the two main players namely the
Insurance Companies and the Insurance Brokers and develop a framework model for
efficient and effective of the ICT resources using the available ICT resource. The study
established that on average the sector has the infrastructure but with serious variances
between the two players. Insurance companies seemed to be ahead in both the
software & hardware infrastructure in place as well as in the caliber of staff heading the
ICT departments/Divisions. This infrastructure can be leveraged further for efficiency
and effectiveness by creating an insurance community with common ICT services,
which is the basis of the framework model herein.
The main tool for this survey was a guided questionnaire. But in addition, the research
informally interviewed suppliers of various ICT services, ICT leaders in the sector and
attended a number of seminars which acted as source of literature.
The study derives the insurance sector ICT efficiency & effectiveness model by
examining various technologies that have been employed elsewhere outside Africa to
bring about efficiency & effectiveness in other sectors including insurance. The model
conclude by identifying the success factors to effective & efficient use of ICTs as good
IT governance, skilled ICT staff who also understands the business, impartial regulation
by the government and involvement of the key associations in setting communication/ collaboration standards | en |
