Cloud computing adoption in insurance companies in Kenya

Abstract

Cloud computing relies on sharing computing resources rather than have personal devices or local servers handle applications. Cloud computing can get used to describe both the type of application and platform. IT experts in financial Institutions had claimed that financial systems would never move to the cloud based systems on adoption concerns. However, these opinions appear to be shifting. As solutions to address the existent adoption issues, compliance and regulatory challenges are developed. Insurance companies are adopting the cloud in large to improve their business agility, upgrade their operations, safe on procurement, and streamline and speed up provisioning of new ICT related services. This research study aimed at identifying the extent and characteristics of cloud adoption among insurance companies in Kenya. The study employed both descriptive and inferential research design in determining cloud computing adoption among insurance companies in Kenya. The target population for the study was 36 insurance companies in Kenya. The research used purposive sampling technique in selecting the insurance companies. Data was collected using questionnaire administered to the executives and IT managers. The questionnaire was pilot tested on 8 Insurance companies in Nairobi. From the pretest results, a reliability coefficient was calculated using Cronbach Alpha coefficient. A reliability coefficient of 0.72 was obtained. Data was analyzed with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS). The research questions were tested using chi square and multiple regression. All tests were computed at α=0.05. The results obtained from the research assisted in drawing recommendations and provide a roadmap for insurance companies in Kenya on the best practices in regard to cloud computing adoption in their institutions. The study found there was a relationship found between application development/deployment platform), productivity applications, Business Applications (CRM, SaaS), infrastructure on-demand (storage, network, server), finance applications, Core Business Application, databases and the adoption of cloud computing in the insurance companies p value was less than 0.05. The adoption of the Cloud computing services in insurance companies was relatively low. Cloud computing services were beneficial for the insurance companies. The study formed a bases of improving on the cloud computing services by various insurance companies.