Year 2000 Impact On Insurance Companies
In a newly released white paper, one company suggests that the Year 2000 issue will prove to be a "defining" moment in the history of many insurance companies—a moment that will create winners and losers. The winners will be companies that manage the millennium bug as a business issue and convert compliance into competitive advantage; the losers will grapple with business continuity and liability issues.
The white paper, An Information Technology Perspective on Year 2000 Risk Management for the Insurance Industry, summarizes EDS' Year 2000 work with insurers, as well as hundreds of financial services firms, companies in other industries, and government organizations worldwide.
Key topics presented in the EDS white paper include:
- Elevated importance as a business issue–Year 2000 compliance has gone beyond the CIO to become a CEO-level business issue, requiring senior executive involvement and board-level program management;
- Compliance focus shifts from the mainframe–legacy renovation has become old hat as attention moves to desktop/midrange systems, custom software, embedded systems and business partner/vendor interfaces;
- Triage moves to the forefront–the decisions will increasingly be to retire, replace, fix or just do without as time runs out; and
- CEO and organizational liabilities remain unknown–the usual due diligence may be enough protection—or it may not be—as blame is placed for business process failures.
"Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, and that holds true for insurers grappling with the Year 2000 issue," says Teresa Pool, EDS' Insurance Industry Year 2000 program manager. "An insurer's ability to handle these crises, and handle them well, will make a tremendous difference in the future of the business. The Year 2000 challenge will clearly create winners and losers—and provide unprecedented opportunities for the companies that surmount the problems to gain competitive advantage."
You can obtain a copy by calling 972-604-9694.