Singaporean insurers spending 1.5 bn SGD in 2015

SINGAPORE: Singaporean insurance companies are expected to spend 1.5 billion Singaporean dollars on IT products and services in 2015, a 5.1 percent increase over 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. This forecast includes spending by insurers on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications. Forty-four percent of this spending will be on IT services alone – a S$650 million market opportunity.

“The Singaporean insurance industry is in the midst of a revamp in 2015,” said Derry Finkeldey, research director at Gartner. “It’s all about greater transparency for the customer. Some of this change is being led by recent initiatives announced in March by the country’s financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore.”

Going forward, more changes are expected, including a new risk-based capital framework. These initiatives present potential, Gartner expects to see in consulting services becoming a S$176 million market in 2015, with robust growth expected through 2019.

Like their peers around the world, Singaporean insurance companies are also concerned with the customer experience, and are on pace to spend S$195 million on software in 2015, up 10.8 percent from 2014. Not surprisingly, growth will be highest for customer relationship management (CRM) software, growing at more than 16 percent.