Developing strategic applications of information technology in the life insurance industry in the Philippines | |
| Author | Nuestro, Maria Olivia Perlado |
| Call Number | AIT RSPR no. SM-95-21 |
| Subject(s) | Information technology--Philippines Insurance, Life--Philippines |
| Note | A research study submitted in 11artial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Business Administration, School of Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The potential and impact of information technology application varies from business to business and from company to company. In this research, 20 private life insurance firms (2 foreign owned) governed by the Insurance Commission were studied to find out, analyze and evaluate how information technology is being used in this type of business. It also tries to identify the current IT trends and practices in this business. In the process, it also pictures the current situation of Life Insurance industry in the Philippines and identifies the strategic areas and core activities that needs to be focused upon wherein IT can be applied or improved. The study also generates a generic value chain for life insurance firms based on the interviews and observations and noted some strategies and techniques practiced by the firms. The study was done through structured interviews and observations in the different firms. Based on the research study, 14% of the whole population of the Philippines are insured. Of the 14%, 7% are covered by the private life insurance firms. Results also showed that there is a wide gap on how IT is used by different firms. Some firms outsource hardware and its maintenance but majority of the firms develop their programs in-house. When scrutinized, one can actually divide the firms into three groups based on the stage of IT status (software, operating system, hardware and personnel used), plans for the future, management support , and IT perception. The strategic areas that were identified are policy servicing, underwriting, sales, marketing and field support which directly involve or affect customers. It was also observed that most transaction processing are still done in the batch processing mode. As a result, an IT-based plan with the following features and functions are suggested ----a mixture of on-line and batch processing which is as follows : on-line retrieval of specific files, on-line transaction capturing and processing for client requested transactions, batch processing for internally triggered transactions, one stop-shop multiple server network, stand alone microcomputer in some departments in the head office, stand-alone microcomputer in branches, small multi-user system in major branches and transmission of transaction data from selected branches through data communication. |
| Year | 1995 |
| Type | Research Study Project Report (RSPR) |
| School | School of Management (SOM) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Master of Business Administration (MBA) (Publication code=SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Johri, Lalit M. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Pandey, Indra M. ;Do, Ba Khang |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Royal Netherlands Government |
| Degree | Research Studies Project Report (M.B.A.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1995 |