2008 Financial Services Outlook: Predictions on IT Budgets, Technology Trends and Key Executives and Companies

It's that time of year when pundits and journalists look into their crystal balls and attempt to identify and analyze the probable hot topics, industry concerns and big stories for the coming year. For actual insurance technology executives and the partners and solutions providers with which they work, such forecasting already has taken place, as CIOs plan their IT budgets and vendors try to anticipate the needs and resources of potential and existing customers. Typically, they're also trying to figure out how these approaches compare not only with their peers' and competitors' plans within the insurance industry, but to the strategies of their counterparts in the banking and securities/capital markets industries as well.

Accordingly, Insurance & Technology, along with its sibling brands in CMP Technology's Financial Technology Group, went to the experts across the financial services industry to create this 2008 Financial Services Outlook. Our entire editorial team -- I&T's Anthony O'Donnell and Nathan Conz; Nancy Feig and Maria Bruno-Britz from Bank Systems & Technology; and Penny Crosman, Ivy Schmerken and Melanie Rodier from Wall Street & Technology -- collaborated to produce a comprehensive report on what technologies and trends will be hot (and maybe not so hot) in financial services in 2008.

We polled a cross-section of industry executives to come up with a preview of IT spending priorities and delved into some of the technologies expected to have the most significant impact on the business in the coming year. The outlook also identifies some of the key challenges the different insurance line-of-business segments are likely to face, as well as some of the executives, companies and other industry players we think will be in the headlines in 2008.

One thing you don't need to be a psychic to figure out: For all kinds of financial institutions, technology continues to be increasingly integrated with business strategy, whether it has to do with customer experience, fraud prevention, or risk and financial management.