A paper by US telecommunications giant Verizon highlights the importance of cultural change as a precondition for successfully implementing digital strategies in insurance companies.

“Digital transformation requires more than putting in place new cloud, analytics and networking solutions. It means pushing through cultural change,” Verizon says in its paper on the digital future for insurance.

The paper includes the findings of a global survey of insurance leaders, including from Australia, by Forrester Consulting.

More than half (52%) of insurance leaders surveyed agree that technology infrastructure needs to be aligned with a company’s business and strategic requirements.

“To support your goals, IT needs to understand your business,” the paper states. “But IT faces challenges in supporting the business.”

Four out of 10 (40%) insurance leaders surveyed say the rate of technology change is an obstacle to achieving business goals, and 50% say it’s a problem that key IT staff are focused on “other activities”.

“Facing this increased complexity, it may be time for help from quality managed-services firms and consulting providers to augment day-to-day operations,” Verizon says.

The survey found that insurance leaders recognise the importance of the enterprise network in supporting business goals: 65% say that the network is critical to a “big data” strategy, 61% say the network forms part of their competitive advantage and 58% say that poor network quality translates into poor user experience.

But while company leaders understand the intrinsic relationship between digital technology infrastructure and success in an ultra-competitive global insurance market, that understanding is less solid in the rest of the company.

“Perhaps the biggest challenge is getting the whole business pulling in the same direction when it comes to digital,” Verizon says.

The survey found 68% of insurance services respondents agree that each line of business has a different definition of what “digital” means to them.

Recognising the importance of alignment between technology and business culture, company chiefs are thinking about how best to achieve this.

Some 57% say that IT projects need clear business-focused key performance indicators, 62% believe IT staff should spend time working in the business and 67% agree that chief information officers should chair a council on digital innovation, with representatives from IT and the business.