What would insurer CIOs do with an extra $5 million this year?

If chief information officers (CIOs) at insurance companies had an extra $5 million in their budgets, most would target data and analytics as the top areas of spending, says a new report.

Novarica, the research arm of consulting firm Novantas, posed the question to its insurer network of what they would do with an extra $3-5 million in their IT budgets this year.

It received responses from about 120 CIOs and IT decision-markers at property and casualty and life insurers of various sizes.

Nearly a third (31%) of all respondents ranked data and analytics as the area they would spend in. Among larger insurers (more than $1 billion in annual premium), 14% would spend more on customer experience improvements.

Among smaller insurers (with under $1 billion in annual premium), 27% ranked core systems upgrades as another area of spending. Insurers of that size generally have huge backlogs in those core projects, according to the report’s findings. Another 14% would spend on IT infrastructure.

One in five respondents would also invest in better mobile capabilities, for both improved customer and agent experience.