Making 1 + 1 = 1.

Putting together two information technology systems and getting them to work efficiently is difficult for any company involved in a merger or acquisition. It's particularly difficult for the information-intensive business of insurance. "For one thing, there hasn't been much evolution toward standardized systems in insurance," said Mike Connolly, vice president of strategy and technology consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. "Almost everyone's system is custom."

So, the big choice is what to get rid of and what to keep. "You would like to take the best of breed, but the components are so complex that you can't do that," Connolly said.

Another consideration is that a goal of every merger is to improve overhead costs, and technology is a huge component of overhead costs. "So companies expect benefits in a year or two," Connolly said.

In "Connecting ...," our cover story this month, executives of insurance companies that recently experienced a merger or acquisition talk about how they converged their IT systems and what steps they think are most important for success.

"You can be sure every CEO is thinking about the technology piece in a merger or acquisition, maybe not from day one, but certainly from day two." Connolly said. "In my experience in the industry, when we looked at potential acquisition targets, we knew what their technology infrastructure was and took that into consideration in selecting targets before we entered discussions with them."

Connolly advises executives to develop a technology playbook for the acquisition, describing the phases they're going to go through. Things to consider in making the playbook are the underlying complexity of the architectures of the two systems, the skill sets of the organization and other demands on the organization.

"You can't get prepared on the fly," he said.

Also in this issue: new, extensive fists of insurance professional designations, organizations that award the designations, bachelor's and master's degrees with insurance-related majors and the colleges that award those degrees. Look on page 69 to see the many educational opportunities available to insurance professionals.

Sally Whitney

Sally Whitney is editor. You may reach her at [phone], Ext. 5340, by writing to A.M. Best Co., Ambest Road, Oldwick, NJ 08858, or by e-mail at [e-mail]. The e-mail address for Best's Review is [e-mail].