The London market is facing the prospect of an IT talent shortage, Room Solutions' commercial director Dr Ameet Dave has commented.

Dave told a meeting of the ACORD IT Club that the combination of skills needed to support the Market Reform Group's changes — insurance business process knowledge, project management expertise and IT skills — could be in short supply. Currently, IT expertise in the market is focused on operational platforms and legacy platforms.

Dave said: “The pace of change is increasing and there may be bottlenecks ahead. With the market preparing for Accounting and Settlement, we're going to see 150 to 200 deployments all taking place in similar timeframes. Straightforward recruitment is unlikely to be the answer; investment in business IT strategies are critical.”

Among the improvements Dave outlined were stepping up its recruitment of IT graduates in order to increase the number of IT practitioners available, outsourcing or replacing legacy systems and developing more effective strategies to run off systems.