Indian insurance companies' spend on IT products and services is expected to increase by 9 per cent to Rs 10,100 crore in 2013, over the previous year's Rs 9,250 crore, technology research firm Gartner has said.

This forecast includes spending by insurers on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications, it said.

IT services has overtaken telecommunications to become the biggest spending segment, and is forecast to reach Rs 3,060 crore in 2013, up from Rs 2,700 crore in 2012, Gartner said.

IT services is achieving the highest growth rate amongst the top level IT spending segments, forecast to exceed 13 per cent in 2013, with growth of 23.4 per cent for business process outsourcing services. Consulting is also a high growth segment at over 18.2 per cent in 2013.

Derry Finkeldey, principal analyst at Gartner said, "The Indian insurance industry is experiencing huge growth in transaction volumes, and Indian consumers are quite progressive in terms of seeking online and mobile services.

Insurers are turning to experienced IT vendors to help them navigate the inevitable complexity this is producing."