The scramble to develop private health care exchanges in the wake of the Affordable Care Act has put a premium on leveraging technology.

Fortunately, many of the dominant technology trends of the day, including advances in cloud computing, analytics and mobile operating systems, fit well with the needs of a private health care exchange, experts say.

Scott Carver, Boulder, Colo.-based CEO of cloud-based technology firm PlanSource, said his company's process automation technology has been used as “the plumbing” to get both private and public health care exchanges operational in a short time.

“What we have been able to do is extend our core competencies in the public and private exchange market,” Mr. Carver said. “If you think about the mission critical functions of an exchange, such as data distribution, transaction management and decision support, that's what we've always done, so moving into the exchange market is a natural extension of our core business.”

Bryce Williams, San Francisco, Calif.-based managing director of Exchange Solutions for Towers Watson & Co. said the company's private exchange offering, OneExchange, uses a variety of technologies to help plan sponsors and plan participants. For example, OneExchange, uses cloud-based decision-support and education tools that were acquired when Towers Watson purchased private benefit exchange provider Liazon Corp. in November 2013.

Lori Dustin, Boston-based chief marketing officer for benefits plan management and health care compliance technology provider, HighRoads Inc., said the ability of cloud-based technology to rapidly scale and adapt is particularly useful when creating a private health care exchange.

“The ability to provide a hosted application is going to make it much easier for private exchanges to be nimble and adapt to a changing environment,” Ms. Dustin said.

The cloud-based technology of PlanSource was vital as the firm has helped both private and public entities establish exchanges, Mr. Carver said. “If you think about the mission critical functions of an exchange, such as data distribution, transaction management and decision support, that's what we've always done so moving into the exchange market is a natural extension of our core business,” he said.

Data analytics is another common technology feature of private exchanges. Employers can use data to gauge employee engagement and improve plan design, Ms. Dustin said. “We want to combine plan design analytics with utilization information,” she said. “Analytics can close the information loop to make sure employers are healthy.”

In the case of Towers Watson, the company presents data to participating employers through an interactive dashboard known as BenefitView. Ultimately, employers will be able to use the data about plan participation and scour from the exchanges to better tailor health plans for their workforce, Mr. Williams said.

“One of the ways you start bending the cost curve is by personalizing the plan for them,” he said. “One of the reasons there were group plans is that it was too hard to create a policy for each person. Now with our ability to use technology we can have radical, individual personalization.”

Likewise, Bloomfield, Conn.-based health insurer Cigna Corp. said its new private health care service exchange relies on analytics to help employees make sense of plan options, while simplifying employers' administrative responsibilities and controlling benefit costs.

“We are using algorithms to determine what the individual employee needs are and then are serving up a variety of plans,” Cigna spokesman Joe Mondy said.

Mike Trilli, Phoenix, Ariz.-based senior analyst with Aite Group, said the market for private exchanges is still nascent, and he expects more innovation and more exchanges in the future.

“In September 2013, I did a report that estimated 60 private exchanges, and the half-life on that number is really short,” he said.