Content posted in January 2005
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Optimize: Best Practices For Mergers
OPINION: One of the most common IT-related questions that comes up at the time of a merger or acquisition is: Who will emerge as the CIO? A better question might be: How will the new company leverage the hugely valuable best practices of its merged business-technology operations?
Introducing Connected Enterprise: Tracking the Industry's Transformation
Change is coming to the insurance industry, this heavily regulated and most paper- and process-bound of industries
Improving Claims Process and Management
The claim represents a moment of truth for an insurance company -- one of the few chances when a consumer or business truly experiences the insurance product. When a claim is filed, the very reputation -- the brand -- of the carrier is at stake. For policyholders, the good news is that most claim experiences do go well. But for carriers, the daunting challenge is not only delivering prompt, fair settlements; it's managing the action behind the scenes: the typical inefficiency and high costs ass
Bringing Claims into the 21st Century
To sell insurance through independent agents, a carrier must be easy to do business with. The expansion of Internet technology meant that more and more agents were looking to do business with carriers over the Internet -- submitting applications, checking on claims status, etc. To meet this need Hastings Mutual Insurance Co. launched an initiative to provide Web-based tools to agents in select lines of business, while simultaneously beginning a workflow and document management project to streaml
Engineering Underwriting
Gary Kaplan, chief underwriting officer and head of the Technical Center strategic service unit for Zurich Financial Services subsidiary Zurich North America's commercial business division, doesn't believe that underwriting is more of an art than a science.
Scalable Cross-Selling
Going from enterprise CIO to divisional CIO may sometimes be a step down, but that's far from the case for former Zurich Life technology boss Russ Bostick.
Grange: Home on the Web
Ease of doing business - EODB, for short - is the working mantra of Grange Insurance, according to Charlie Carter, vice president and CIO.
Database Lockdown
To address compliance needs, Waltham, Mass.-based Guardium released software solutions for its SQL Guard database security platform.
Intelligent Replication
According to FCG, as many as 20 percent to 40 percent of all claims fall out of the auto adjudication process and become suspended claims pends, costing insurers as much as $2 to $5 per claim.
To maintain compatibility with its technology architecture, the Auto Club of Southern California extended its licensing deal with The Innovation Group.
Afar cry from tropical meteorological events in terms of the damage they cause, winter storms still cost insurers billions of dollars annually.
Underwriting Updated
Insurance companies face increased pressure to make the underwriting process more efficient and, at the same time, improve the bottom line.
Deja Vu All Over Again
Many of the major areas of focus for senior insurance technology executives in the coming year will be familiar ones that have become even more pressing.
Did You Say Controlled Tech Spending? Aw, Not Again!
With IT budgets flat in 2005, the challenge for insurers will be to make effective use of finite resources, according to TowerGroup.
Spending Outlook
Members of I&T's Reader Advisory Board forecast 2005 budget trends.
Going Mobile
The benefits of mobile technologies have proven somewhat elusive, but 2005 may be a good year to investigate their potential, according to Craig Lowenthal
Future Net
AIG builds its Next Generation Network.
A Look Ahead
Even with budget constraints and constantly evolving job responsibilities, insurance technology executives are remarkably optimistic about their abilities to tap technology to drive competitive advantage in 2005.
Smart Money
The 2005 Business Technology Forecast
Cost Warrior
Robert E. Worthington, SVP, Corporate and Information Services, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee
Intelligent Diagnosis
BusinessObjects helps medical malpractice firm The Doctors Company unite disparate systems to put critical information into the hands of business users.
Click to Pay
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care looks to edocs online billing solution to improve cash flow and boost customer satisfaction.
UnumProvident leverages the Internet to address the training needs of independent distributors in the individual market.
Because It’s There
Seven hundred of us milled our way down to the water's edge; I was about to start a triathlon. This had all started six months earlier, high on beer and bravado. Now, I was wedged into a wetsuit with numbers written on my ankle.
Things to Come
What does Oracle's acquisition of PeopleSoft mean for insurance?
Schooling Families
New York Life launches online education planning tool to reinforce relationships with existing and prospective customers.
Is One Password a Reality?
The rush to provide customers with account information over the Web has resulted in the proliferation of passwords. To simplify things, insurers are pursuing single sign-on capabilities.
In Data Denial
Both the benefits and limitations of information were very much in evidence over the recent holidays, providing insurance executives with cautionary tales that they should heed in determining their future data management needs.
Spending on Enterprise Content Management solutions remains slow, but it should ramp up in the insurance market in a big way later this year.
IT Budgets Increase; CIOs Shop For Tools to Help Grow Businesses
CIOs have changed their spending focus from products that help control costs to those that can help grow their businesses. Think security enhancement tools and business intelligence software for starters, says a Gartner report.
2004 Celent Insurance CIO/CTO Survey
Renewed Focus on Growth & Profitability
WorldGroup Combines With Taliant to Become InsureWorx
WorldGroup has closed the acquisition of Taliant Software, combining the two insurance software solutions providers and sealing the bond with a new company name, InsureWorx, Inc.
LexisNexis Strengthens CRM Offerings Interface Software Acquisition
In a move aimed at providing a richer client relationship management offering, LexisNexis, a provider of legal, news, and business information services, has acquired Interface Software, the provider of client relationship platform InterAction.
Leading Online Quote Strategies: Assisting Coverage Selection
The process of advising prospects on appropriate levels of protection is a precarious one and it is difficult to provide a personalized process of coverage guidance that is not overly cumbersome. Many carriers make some attempt to provide assistance or guidance in the selection of appropriate coverage levels during the online quote process. This brief will identify the three primary strategies pursued by industry-leading carriers.
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