Content posted in April 2010
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Driving Retention and Customer Lifetime Value Through Customer Experience Management
Focusing on just adaptive learning models and tailored retention strategies could help organizations achieve significant benefits through a more accurate understanding of which value-generating customers are "at risk" of defecting, so that scarce resources can be refocused where it matters using tools that facilitate relevant customer-centric conversations.
Sapiens Acquires Canada-based P&C Software Vendor Harcase
The acquisition brings Sapiens Harcase's RapidSure policy administration suite and customer base, as well as the software and service capabilities of Octello, Harcase's sales and implementation partner, with whom the company merged earlier this year.
Chief Abu Ghraib Investigator George Fay Now Claims EVP at CNA
Formerly in the spotlight for his work as the Army's chief investigator of abuses at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, CNA's George Fay intends to adapt the military's use of advanced IT for the carrier's claims operations.
CEMIC Implements ISCS's SurePower Policy Admin Suite
An eight-month project resulted in on-time deployment of the ISCS system for the regional specialty P&C carrier for four products in multiple states.
Universal American Deal Yields Patni BPO Services Contract and TPA Acquisition
Patni has acquired CHCS Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal American, and signed a related five-year, multi-million dollar contract to provide end-to-end policy administration services to Universal American.
XL Insurance Implements Claims System Based on Accenture's Claim Components Solution
XL Insurance's new centralized, global claims management claims management system is designed to enhance the carrier's customer service capabilities and reduce costs by consolidating and upgrading its core claims-processing technologies and procedures globally.
Travelers Introduces Mobile Version of e-CARMA Risk Management Information Application
On display at this weeks' RIMS conference, the mobile e-CARMA platform will be accessible on any mobile device with a Web browser, including the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones.
Farm Bureau Insurance Companies to Adopt AssureSign Electronic Signature Software
WCSI, SaaS provider of policy management and claims management for some Farm Bureau Insurance companies, selects AssureSign Electronic Signature Software to increase efficiency and expedite authorizations.
Mitchell Launches Next-Gen Automated Solution That Integrates Medic al Bill Review and Utilization Review
SmartAdvisor Utilization Review Decision Manager seamlessly integrates medical bill review and utilization review to deliver more accurate workers' compensation medical bill pricing adjustments, according to Mitchell International.
Prakash Shimpi Joins ING U.S. as Chief Risk Officer
Shimpi will oversee the enterprise-wide risk monitoring and management program for ING's U.S. insurance operations, and will be responsible for managing the framework for measuring, controlling, hedging, and pricing risk, as well as compliance with all global financial reporting standards for the company.
JET Health Solutions Introduces Auto Underwriting System
JET Health Solutions has rolled out JET InsureFuse V3.0, an automated medical underwriting process system.
Aite Group Launches Life Insurance Research and Analysis Practice
The Boston-based firm's new life insurance practice aims to provide Aite Group's clients with quantitative and qualitative insight into the business, technology, and regulatory issues impacting the industry.
iPipeline Partners with DocuSign
Integration of DocuSign e-signature technology with iPipeline's e-Policy solution aims at streamlining the policy process to eliminate errors and further automate the sales distribution process.
Breaking Down Silos with Enterprise Workforce Optimization
Recently, a number of insurance providers have turned to workforce optimization (WFO) software to drive enterprise-wide performance improvements. Historically, WFO has been proven in the contact center. Today, the next-generation offering has evolved creating a robust system that supports not only the contact center, but also complex back-office operations.
Dongbu Insurance Signs 7-year Contract with IBM
South Korea's second largest non-life insurer, Dongbu, has signed a 7-year, $60 million IT infrastructure contract with IBM.
Pegasystems Completes Cash Tender Offer for Chordiant
Pegasystems intends to complete the acquisition of Chordiant through a short-form merger as soon as possible, and which is currently expected to be completed today, according to Pegasystems.
Report: NAIC Meeting's Emphasis on Solvency Will Drive Insurance IT Spend
The NAIC's Solvency Modernization Initiative will drive regulation that supports global regulatory transparency and necessitate risk management and reporting technology modernization, according to Deloitte.
Oracle Launches Oracle Application Integration Foundation Pack 11gR1
AIA Foundation Pack 11gR1 simplifies and speeds development of integration projects for business analysts, architects, developers, and application owners, effectively bringing the AIA programming model and best practices out of the documentation and into the toolset, according to Oracle.
Virtual Roundtable: Policy Administration Best Practices
Industry experts discuss the key steps insurers can take to minimize the risk inherent in a core system change and to ensure success in a policy admin replacement or upgrade initiative.
Pharmacists Mutual To Implement Interactive Intelligence's Customer Interaction Center
When the implementation is complete, the Interactive Intelligence software suite will support several hundred Pharmacists Mutual employees, about 15 percent of whom work remotely from branch offices.
Enterprise Architecture Critical to an Effective Infrastructure
An enterprise architecture serves as a blueprint for new development and as a map of existing functionality.
Carriers Should Embrace Virtualization
Every insurer needs to embrace virtualization technologies in order to increase flexibility, speed and cost conservation.
Segregate Core and Non-core Applications
Carriers can leverage software-as-a-service (SaaS) options to segregate the core applications and technologies that support their business models from the non-core utility applications and technologies typically required to support the operation of the business.
Virtual Roundtable: The Imperatives of Infrastructure
Successfully responding to rapidly changing market conditions requires a flexible technology architecture.
What Insurers Can Learn from '30 Rock'
As a recent episode of "30 Rock" taught us, there are always uptapped markets to discover and new customers to find. Insurers that have embraced those ideas are increasingly turning to analytics solutions to help them generate growth.
Great American Promotes Jeff Kohl to SVP, IT Infrastructure
Kohl has led the founding of a new data center and disaster recovery site, consolidation of multiple data centers, virtualization of the growing server environment, implementation of a tiered storage environment, identity access management solutions, integration and consolidation of certain core services as well as telecom upgrades.
10 Insurance Technology Imperatives
Insurance companies must tackle 10 critical business-technology initiatives in order to remain competitive, according to Deb Smallwood, founder, SMA.
Armed Forces Insurance Goes Live With StoneRiver FAB Billing
StoneRiver FAB Billing met the carrier's aim to provide its armed services policyholders flexibility to customize bills to meet their unique situations, whether deployed abroad or within the United States.
Grange Insurance Chooses HP Exstream As Single Document Automation Solution
The enterprise-wide implementation of the HP Exstream solution will enable Grange to more efficiently create, publish and manage its documents across all the carrier's brands and business units, a Grange spokesman says.
Demand for Sophisticated Risk Management Capabilities Increasing
The financial crisis has increased demands -- both internally and from regulators and raters -- on insurers' risk managers to deliver reliable, accurate and up-to-date views of risk exposure, real and potential.
3 Factors Behind Carriers' Renewed Attention to Billing
Insurers that do billing well reap huge operational and retention dividends -- while those that do it poorly end up with unnecessary costs and dissatisfied customers.
Carriers Look to Billing to Improve Customer Service and Retention
Billing is a critical but often overlooked aspect of customer service and retention -- not only for policyholders, but for agents and distributors as well.
Medco, Medical Mutual of Ohio Partner on ePrescribing Initiative
The program, which includes financial incentives for medical practices, will help physicians use personal computers and wireless devices to write prescriptions and send them to the pharmacy for filling.
FICO And Emdeon Join For Healthcare Fraud-Fighting Capabilities
Emdeon will incorporate FICO Insurance Fraud Manager into its leading healthcare revenue and payment cycle transaction processing network in order to offer an enhanced fraud prevention solution to the 1,200 payers currently using Emdeon.
SAS Releases New Insurance Risk Management Solution
SAS Risk Management for Insurance will help life and P&C companies calculate risk-based capital and provide senior management with greater understanding of their company's risk and financial condition, according to the vendor.
Mitchell Releases Version 4.0 Of WorkCenter Total Loss Valuation Solution
With the addition of vehicle equipment option package data, we believe WorkCenter Total Loss 4.0 is now the industry's most comprehensive vehicle configuration offering, the vendor claims.
Molecular Diagnostics: The Case for Targeted, Recurring Analytics
Staying a step ahead of emerging technology doesn't happen by accident. Total gene profiling and molecular therapeutics are right around the corner. Considering the rapid growth in molecular and genetic diagnostic testing, it is critical for health plans to develop utilization management strategies today that employ a smart, targeted and recurring analytics approach.
Is Your Organization Optimized? Participate in Tomorrow's I&T Virtual Event To See Where You Stand
If your company's senior leadership asks "Are we optimized?" how will you respond? By attending Insurance & Technology's first Virtual Event tomorrow beginning at 10:00 AM Eastern, you'll gain insights in answer to that question from a distinguished group of speakers, as well as having the opportunity to share your own with those of industry peers in a unique virtual space.
Policy Admin Replacement: Understand Your Business Objectives
Setting a the right plan and selecting the right vendor will help a carrier ensure policy administration replacement success, according to Edgewater Technology.
Cover-All Technologies Acquires Moore Stephens Business Solutions
The acquisition of the New York-based provider of business intelligence and advanced analytics solutions to the insurance industry gives Cover-All an entree into the business intelligence marketplace.
Gartner Provides Policy Admin Project Advice
If delayed and over-budget policy administration system implementations are to be avoided, improved vendor relationship management and more packaged software expertise are necessary, says Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, VP and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner.
Long-term Planning Key to Policy Admin Project Success
Developing a long-term policy admininstration project helps maintain focus and demonstrate progress to stakeholders, says Andy Edwardson, VP of IT, Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance.
Thrivent Implements Insurance Technologies' ForeSight POS Software
The implementation has enabled Thrivent to deploy its first variable annuity sales and marketing system, resulting increased market share among variable annuity providers, according to Insurance Technologies.
Amica Shares Policy Admin Project Best Practices
Amica Mutual executives name business partner involvement as the most critical element of any major IT project, including policy administration replacement or modernization.
The Realities of Policy Administration Implementation: Real Benefits, Real Challenges
Even the most skeptical observer is likely to recognize that policy administration system implementations are frequently adding value at carriers more quickly and with less risk than ever before. But challenges remain.
Newer Policy Administration Systems Ease Transformation of Smaller Insurers
As the insurance industry prepares for the next growth phase, small and medium-size carriers are taking advantage of rules-based policy administration packages to transform their capabilities and stand up to larger competitors.
Q&A With Mike Clifton, CIO, The Hanover: Combining Legacy and Modern Technology
The Hanover CIO Mike Clifton relates how the Worcester, Mass.-based insurer successfully combines legacy and modern, rules-based technology to meet changing customer and distributor demands and exploit market opportunities.
Is It Evil To Profit From The Poor?
The premise of microfinance is that poor people can be responsible borrowers but the financial system does not normally provide instruments that are matched to their extremely modest means. If the premise is correct, then the poor will be able to use their loans to good account, gaining access to capital in order to create more capital, however modest the scale.
Ohio Mutual Takes a Bite Out of Policy Admin Transformation
After migrating to CSC’s POINT IN platform, Ohio Mutual Insurance Group successfully presses the vendor for incremental releases to enable ‘bite-size’ modernization.
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