Insurance & Technology

Issues Archive

Face-to-Face Events:
November 7-10, 2010
Insurance & Technology's 12th Annual Executive Summit

Online Events:
March 16, 2010
Maximizing Your Data Asset: New Thinking About Data Quality

March 23, 2010
Keeping Agents Focused on Customer Acquisition

Insurance & Technology Blog

Improving the Quality of Insurance IT Applications: Part I: Addressing Current Business Pressures
March 11, 2010 @ 12:44 PM | By

By Paul Camille Bentz, Cast Software; former CIO, AGF-Allianz

Three primary factors together shape the current insurance business environment.

Regulatory Uncertainty

First, a precipitous drop in investment income due to the recent liquidity crisis has put intense pressure on insurance companies to find new sources of revenue and margin growth. Second, and related, the new (and evolving) capital reserve regulations for financial institutions severely constrain earning potential by restricting leverage. Third, the crisis has left us with plenty of regulatory uncertainty. In the United States, there is uncertainty about health care reform and regulation over banking and financial services. In Europe, the debate on how to apportion the public and private burden of health insurance continues to evolve, causing business and regulatory uncertainty.

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Improving the Quality of Insurance IT Applications: a Three-Part Series
March 11, 2010 @ 12:29 PM | By

By Paul Camille Bentz, Cast Software; former CIO, AGF-Allianz

Introduction

Current economic conditions have put insurance companies in a bind. The pressure to recapture pre-2008 revenue and profit margins is intense. But achieving these business goals requires rapidly developing IT applications and enhancing existing ones in ways that escalate IT complexity. This additional complexity makes applications more susceptible to lapses in performance, stability and security. Hence, the very business pressures that require the Insurance IT engine to work flawlessly end up causing that engine to sputter and seize up, making it impossible to achieve revenue and margin goals.

In this three-part series, I will attempt to solve this paradox.

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Carriers Must Put Profitability Before Growth
March 10, 2010 @ 12:14 PM | By Anthony O'Donnell

Some thoughts on the subject of yesterday’s Insurance & Technology webcast Applying Analytics to Unite the Goals of Growth and Profitability, featuring speakers from Duck Creek, Advisen, and SMA:

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Getting the Most from Analytics: Positioning Your Information Management System for Maximum Results
March 09, 2010 @ 09:17 AM | By

By Hari Raghumandala

Insurance carriers that leverage analytics can increase their top line as well as their bottom line positively. But, there are certain things that the carriers should focus on in order to maximize the potentially enormous benefits of advanced information analytics.

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Honor Roll: This Week's Top Insurance Blogs (Feb. 28-Mar. 6)
March 05, 2010 @ 11:30 AM | By Nathan Conz

Our favorite insurance technology-related blog posts from around the Web (February 28-March 6, 2010):