News Briefs

A new marketing agreement has been confirmed by Docucorp International (Dallas) and AscendantOne Inc. (Nashua, NH). Through this marketing partnership and lead referral relationship, the companies will offer P&C providers an end-to-end business solution for insurance sales and service. The relationship will enable Docucorp, a provider of enterprise information solutions, to provide its P&C insurance customers with a front-office solution; meanwhile, insurance solutions provider AscendantOne will be able to take advantage of Docucorp's offerings in areas such as content creation, management and archival solutions.

Chief security officers (CSOs) working in financial services earn significantly higher salaries—up to $400,000 annually plus bonuses-than their counterparts in telecom, utilities and manufacturing, according to new research by Giga Information Group, Inc. (Cambridge, MA). "Given the newness of the position, there is still little uniformity around how the CSO is compensated," according to Giga VP Steve Hunt. CSOs in financial services reporting directly to the CIO make between $125,000 and $270,000, while those reporting to business executives (CFOs, COOs, etc.) may earn as much as $400,000, plus a 15 to 25 percent bonus, the Giga study reveals. "The CSO is a fairly new role in corporations and agencies, but in its brief history has proven to increase operational efficiency and security effectiveness by coordinating security efforts across the organization, managing outsourcing contracts and mapping security measures to real business risks," says Hunt. Giga research shows most security spending is somewhere between two and 20 percent of the total IT budget.

Liberty Mutual Group (Boston) has licensed ISO Claims Outcome Advisor (COA), a bodily injury claims management tool, from Jersey City-based Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO). Liberty Mutual will use COA to help manage its personal auto bodily injury claims. According to ISO, COA is the industry's first object-based solution to enable the complete management of bodily injury claims portfolios.

Katherine Burger is Editorial Director of Bank Systems & Technology and Insurance & Technology, members of UBM TechWeb's InformationWeek Financial Services. She assumed leadership of Bank Systems & Technology in 2003 and of Insurance & Technology in 1991. In addition to ... View Full Bio