September 2006

Cover Story The Road to Security As business technology evolves, so do the threats it faces. While financial services firms tend to do a very good job of protecting information, frequent, high-profile data breaches show that the work is never done. Feature Enhancing the Enterprise Insurers are rethinking ECM strategies to benefit the entire enterprise rather than business silos, resulting in customer service, productivity and compliance improvements. Case Study Real-Time Rendezvous Service Lloyds automates application-submission process and adds real-time quotes to keep agents happy. Taming Paper Tigers With Software AG's BPM product suite, American Community Mutual Insurance Co. automates its new-business underwriting process. Spotlight Web Appeal Harleysville Insurance collaborates with its agents on IT projects to break away from the competition. Virtual Roundtable Measuring Success The ability to deploy limited technology resources effectively can create a competitive advantage for insurers. But what's the best way to measure deployment results? . Names in the News Jackson Drives Strategy Since he arrived at Triad Guaranty Insurance (Winston-Salem, N.C.), a subsidiary of Triad Guaranty ($57 million in 2005 net income), George Jackson has spent more than eight years building state-of-the-art technology for the firm. McClintock Makes Music It is not unusual to see the metaphor of orchestration applied to a project that was well run, or to see an effective leader likened to an orchestra's conductor. Executive News

From The Editor Murphy's Law Lives! Real estate, and consequently PARKING SPACE, is at a premium in Hoboken, the northern New Jersey town where I live. Update Deadline Debate Citing significant IT modifications and investment, health insurers request a deadline extension for bill requiring upgrade of HIPAA codes. Insurity Enhances Its Range The addition of ePolicy's Java-based offering gives Insurity a full menu to answer the policy admin needs of commercial insurers. Desjardins Modernizes Quebec-based insurer will migrate 80 percent of its applications and data onto a modern Oracle/Unix platform by 2008. Ground-Breaking Event BCBSTX's focus on repeatable process and a standardized platform will benefit rollout of latest contact center. Contract News Alliances & Partnerships Back To Business Rapidfire Connection Fiserv Insurance Solutions (Brookfield, Wis.) and Scene Genesis (Rochester, N.Y.) will integrate their claims solutions -- Fiserv's Claims Workstation system and Scene Genesis' Scene Access and SceneConnect -- to streamline P&C claims settlements. Rating Risk Fitch Ratings (New York and London) unveiled Prism, a global economic insurance capital model that will be added to its evaluations of carriers' enterprise risk management. Compliance Automation Responding to growing pressure on insurers to comply with federal regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Federal Information Act and HIPAA, ControlPath (Englewood, Colo.) launched ControlPath Compliance Suite 3.0. Fulfilling Agent Requests As part of a strategy to facilitate growth and be more competitive in commercial auto, The Hanover Insurance Group (Worcester, Mass.; $2.6 billion in revenues) is providing its independent agents with an enhanced version of its point-of-sales system -- POS Avenues Commercial Auto system. Policy Roundup Frankfort, Ky.-based Investors Heritage ($433 million in total assets) has joined three other unnamed carriers in issuing life insurance policies under CrailHuntly's (Overland Park, Kan.) Combosurance package -- Basic Permanent.