COVER STORY The Top 10 Innovators of the Decade Meet the woman behind Aflac's famous duck, the CIO of the very first virtual insurance company and the man often credited as the inventor of blogging. Insurance & Technology presents 10 individuals whose ideas have helped bring the industry into the 21st Century. Related Image Gallery: I&T's Top 10 Innovators of the Decade Demystifying Innovation A new book defines four types of innovation and argues that by matching the appropriate type with a company's culture and leadership, the risks of innovation can be reduced. Insurance Industry Thought Leaders Speculate on Innovation through 2020 Technologies that debuted in the 2000s will mature during the next decade, driving ubiquitous computing, the analysis of an increasing number of data sources, and new levels of collaboration, among other areas of innovation, say industry thought leaders. How to Protect Your Intellectual Property Financial services firms build their businesses on innovation. Protecting those competitive advantages requires an acute understanding of copyrights, trade secrets and patents. SPECIAL REPORT Japan Earthquake: A CAT Management Retrospective The massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami and nuclear emergency in Japan have touched many insurers. But the full scope of the damage is still unknown. Pacific Quakes Herald Increasing CAT Losses To deal with mounting catastrophe losses, insurers and reinsurers need to improve CAT models, leverage claims processing and CAT management technologies globally and more judiciously diversify their books of business. INFRASTRUCTURE WATCH Prudential Builds Capacity to Support Over 1 Million Variable Annuity Transactions Daily Without a major investment in software, Prudential Annuities has enabled continued growth of its unique variable annuity products with complex risk management and living benefit guarantees. |
FROM THE EDITOR Developing a Corporate Culture for Better Business/IT Alignment Business/IT collaboration is a critical aspect of successful innovation -- so why is it still so hard to achieve? UPDATE McRaith a Favorable FIO Director Choice for Insurers The head of the Illinois Department of Insurance is well-equipped to represent both the merits of the existing state-based regime and also the legitimate concerns of insurance companies. Plymouth Rock To Release Direct Sales Application for Agents' Sites The Online Policy Purchase Tool will be incorporated into the auto carrier's corporate site, but will also be made available to its stable of independent agents so that they can add direct sales capability to their homepages. Main Street America SVP Lancashire Partners With Internal IT Team and Key Vendors to Compete With National Insurers The Jacksonville, Fla.-based super regional carrier's head of claims and integrated customer solutions is partnering with IT and external technology providers to achieve consistency, efficiency and improved service. VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLE What have recent disasters revealed about the insurance industry's ability to forecast, analyze and underwrite catastrophe risks? What tools and technologies do insurers need to manage these risks and respond to policyholders when catastrophe strikes? Flexibility Key to Catastrophe Management By David Kodama and Chris Hackett, PCI There are many tools available to help insurers gain the flexibility necessary to manage catastrophic risks. CAT Management Technology a Maturing Science By Donald Light, Celent Catastrophe modeling tools and data sets are much more sophisticated than five or 10 years ago but the practice itself remains a mix of art and science. Model Behavior: Assessing Catastrophe Risk By Jayanta Guin, AIR Worldwide The insurance industry has embraced catastrophe models to estimate the loss potential to their books of business and to give them the tools and information they need to choose between alternative strategies for managing that risk. Data Visualization and Analysis Tech as CAT Management Tools By Tom Link, SpatialKey Forward-thinking insurers are embracing web-based data visualization and analysis technologies to better manage their responses to major disasters. CASE STUDY Unitrin Finds a Home for Homeowners Insurance with DRC Unitrin Direct leverages the DRC policy admin system's ease of configurability to add homeowners coverage to its lines of business in just 10 months. |
