Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management articles from April 2009

Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management archives from April 2009

Executing Under Pressure.(COVER STORY: Policy Administration)(Company overview)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Pat Speer Moving forward on a forbidding economic playing field, most insurers hoping to modernize their policy admin systems are running flat. Yet CIOs who already allocated funds for core system upgrades are proceeding as...

7 Areas that U.S. P&C Carriers Must Address; P&C insures were lucky to escape relatively unscathed from the initial fallout of the financial crisis last year, but will they be so lucky this year?(Insurancenetworking.com)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Alex Vorro The forecast for 2009, according to a report from Ernst & Young's Global Insurance Center, calls for greater risks to the U.S. P&C industry due to continued volatility. "Insurers will need to address a wide range of...

Narrowing The Focus.(IT industry)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... While the economic downturn is not causing wholesale changes in IT budgets, it is shifting spending toward projects that can provide quick, demonstrable returns on investment. A February 2009 study conducted by Silver Spring, Md.-based AIIM...

Insurers to Feel Modest Impact from Stimulus Package.(Industry Priorities)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Bill Kenealy It's no mean feat connecting the fortunes of the insurance industry with the economy at large. Yet, Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute and an insurance industry economist, gives it a go....

Back Office Solutions.(Back Office)
April 1, 2009... ImageRight and Readsoft Partner on Offerings Conyers, Ga.-based content management and workflow technology provider ImageRight, and ReadSoft, a Metairie, La., developer of global document automation solutions, have announced a partnership...

Featured Stories on InsuranceNetworking.com.(Insurancenetworking.com)
April 1, 2009... Life Industry Preps for Accounting and Regulatory Changes The impending amendments offer adaptable insurers strategic advantages from the resulting structure, says a Conning Research study. Researchers: Why Use Aggregators? ...

A Separate Peace?
April 1, 2009... Byline: Bill Kenealy, Senior Editor The insurance industry may be large, but it is far from monolithic. From the editor's seat, the "industry" actually is an amalgamation of several constituencies. Agents and brokers have interlocking,...

Building the Network; Recognizing the potential for relationship building, a number of insurers turn to social media.(Front Office)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Alex Vorro If you build it, will they come? While that mentality may have worked for Kevin Costner in the movies, has fantasy now become reality for insurers trying to attract and retain customers with social networking? The...

Using Data to Keep Risk in the Crosshairs; Reinsurers used to operate on experience, intuition and a handshake. These days, they want data, too.(INNFocus-Reinsurance)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Ed McKinley Property/casualty reinsurers suddenly saw the need for catastrophe modeling and risk-concentration data in 1992, after Hurricane Andrew pulverized parts of the Bahamas, South Florida and the Louisiana coast. Desire...

Considering Self-Service; Carriers can see many benefits by providing service over the Web to commercial lines customers.(INN Sight)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Karlyn Carnahan Insurance carriers today are in the midst of a fundamental transformation of their distribution channel. As younger consumers increasingly expect to deal with their insurance providers directly through the Web, more...

RIAs Deliver Agility; Rich Internet applications offer insurers expanded opportunities to interact with customers, brokers and agents.(Vantage Point)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Nicole Kealey Web-based tools and services are nothing new in the insurance industry. For years, consumers, brokers and agents have been able to get quotes, submit claims or check the status of claims online. While offering these...

Choosing CRM Sides; CIOs consider integration and cultural choices when deciding between Software-as-a-Service and on-premise CRM.(Back Office)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Carrie Burns For years customer relationship management (CRM) has been questioned, analyzed, kicked around, thrown out, redesigned, etc. Some insurers report success through CRM, while others curse the day they implemented CRM...

Who's Buying What.
April 1, 2009... WEB-BASED BILLING SYSTEM The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), insurer of last resort for windstorm and hail coverage in the coastal counties of Texas, has signed with San Mateo, Calif.-based Guidewire Software Inc. to use its...

IT Budgets Withstand Economic Maelstrom; While macroeconomic conditions may buffet the industry, carriers are largely staying the course on IT spending.(Industry Priorities)
April 1, 2009... Byline: Ed McKinley The events of the past year were too momentous not to impact the industry. But economic upheaval has hit insurers in different ways. Some are continuing to forge ahead with their IT projects. And still others expect the...