Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management articles from August 2005

Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management archives from August 2005

Closing the Loop on Lifecycle Management @SH#Automating asset management processes was a no-brainer for Guardian Life's dedicated IT Asset management team.(Guardian Life Insurance Company of America)
August 1, 2005... In a perfect world, maintaining IT assets would entail faultless consistency: reliable hardware, software and support services, a trusted team in place that would optimize integration and functionality through each asset's lifecycle, and the...

C-level Execs Demand Faster Ramp-Up, More Front-Office Services.(outsourcing)
August 1, 2005... The decision to send IT operations overseas is often viewed in the pejorative by IT line personnel, who feel they must continuously "skill up" or face the unemployment line. Though carriers are often reluctant to publicize their strategies,...

Know Thy Customer.(Cover Story)
August 1, 2005... Customer service can be performed and measured in many ways. In this month's cover story, the nuances of customer relationship management-performance monitoring and analysis-play a big role in insurer's success. Being able to provide high...

Carriers Unaware of IP Ownership Threats and Opportunities.(intellectual property)
August 1, 2005... Do the numbers 705/4 mean anything to you? What about the name Ronald Katz? If not, you may want to pay more attention to what's happening in the patent world. The numbers 705/4 represent the U.S. Patent Office classification for insurance...

Who is Ronald Katz? And Why Should You Care?
August 1, 2005... In the 1980s, an inventor named Ronald A. Katz secured approximately 50 patents related to the technology that links a telephone to a computer. Since the early 1990s, Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing LP and its affiliate A2D LP have gone...

Who Is Providing What.(call centers)
August 1, 2005... A number of different IT skill sets are a requirement for any offshore enterprise, and the specific area of expertise offered by offshore service providers differs from country to country. According to Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass.,...

Outsourcing Now More Sophisticated.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Vendors that provide both domestic and offshore outsourcing services have gained significant insurance expertise, according to Forrester, a Cambridge, Mass, research company. Most major outsourcers have developed insurance-specific reusable...

Compliance, Pay-back Driving ECM.(enterprise content management )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... A survey conducted by AIIM, a Silver Spring, Md., enterprise content management (ECM) association, reveals that while cost reduction is still dominant in driving ECM decisions, compliance and payback are growing in popularity. AIIM...

Industry Still Debating State, Federal Control.
August 1, 2005... In one corner, a number of professional organizations support federal regulation of the insurance industry. And, on the opposite side of the ring, other groups support state oversight. The debate over state and federal regulatory control seems...

NAIC Moves forward on Financial Reporting Changes.(National Association of Insurance Commissioners)
August 1, 2005... The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) has been studying how portions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act can be applied to state regulatory reform. The Title IV working group is specifically concerned with what it considers to...

People On The Move.(Aon Corp. Appoints Bill Pieroni)(Mark Robison Elected As Insurance Accounting & Systems Association President)(Hartford Financial Services Group Inc Appointed Terry Walker)
August 1, 2005... AON Names Bill Pieroni Global CIO Brokerage giant Aon Corp. has appointed Bill Pieroni global chief information officer. Pieroni joins Aon from IBM, where he was head of that company's global insurance industry practice. He has extensive...

Rolling Out the Red Carpet: After spending millions of dollars on disappointing CRM projects, then focusing their efforts on call center performance systems, many insurers are now catering to the 'C' in CRM.
August 1, 2005... We all remember the horror stories about customer relationship management projects gone awry: XYZ Insurance Co. spent $5 million in 2000 on a CRM engagement, and another $2 million on software, only to find out a year into implementation that...

If It's Broke, Fix It.(Opus Group LLC)
August 1, 2005... Insurance executives don't like to talk publicly about their technology failures, but the people they rely on to bail them out will. Michael Callaghan is one of those people. The CEO of Opus Group LLC, a Chicago-based operational...

Web Services Deliver Speed, Interoperability: Carrier opts for scalability, modularity in its quest to improve ratings, time to market.(Electric Insurance Company)
August 1, 2005... Computers are supposed to shorten or take over routine tasks for us, freeing human brains and hands for creative projects beyond the capabilities of machinery. Frequently, however, users find themselves at the mercy of their mainframes,...

Web Services Defined.(Extensible Markup Language)
August 1, 2005... The idea for Web services is not new, although the most enthusiasm being shown for it is still by higher-level programming experts and theoreticians. On a practical level, Web services streamlines processing by allowing businesses to...

Lift and Shift Migration Puts One Platform in Play: Canadian insurer opts off the mainframe to embrace an open platform.(Lombard Canada Ltd.)
August 1, 2005... In the late 1990s, when insurance firms were running high loss ratios (from 110 to 130), Lombard Canada Ltd., one of the oldest property and casualty insurance operations in Ontario, hired a consulting firm to assess its underwriting and claims...

Performance Management: AAA Life Paves New Data Routes: Accelerated growth prompts carrier to take a second look at the tools used to manage financials.(AAA Life Insurance Co.)
August 1, 2005... Since the beginning of the decade, it's been pedal to the metal for AAA Life Insurance Co.. The organization, which offers term and universal life products, fixed annuities, and travel accident insurance to AAA members, has grown from 75...

Business Alliances.(Guidewire Software Inc.)(AMS Services Inc.)(Fiserv Inc.)(Instar Corp.)(Interactive Technologies Inc)(Red Oak Software Inc.)
August 1, 2005... GUIDEWIRE, RED OAK PARTNER ON E-CLAIMS A partnership between Guidewire, San Mateo, Calif., and Clarksville, Va.-based Red Oak E-Commerce Solutions will enable Guidewire users to file state-mandated claim reports through WorkComp.NET,...

Products.(Accenture Ltd.)(SAP America Inc.)(Electronic Records Compliance Information Center)
August 1, 2005... BILLING AND PAYMENTS FOR MIDSIZE INSURERS Bermuda-based Accenture, and SAP America Inc., Newton Square, Pa., have combined their respective experience in the insurance and software industries to create a pre-configured billing and payments...

Benefits Portal Builds Direct Relationships: After five years of operation and one million registrants, MetLife's employee benefits portal may be the company's bridge to individual, employee-consumer sales.
August 1, 2005... Not only is self-service technology helping employer-clients control benefit administration costs, it might also be insurance carriers' missing link to employee consumers once they leave the workplace. This potential is not lost on...

e.Business Briefs.(Association For Cooperative Operations Research And Development)(Agents Council For Technology)
August 1, 2005... ACT Outlines Ways to Improve Commercial Lines Download During the past year, the Agents Council for Technology (ACT), working closely with ACORD and agency management system user groups, has undertaken a major initiative to make commercial...

Contracts.(Contracts In Insurance Indsutry)
August 1, 2005... The Contracts Update section includes announcements of contracts insurance information technology companies have signed with customers in recent weeks. Contract news can be faxed to Insurance Networking News magazine at (312) 913-1366 or by...

Claims Self-Service: A Good Claim Is A Closed Claim.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Although online claims filing could radically reduce costs associated with human touchpoints, the majority of consumers still file their P&C claims through either a call center (52%) or through their agent (37%). That's according to a recent...

Index Of Advertisers.(Brief Article)(Directory)
August 1, 2005... Advertiser Site Addresses Page # Adobe Systems adobe.com/idp 2-3 Bill Matrix www.billmatrix.com 35 ...

Follow Pragmatic Approach to STP: Straight-through processing has the potential to increase operational efficiency, but insurers should take a practical approach.
August 1, 2005... Insurance companies are under constant pressure to acquire new business to respond to market demands and competitive pressures. Insurers realize they must improve the efficiency, scalability, and flexibility of their new business processing...