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

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

A Market Ripe for the Picking?: A thorny mass of complex channels, products and competition is making technology a mandate for life insurers trying to harvest the most value from their distribution networks.(Company Profile)
December 1, 2005... Creating economic value from distribution has never been more difficult for life insurers trying to increase business and reduce costs. Balancing the complexities inherent in a competitive marketplace, more than 1,000 U.S. companies currently...

Insurers Gear Up for Implementation: Obstacles such as cost, security and legacy systems have stymied Web services adoption, but the industry appears to be ready to overcome them.
December 1, 2005... Talk concerning the benefits that Web services can bring to the insurance industry has run rampant during the past few years. But talk is cheap-and Web services, on the other hand, can be expensive. That leaves one perplexing question: When...

Online Soapboxes Get Down to Business.
December 1, 2005... They began in the late 1990s as personal Web sites for hobbyist-authors to climb on their soapboxes, voice their opinions and reveal their daily activities to the whole wide world. Today, there are more than 17 million "blogs"-short for...

A Rising Tide Raises All the Boats.
December 1, 2005... How important is your distribution network? Is it the lifeline of your business? What if your distribution network was a finely tuned machine, cranking out more business than capacity allows? As seen in our cover story, carriers agree that...

Alliances.(Deloitte Consulting LLP acquired Technology Consultants Inc.)(Fair Isaac Corp., acquired RulesPower Inc)(Jacada Ltd., contract with Avaya GlobalConnect)
December 1, 2005... DELOITTE CONSULTING ACQUIRES BENCHMARKING FIRM TCI New York-based Deloitte Consulting LLP has purchased certain assets of Technology Consultants Inc. (TCi), a Cresskill, N.J.-based provider of benchmarking and advisory services to the...

Contracts.
December 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...

Insurers Turn the Tables in Banking.
December 1, 2005... Since 2000, when the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill made it possible for banks to enter the insurance business, the selling world has seen an invasion of financial institutions, such as Wachovia and BB&T, who have bought insurance agencies or created...

News: Two Insurers Take Lead with Payment Options.
December 1, 2005... Although insurance carriers have been slower than banks in adopting e-billing and e-payment technologies (see "Carriers Have Some Catching Up to Do, page 33), two insurers recently have taken a lead in this area. Esurance, a San...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2005... In the November "Texas Farm Bureau Steers Ahead of the Curve" story, the date listed for first-phase implementation of Sapiens' INSIGHT product should be 2005. INN regrets the error. (c) 2005 Insurance Networking News and SourceMedia, Inc....

SEMCI: Not Yet Ready for Prime Time: Despite its promise to make agents' lives easier, carriers hesitate to support real-time access to multiple carriers-and agents have other priorities.(single entry multiple carrier interface)
December 1, 2005... In this age of Blackberries and instant messaging, insurance carriers and agents alike are focused on finding high-tech solutions to conduct their businesses. Enter: Single Entry Multiple Carrier Interface-also known as SEMCI. The concept...

Putting Out Fires with Location Technology: Insurance firms are increasingly adopting location intelligence technology to boost profits, price risk more accurately and appease state regulators.
December 1, 2005... As wildfires scorched California's Los Angeles and Ventura counties in October, thousands of firefighters tried desperately to extinguish the flames that-fanned by dry winds-threatened to spread. Homeowners weren't the only ones following...

Health Insurer Turns Hardware Replacement into a CRM Overhaul: Faced with an aging phone system, Medical Mutual makes the most of a new communications network to transform its call centers into award-winning operations.
December 1, 2005... When you've got a lemon, make lemonade. That's basically what Medical Mutual of Ohio did when the Cleveland-based health insurer decided it was time to ditch its 15-year old phone system. While installing a new private branch exchange (PBX)...

Insurers Turn to Risk-Based Capital Management to Add Value: World-class risk and capital management is a source of competitive advantage, and in recent years a number of insurers have invested heavily to ensure it is an integral part of their decision-making processes.
December 1, 2005... All financial institutions are faced with a basic business question: What is the best use of available funds? Historically, within the insurance industry, this issue of capital allocation has been addressed using some very basic projections of...

Products.(Eagle Technology Management Inc new financial reporting software)(GlassHouse Technologies Inc offer new security service)(Relicore Inc released clarity software)
December 1, 2005... EO2 INTERFACE FOR WINGS Eagle Technology Management Inc., a Marion, Iowa, software provider, has made version 3.0 of its WINGS financial reporting system available, which features a new EO2 (Excel/Outlook2) interface. Through EO2's Outlook...

Electronic Billing: Carriers Have Some Catching Up to Do: While electronic billing is helping shepherd most financial services groups into the technology of the 21st century, insurers have been slow to hop onto the e-billing bandwagon. And that's something of an enigma.
December 1, 2005... By converting from paper to e-billing, companies can reap appreciable cost savings, achieve significant efficiencies, hasten incoming payments, gain greater accuracy in accounting and invoicing systems, and reduce labor operations. But...

Life Insurers Stand to Gain.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... The debate in the industry over an optional federal charter for insurance companies has been brewing for several years. But now, there are some numbers that attest to the value of a single federal regulator-at least for the life insurance...

Index Of Advertisers.
December 1, 2005... Advertiser/Site Addresses Page # AT&T and Sun Microsystems www.att.com/strategicpartners/att_sun_microsystems_html 5 Bill Matrix www.billmatrix.com 11 Fair Isaac Web Seminar...

Bridge Approach Better than Big Bang: Taking a bridge-and hollow-out approach to replacing legacy policy systems holds less risk, more control.
December 1, 2005... Few P&C carriers are satisfied with their existing policy administration systems. But while most would like to benefit from modern technology solutions, getting there can be a daunting challenge. Developed using now-ancient languages like...