Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management articles from December 2007

Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management archives from December 2007

Claims Process Altered By New Technologies.
December 1, 2007... Viewed from afar, the claims process has not changed markedly in many decades. Despite new technologies being leveraged in many aspects of claims, for too many insurers, the claims process as a whole remains a manually intensive, inefficient...

Text Analytics Provides Insight into the Business.
December 1, 2007... Analytics isn't a new concept, but considering the way insurers now use it, it may as well be. Where once fraud was the issue to enter insurers' minds when they heard the term analytics, they have now found more ways to use this technology. One...

Winds of Change: Incorporating Mobility.
December 1, 2007... You can't hop into a cab, step into an elevator or walk down the street without passing someone using a Blackberry, iPhone or other type of mobile device. Business professionals, students, police and even your kids are connected every second of...

Regulatory Overkill or Politics as Usual?
December 1, 2007... It's no secret that the insurance industry takes a relatively dire view of regulatory compliance. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) is reported to have cost public companies across all verticals $35 billion last year. If the popular press is...

Scientific Approach Keeps Agency on the Fast Track: Adding metrics to customer touch points results in agency's ability to increase first-call closes and improve overall sales.
December 1, 2007... Insurance.com is an INNovators Award Winner runner-up, chosen for its approach to improving its quoting process. Actuarial activities aside, insurers in the midst of trying to improve market share don't typically incorporate strategies that...

News Briefs.
December 1, 2007... MOBILE RESPONSE HELPS FIRE VICTIMS Two insurers are going the extra mile to help their policyholders affected by wildfires by deploying mobile response vehicles to the disaster area. Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Group of Cos. is...

Solutions.
December 1, 2007... ONE-CLICK AGENCY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AMS Services, Bothell, Wash., released AMS Sagitta 7.2. This latest release delivers new features designed to enhance customer usability, increase performance and enable direct integration with two...

Sniffing Out Claims Fraud Before the Check is Cut: Thanks to new technologies, carriers are unearthing fraud such as "rent-a-patient" schemes and physician upcoding.
December 1, 2007... In a health care insurance scam that knew no limits in outright audacity, two Los Angeles doctors were indicted (one has so far pleaded guilty) on fraud charges for submitting fraudulent bills and patient records to numerous insurance...

News Briefs.(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... LIBERTY UNVEILS COMMERCIAL PRODUCT Liberty Mutual Property, a subsidiary of Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group, has launched RM Custom Select Commercial Real Estate. The product is intended to complement the broad, all-risk property policy...

Solutions.
December 1, 2007... ADVANCED DATA SECURITY Entensys Corp., Herndon, Va., released version 4.2 of UserGate Proxy and Internet Security Server, with antivirus engines from Madrid-based Panda Security and Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab Inc. The antivirus engines are...

Agencies Can Benefit From Implementing ECM: Agencies that have not begun to embrace enterprise content management and workflow may have already missed the boat.
December 1, 2007... INN caught up with Don Elias, president of Conyers, Ga.-based ImageRight, who explains why carriers and agents need to be on the same page when it comes to enterprise content management. INN: The benefits of enterprise content management...

Property Data Strategies: A Three-Point Model: A routine, "fit-for-purpose" data assessment helps carriers plan wisely.
December 1, 2007... The world is awash in data. Just spend a few minutes on the Internet and you'll find hundreds of companies offering data purported to support your business and bring you value. Only a few years ago, technology designed to collect, warehouse and...

Solutions.
December 1, 2007... MOBILE ROUTER INTEGRATES WITH ENTERPRISE PBXS RoamAnywhere mobility router from Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Agito Networks Inc. uses RF-based, location-aware technologies to mobilize voice and data applications, while remaining agnostic to...

Consumers Will Abandon Problematic Web Sites.(Website overview)
December 1, 2007... Insurance customers won't tolerate difficult navigation, endless loops that prevent transactions or other Web site challenges, according to survey results released by San Francisco-based Tealeaf Technology Inc. The survey, conducted by...

Solutions.
December 1, 2007... PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT APP CENTRALIZES INFORMATION Skywire Software, a Frisco, Texas-based provider of software and services for the insurance industry, released Launcher, an application designed to improve, coordinate and measure the process...

Who's Buying What: Recent Deals For Technology Software And Services.
December 1, 2007... AT&T PROVIDES NETWORK SERVICES FOR PROASSURANCE AT&T Inc., San Antonio, Texas, has announced a two-year contract with ProAssurance Group for more than $1 million in network services. In addition to establishing virtual private network (VPN)...

INN December 2007 Editorial Index.(Editorial)
December 1, 2007... Company Name Page # Acxiom Corp. 8 Agito Networks Inc. 26 Allstate Insurance Co. 6, 24 American Hardware Mutual Insurance...

Ad Index For December 2007.(Directory)(Table)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Advertiser Website Address Page CSC www.csc-fs.com/claimsaugust 17 Firserv www.fiservinsurance.com C2 IASA www.iasa.org 11 Insurance Services Office www.iso.com 17 Kaplan Financial...

Transparency is Crucial in Distribution Channels: Accuracy and visibility are vital in maintaining a motivated sales force and rolling out new products.
December 1, 2007... In the world of insurance, independent distribution channels or large numbers of captive agents/brokers are all working to sell a product. Remember, those in your channel care less about your products than how they get paid. So what...