Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management articles from December 2008

Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management archives from December 2008

Legacy Systems: Is the Reaper Near?(Feature: Legacy Systems)(Company overview)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Daniel Joelson In 2007, Capitol Indemnity Corp. (CIC) began to prepare to enter a new business-commercial automobile insurance-and expand its worker's compensation business. A national P&C firm that writes business on both a...

The Policy Admin Paradox; Carriers need to focus on enterprise linkage to avoid applying a modern solution to old business requirements.(Counterpoint)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Deb Smallwood Policy Administration systems are a hot topic across the industry, just as it was when I entered into insurance in 1978. My first COBOL programming assignment was on a new workers' compensation policy admin system...

The Near-Future of Personal Auto Insurance; The future will bring accelerated change enabled by technology that can help carriers either reduce costs or improve retention.(InSight)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Chad Hersh Personal auto is leading the insurance industry down a path of change, for both technology and business. The future will bring accelerated change, with laggards being forced to become fast followers and leaders...

SOLUTIONS.(Enterprisewide)
December 1, 2008... E-MAIL ARCHIVING SOLUTION Santa Clara, Calif.-based Mimosa Systems Inc. has partnered with Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tokyo-based Hitachi Ltd., combining Hitachi's Content Archive Platform (HCAP) and Mimosa...

Direct Taxonomy Reaps Many Indirect Benefits; The Hartford recognizes that employing an enterprise taxonomy works wonders for their Web site and other areas as well.(Back Office)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Alex Vorro While many people may think taxonomies are mostly the topic of a boring 11th grade biology class lecture in which they dozed off, they're missing out on something that can bring great value to the business. Just ask The...

SOLUTIONS.(Back Office)
December 1, 2008... HEALTH PLAN ANALYTICS Portico Systems, a portfolio company of Wayne, Pa.-based Safeguard Scientifics Inc., and provider of integrated provider management solutions, launched Portico Insight, a health plan analytics solution designed to...

Who's Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services.
December 1, 2008... CONNER STRONG SELECTS VIRTUAL IT INFRASTRUCTURE Conner Strong, a Cherry Hill, N.J.-based insurance and employee benefits brokerage, selected Rochester, N.Y.-based PAETEC Holding Corp. to deploy a virtual IT infrastructure. The network...

The Power of the Cloud; Today's computing methods can provide small insurers with access to the same technology previously only open to larger IT shops.(Vantage Point)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Andy Scurto Every couple hundred years or so, development takes a big jump. In the 20th century alone, we went from party lines to cell phones, Model Ts to smart cars and radio to plasma televisions. Technology and computing have...

SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE: Insurers Become More Comfortable With SaaS.(Industry Priorities)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Joe McKendrick Over the past year, the concepts of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing have been hot properties. They have been the "it" topic at industry conferences, and vendors have been scrambling to release their...

MOBILE COMPUTING: Mobile Tools - Nascent Technology for the Taking.(Enterprisewide)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Pat Speer As the throng of baby boomers, ages life and annuity insurers, asset managers, financial consultants and banks are competing aggressively for the retirement market. The mobile sales tools being used by these groups...

Ready to Redefine Yourself? Look Within First.(Commentary)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Pat Speer, Editor-In-Chief Many in the insurance industry, no doubt, are anxious to close out 2008, and not look back on what has been one of the most turbulent and, therefore, challenging years for commerce in our lifetimes. ...

New Options Debut in Insurers' Call Centers; Carriers are rethinking the role of technology in this crucial, customer-facing area.(Front Office)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Jim Romeo Today's call center requires technical heft to help firms within the insurance industry focus on the customer and build strategic advantage. This often demands a continual investment in technology. Such investment though,...

SOLUTIONS.(Front Office)
December 1, 2008... CALL CENTER EXCHANGE LiveOps, Santa Clara, Calif., announced its Call Center Exchange Program aimed at helping call center outsourcers rapidly expand or update their existing technology with the LiveOps On-Demand Call Center Platform. This...

Do You Know BPM?(Statistically Speaking)
December 1, 2008... Only 25% of respondents to a recent study by Silver Spring, Md.-based non-profit organization, Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) felt business process management (BPM) was well understood and addressed within their...

Lost in the Clouds.(Industry Priorities)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Bill Kenealy Much like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's famous admission that he couldn't define obscenity but "knew it when he saw it," it's probably easier to identify instances of cloud computing, than to clearly define...

SOLUTIONS.(Industry Priorities)
December 1, 2008... ONLINE VERIFICATION Insurance carriers are now installing IVANS Auto Liability Insurance Reporting Online Verification (OLV) application onto their systems to comply with new state mandates aimed at reducing insurance fraud and the number...