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

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

Deadly Pandemic May Close Down The Unprepared: A forward thinking logistics and technology plan can keep a carrier operating even during a deadly, long-term influenza pandemic.
February 1, 2007... Despite dire warnings from health officials and risk experts, only a tiny percentage of the nation's insurance carriers have developed formal plans to keep their businesses running in the face of a deadly, long-term influenza pandemic. ...

IT Best Practices: With Help from ITIL, Business Comes First.(Information Technology Infrastructure Library)
February 1, 2007... ITIL, the IT Infrastructure Library, entered the North American consciousness just in time to help shift the focus from putting technology first to putting business first. It's a change that amounts to a seismic jolt to the culture of insurance...

IT Asset Management: Aging Techno Marvels Sometimes Defy Disposal.
February 1, 2007... Disposal represents one of the biggest points of failure in computer asset management because companies just don't know how many assets they have, where they are located, who's using them or what specific data resides on them, says Gartner...

It Isn't That Simple.(Property and casualty insurance)
February 1, 2007... There has been no end of bad press for the property and casualty insurance industry this month. Allegations of price gauging, faulty catastrophe models and calls for a congressional probe into post-Katrina hurricane claims flooded the news...

ASPs Finding New Markets, Overcoming Old Objections: Application service providers aren't just for the little guys any more. Carriers use ASPs to cut costs and reduce time to market.
February 1, 2007... Forget the stereotypes-ASP isn't just for small, IT-challenged carriers any more, and many of the ASP problems that gave insurance companies pause only a few years ago are being solved. Dollar savings and fast time to market are still big...

News Briefs.(nationwide health information network )(www.nuestrobien.com)
February 1, 2007... MODELS UNVEILED FOR NATIONWIDE HEALTH NETWORK Prototypes for a standards-based nationwide health information network (NHIN) were scheduled for presentation at a conference last month in Washington, according to the U.S. Department of Health...

A Matter Of Focus.(Safety Insurance Group Inc.)
February 1, 2007... Safety Insurance, a Boston P&C insurer that does about 80% of its business in personal lines auto, operates in one of the most competitive and highly regulated markets in the country, according to vice president of insurance operations Jim...

Solutions.(Adobe Systems Inc. introduced Adobe Acrobat Connect software)(RPost and SettlementRoom in agreement )(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... ADOBE EXPANDS ACROBAT Adobe Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., introduced Adobe Acrobat Connect software, a Web conference and collaboration product with "always-on" personal meeting rooms. It is designed to enable workers to connect online...

News Briefs.(National Association of Insurance Commissioners' code of ethics for insurance industry)(Baljit Dail promoted)(LIMRA International and LOMA merger)
February 1, 2007... TIME TO REVIEW ETHICS: LAW FIRM The Lawson Firm, a Cleveland-based law firm that provides legal and compliance management services to the insurance industry, urges companies to review their codes of ethics in light of new annual and...

Solutions.(partnership of NAFCU Services Corp. and BioPassword Inc.)(XAware Inc. introduced XA-Suite 4.3)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... NEW SOA TOOL OFFERS DRAG and DROP XAware Inc., a Colorado Springs, Colo., provider of integration software released XA-Suite 4.3, the latest version of XAware's flagship service oriented architecture (SOA) solution. The new suite...

Special Report: What Other Industries Can Teach Carriers: It isn't stealing, honest. Insurers are learning from innovations currently in play in manufacturing, banking and other markets.(W.L. Gore & Associates Inc.)
February 1, 2007... W.L. Gore & Associates is about as far removed from the financial services industry as any company can get. Newark, N.J.-based Gore, best known as the creator of the durable GORE-TEX fabric so popular in outdoor wear, is a manufacturer of...

Knowledge Transfer, Knowledge Gap?(Insurance industry)
February 1, 2007... The trend toward cross-fertilization of solutions across industries has managers in many markets starting to bring in fresh thinking and new approaches to problems. However, transferring a solution from one industry to another is more than...

Once Can Be Enough When Entering Data: Farmers Mutual of Nebraska has eliminated a time-consuming step in claims estimating.
February 1, 2007... Not many adjusters would argue against technology as a means of easing their workload-certainly not the adjusters at Farmers Mutual of Nebraska. After all, the company's claims estimating system was efficiently processing information at the...

State of SOA Governance.
February 1, 2007... Organizations across a number of industries, including insurance, are either exploring SOA or have already deployed SOA, according to a new survey. The study was conducted by ebizQ, a New Rochelle, N.Y.-based online publisher of information on...

SOA: IT Fountain of Youth?: Service-oriented architecture can bring out the best in legacy systems.(Andy Labrot of Innovation Group Ltd.)(Interview)
February 1, 2007... How can SOA help carriers? That's what Insurance Networking News asked Andy Labrot, chief technology officer for the Innovation Group, Hartford, Conn. Labrot has 20 years of IT experience and leads his company's R&D efforts. INN: As...

News Briefs.(Business process management suites)(email management)
February 1, 2007... BPMS Said To Cut cost and boost compliance Business process management suites (BPMS) show promise for insurance applications, but to date the applications have been limited, according to Boston-based Forrester Research Inc. Most BPMS...

Disposal Questions.(Electronic Industries Alliance launches web site for helping customers to know about the usage of electronics)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The Electronic Industries Alliance, headquartered in Arlington, Va., provides a Web site to help consumers find electronics recycling, reuse and donation programs in every state across the country. The Web site, www.ecyclingcentral.com, also...

Solutions.(IPLocks Inc. launches IPLocks database security and compliance solution version 6.0.)(TerreStar Network Inc. and CGI Group Inc. form partnership)
February 1, 2007... DATABASE SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE San Jose, Calif.-based IPLocks Inc. released IPLocks Database Security and Compliance Solution Version 6.0. Report capabilities include pre-packaged SOX report templates and a custom report engine to...

Information SWAT Team: For the newly named business information group at Hartford Life, turning data into actionable information is more than a rescue and recovery effort: it's a step toward profitable growth.(Planco)
February 1, 2007... No one ever said guiding a distribution network to optimal performance is easy. The insurance and financial services industry's supply chain is as complex as ever, and carriers across all lines want to exploit its value. How do you know...

News Briefs.(American International Group Inc. formed centralized-Customer Link And Information Management)(Lloyd's of London)
February 1, 2007... CENTRALIZED CLAIMS STREAMLINE FLOW, BOOST EFFICIENCY The AIG Companies of New York-based American International Group Inc. formed "c-Claim" (centralized-Customer Link And Information Management) to process financial lines claims more...

Solutions.
February 1, 2007... DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE EASES TASKS Optical Image Technology Inc., based in State College, Pa, released the 9.0.5.7 upgrade of DocFinity PowerIndexing, adding the product to the DocFinity suite of document management software. The...

Communicating in Real Time: State-of-the-art, comprehensive enterprise communications can help keep customers satisfied, while reducing time to market.
February 1, 2007... Two factors that define a customer's image of an insurance provider are the quality of the buying experience and the effectiveness of the underlying communication. That's why carriers find a comprehensive enterprise communications platform...

Who's Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services.(Canal Insurance Co. and Trumbull Services in agreement)(U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc. deploys Skywire Software's Policyware)(Farm Mutual Reinsurance Plan Inc. and Magic Software Enterprises Inc. in agreement)
February 1, 2007... CANAL SELECTS TRUMBULL FOR SUBROGATION MGT. Canal Insurance Co., Greenville, S.C., entered an agreement with Trumbull Services, Windsor, Conn., to use Trumbull's Subrooutsource, an internally developed, advanced system designed to enhance...

Ad Index For February 2007.(advertisements)(Website list)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Advertiser Website Address Page # Acxiom www.acxiom.com CV2 Adminserver www.adminserver.com CV3 BillMatrix www.billmatrix.com 25 Cingular www.cingular.com/broadbandconnect 2 Group 1...

Putting Silos Out to Pasture: Relatively new laws allow combinations of life, annuity and long-term care. Expect a frenzy of product introductions.
February 1, 2007... Passage of the Pension Protection Act in August 2006 has made siloed IT designs obsolete. Life, annuity and long-term care combinations are now acceptable from a tax and regulatory compliance perspective. Recent pension legislation allows...