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

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

CEOs See The Light: Global IT Budgets Get Some Respect.
January 1, 2007... Around the world, CEOs at insurance companies are slowly coming to the conclusion that they need smoothly running IT departments if their companies are to remain competitive. As a result, IT projects and budgets are getting some respect and are...

In Early Stages: Annuities Business Becoming Paperless.(Pacific Life Insurance Co. automates annuities business )
January 1, 2007... Buttressed by the efforts of annuities associations, technology firms and broker/dealers, Pacific Life Insurance Co. is among the insurance firms leading a long-term, yet determined drive to make the annuities business paperless. Though its...

Pinpoints Profits: New Software Smoothes Road to Compensation.(technology application of insurance industry, trends)
January 1, 2007... The road seems less bumpy these days for insurance carriers that use state-of-the-art automated compensation to calculate and track agents' commissions. A single streamlined third-party system can replace a hodgepodge of legacy software and...

Finding the Cat's Eye.(technology application, vendor relations of insurance industry, ranking of insurance technology providers)
January 1, 2007... Imagine reaching deep into a seemingly bottomless bucket filled with marbles. One cat's eye is hidden in the massive assortment, and it's your job to pull it out-in one try. Retrieving that prize won't be easy. In a similar vein, many a...

News Briefs.(Empire Life Insurance Company enhances its universal life insurance product, survey results of online insurance customers, Aetna Inc. launches an interactive voice response system)
January 1, 2007... INSURER ENHANCES ONLINE DATA The Empire Life Insurance Company (Empire Life) enhanced Trilogy, its universal life product that continues to evolve to meet the changing financial and wealth management needs of Canadians. The enhancements...

Solutions.(Whitehill Technologies Inc., Catcher Inc. and Witness Systems Inc. launches new software solutions for insurance industry)
January 1, 2007... RECORDING SOFTWARE Witness Systems Inc., a Roswell, Ga.-based global provider of workforce optimization software and services, enhanced its Impact 360 IP Recording solution, featuring tripled channel capacity, unified recording management...

European Insurers See BPO as Vital: Despite myriad challenges for insurers and service providers, BPO in Europe is on the rise.
January 1, 2007... It's the same old adage: a penny saved is a penny earned. For many insurers, that means a boost in 2007 outsourced services. But for an up-and-coming group of carriers, that penny translates to a one-pence, kroner, deutsche mark or Euro. ...

News Briefs.(email management of organizations, end user problems, insurance claims management trends)(Report)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... E-MAIL TREATED CASUALLY Most organizations make heavy use of e-mail, yet most organizations continue to maintain a casual attitude toward its management. Such is the finding from a study conducted by AIIM (the Silver Spring, Md.,...

Alliances.(Exstream Software Inc. entered co-marketing partnership with Fiserv Inc., Docucorp International agreement with Skywire Software)
January 1, 2007... FISERV, EXSTREAM PARTNER ON DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS Exstream Software Inc., a Lexington, Ky., provider of enterprise document personalization solutions, entered a co-marketing partnership with Fiserv Insurance Solutions, a Cedar...

Who's Doing What in European BPO.(business process outsourcing)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Company: Activity Aviva, London: May be Europe's most visible exponent of BPO. Recently announced it has cut annual costs in general insurance by [pounds sterling]250 million, specifically mentioning its decision to outsource hundreds of...

Solutions.(Software AG, InsFocus Systems Ltd., TraceSecurity launch software solutions)
January 1, 2007... RECORD INTEGRITY Surety, LLC, Herndon, Va., released AbsoluteProof-ISOX9, a timestamp service that's conformant with the American National Standard X9.95-2005 Trusted Time Stamp Management and Security Standard (ANSI X9.95) and the...

Why An Innovation Award?: Insurance Networking News establishes the INNovators of the Year award to advance the spread of knowledge in the insurance industry.
January 1, 2007... Does it pay to peek over the neighbor's fence? It does if you discover a better way to mow the lawn. In the spirit of sharing best practices for the benefit of everyone involved, Insurance Networking News announces the first annual INNovators...

Clients Flee Bad Sites.(insurance company websites, survey among user groups)
January 1, 2007... Insurance web sites can do more than simply help consumers obtain a quote or submit a claim. A customer-friendly site creates a good impression of the company, while a bad one may have the opposite effect. Consumers who have problems on a site...

The Age of E-Discovery: It's a whole new era as the Feds create rules for handling electronic documents during litigation. Now, every case is an e-discovery case.(Jon Neiditz of Bissell & Brook)(Interview)
January 1, 2007... How will changes in federal rules on e-discovery affect insurers? To find out, Insurance Networking News talked with Jon Neiditz, an attorney with Lord, Bissell & Brook. Neiditz has helped more than thirty insurers and reinsurers adjust to the...

Solutions.(Oleansoft, Insightix and Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. launches software solutions)
January 1, 2007... DESKTOP SURVEILLANCE Hidden Camera 250x1 from Oleansoft, headquartered in Chicago, offers a software-based electronic surveillance system to monitor desktop activities across corporate networks. It controls both productivity and security....

Making the Marriage Work: The stakes are high for insurers of all sizes as they forge successful long-term agreements with their technology providers.
January 1, 2007... Fantasy: convinced by your technology vendor that its bleeding-edge policy administration system will seamlessly integrate with your existing network and infrastructure, slide like butter down your users' palates and establish record turnaround...

News Briefs.(study on trends of adoption of software as a service by insurance industry, Guy Carpenter & Company Ltd. automates claims settlement, Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. partners with LCG LewisCo Group)(Report)
January 1, 2007... SAAS GAINING ACCEPTANCE IN EUROPE The pace of adopting software as a service (SaaS) is accelerating in Europe, according to a report by Celent, a research firm headquartered in Boston. In the study, titled "Software as a Service in...

Solutions.(Metropolitan Reporting Bureau partnered with Guidewire Software Inc., Docubase Systems Inc. launches Docubase Information Suite, Infogix develops Infogix EM)
January 1, 2007... PUBLIC SAFETY REPORTS MELDED WITH SOFTWARE Metropolitan Reporting Bureau, a Philadelphia-based supplier of public safety reports, and Guidewire Software Inc., San Mateo, Calif., a software provider, have formed an alliance to improve claims...

Who's Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services.(Grain Dealers Mutual Insurance Co. partnered with ChoicePoint Inc., Meadowbrook Insurance Group Inc. with Adeptia Inc., World Life and Health Insurance Company of Pennsylvania partnered with Electronic Data Systems Corp.)
January 1, 2007... GRAIN DEALERS UPGRADE POLICY ADMIN CAPABILITIES Grain Dealers Mutual Insurance Co. upgraded its policy administration capabilities with Policy Decisions from Insurity, a Hartford, Conn.-based ChoicePoint company. Policy Decisions is...

Ad Index For January 2007.
January 1, 2007... Advertiser Website Address Page # Acxiom www.acxiom.com 2 AQS www.aqsadvantage.com 13 Bill Matrix www.billmatrix.com 33 CGI www.cgi.com 16 DTCC http://insurance.dtcc.com 5 Docucorp Web Seminar...

Billing - The Next Big Wave: Don't think of billing as just another back-office 'chore.' See bills as one more reason to catch a wave and contact customers.
January 1, 2007... Like surfers shooting the curl, insurance companies have learned to ride the industry's wild ebb and flow. No matter what causes the next mini-tsunami-increased competition, government intervention on pricing, new technologies and distribution...