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

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

Isssue Date Notice.
July 1, 2008... July 2008

Carriers Inject BI Across The Enterprise.(Company overview)
July 1, 2008... No doubt to the vexation of carriers and vendors alike, business intelligence (BI) and predictive analytics are often lumped together. Given the rapid growth of the technologies in recent years, the confusion is understandable, especially when...

Customer Service: Measuring Satisfaction: Who, What, Why, How.(Company overview)
July 1, 2008... Ask insurers about the importance of good customer service, and youll likely get similar responses: Its very important, and we pride ourselves on good customer service. And it may, in fact, be more important than ever. Heightened...

Vendor Relationships: Testing the Carrier/Vendor Relationship.
July 1, 2008... Despite what many insurance companies may think and desire, they cannot develop all of their systems and solutions in-house. Fraught with the typical pitfalls of overrunning budgetary and time constraints, to bogging down an already overworked...

Finding Middle Ground.
July 1, 2008... An oft-stated assumption entering 2008 was that election-year politics would predominate and keep things quiet on the legislative front for insurers. This assumption has proven erroneous, as a host of regulatory issues have reared their heads....

Solutions.
July 1, 2008... PRODUCER SELF SERVICE ON-BOARDING PORTAL Chicago-based Kaplan Financial, a provider of services and technology solutions for the insurance and securities industries to help manage the producer/representative on-boarding process and career...

Solutions Helping Insurers Deal With Auditor's Reach: As market conduct examinations become more strenuous, insurers look to technology to manage complex requirements.
July 1, 2008... Though some may regard it as stodgy, the insurance industry isnt static. One need only look at the steady flow of rules, regulations, statutes and bulletins emanating from both federal and state regulators to confirm this. While audits are...

News Briefs.(ACORD)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... ACORD READIES IMPLEMENTATION FORUM EVENT To help expand on its mission, Pearl River, N.Y.-based industry standards body ACORD is launching a new fall event and forming online communities. This October will mark the first ACORD...

Market Conduct Aggregation Proposal Stirs Controversy.
July 1, 2008... A proposal from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to centralize the collection and storage of market conduct exams is drawing fire from industry associations. As written, the proposal will create a publicly...

Solutions.
July 1, 2008... ELECTRONIC DISCOVERY PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCED StoredIQ Inc., an Austin, Texas-based provider of intelligent information management technologies, says its StoredIQ appliance is available through EMC Select. Customers can purchase the...

IT Risk Offers Rewards.
July 1, 2008... The convergence of risk management, compliance and governance processes is a challenge, but offers tremendous opportunities, according to New York-based Ernst & Young (E&Y). Looking at details from the advisory firms recently released study,...

GIS Helps Insurers Get the Lay of the Land: P&C insurers turn to geographic information systems (GIS) to augment computer-based catastrophe models, help mitigate weather-related losses.
July 1, 2008... The steady advance in computer technology, coupled with a better scientific understanding of climate, has greatly expanded the array of tools available to help property/casualty insurers model and manage their weather-related risk. Insurance...

Out With Old Facsimiles, In With Online Efficiencies: The Leavitt Group is reducing costs and boosting productivity by faxing online with the service MyFax.
July 1, 2008... No more scurrying down the hall to retrieve confidential faxes or fishing for lost pages? For the Leavitt Group, a Cedar City, Utah-based insurance firm that works with its affiliate agencies to provide risk management and risk transfer...

Solutions.(Ericom Software Ltd.)(collaboration between Agito Networks Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc.)(Mimosa Systems)
July 1, 2008... DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTION BASED ON ORACLE VM Closter, N.J.-based Ericom Softwares PowerTerm WebConnect for Oracle VM is designed to help organizations reduce overall IT spending, eliminate the costs associated with local desktop...

Anybody Seen My Fax?(MyFax)(Brief article)
July 1, 2008... For insurance firms, faxing online can help soothe security concerns. Often, faxes are legal documents that demand private protection or signatures. With traditional faxing, a paper fax sits up in a publicly accessible tray, or your clerk...

Address Verification System Delivers Results: Getting it right the first time became a goal worth pursuing for this Hastings, Mich., P&C insurer.
July 1, 2008... A few years ago, Hastings Mutual Insurance Co. experienced a big problem with undeliverable mail. At one point, the number of policies with incorrect address information approached 30,000nearly an eighth of the companys total. Direct costs to...

News Briefs.
July 1, 2008... IBM UNVEILS SOA-POWERED INSURANCE OPS Armonk, N.Y. based IBM, announced two offerings in the insurance industryua solution for improving operational efficiency, and a framework for process accelerationuthat are designed to help insurance...

Solutions.
July 1, 2008... COMMERCIAL FIRE RISK PROBABILITY MODEL Risk Management Solutions Inc. (RMS), Newark, Calif., has launched what it calls the first-ever probabilistic model designed to enhance the way commercial account underwriters quantify and manage...

Who's Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services.(Company overview)
July 1, 2008... JEVCO INSURANCE GOES LIVE WITH POINT-OF-SALE PORTAL Jevco, a subsidiary of Kingsway Financial Services Inc. and a provider of standard and specialized property/casualty insurance products, is now live on a point-of-sale portal called Jevcom...

INN July 2008 Editorial Index.
July 1, 2008... Company Name Page # ACORD 10, 13, 53 Agito Networks Inc. 30 AIR Worldwide Corp. 54 Allstate Insurance Co. 8, 53 American Insurance Association 14 Astaro Corp. 16 AutocheX 8 Bankers Life and Casualty...

Ad Index For July 2008.
July 1, 2008... Advertiser Website Address Page # AQS www.aqssys.com 13 AT&T Podcast http://podcast.insurancenetworking.com/att 25 Blue Cross Blue Shield www.bcbsfl.com 35 Chordiant ...

A Blueprint for Credit Usage: Credit risk scores could give insurers competitive advantage, and a development plan is the way to begin.
July 1, 2008... With little or no increase in personal lines premiums, carriers struggle to remain profitable in one of the most competitive markets in recent memory. Many carriers look at their internal processes and attempt to lower costs and improve...