Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management articles from May 2004

Insurance Networking News: Executive Strategies for Technology Management archives from May 2004

At Fireman's Fund, IT Means Business.
May 1, 2004... It's no secret that for insurers, aligning technology staffs and business units into a full partnership has been challenging. Frederick Matteson, the newly appointed chief information officer for Novato, Calif.-based Fireman's Fund Insurance...

Text Messaging Revs Up Sales For Auto Insurer.(Ignition program)
May 1, 2004... Skilled drivers have fewer accidents. That's the logic behind a unique auto insurance program devised by Hibernian General Insurance, a Dublin, Ireland-based motor, home, farm and commercial insurance company that claims 26% of the Irish...

ACORD XML Approaches Critical Mass.(extensible markup language applications in insurance industry)
May 1, 2004... Unlike previous industry attempts to standardize data exchanges between carriers, agents and third-party partners, it appears that XML is the real deal. Still, the industry has a long way to go before support for ACORD XML turns into widespread...

Your Opinions Are Important.(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2004... On occasion we receive letters and e-mails from our readers. I would like to encourage readers to voice their opinions on articles they read in this magazine, or on topics relevant to the insurance industry. Many of the industry leaders...

Channel Conflict: Federal Judge Rules Allstate Did Not Discriminate Against Older Agents.
May 1, 2004... In a legal battle stemming from actions Allstate Insurance Co. took in 1999 to launch its groundbreaking multi-channel sales strategy, a federal judge has absolved the company of age discrimination. But Allstate is not off the hook yet. ...

Chronology Of Legal Actions.(Brief Article)(Chronology)
May 1, 2004... August 1, 2001: Agents file class-action lawsuit against Allstate for age discrimination and violation of federal civil rights laws. November 9, 2001: National Association of Professional Allstate Agents sues Allstate for contract...

Lack Of Training Root Cause Of Most IT Security Lapses.
May 1, 2004... When it comes to inefficiencies surrounding information technology security practices, global corporations are discovering that to err is human. A survey conducted by Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based global trade association Computing...

Life Insurance Distribution: Long-Term Growth For Life Insurance Hinges On Technology For Distributors.
May 1, 2004... The number of career agents-the largest distribution channel for life insurance-dropped significantly in a decade, down from 238,000 in 1990 to 178,000 in 2000. In addition, by 2010, 13.2% of the U.S. population will be 65 or older. These...

INN focus.(life insurance industry)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The problem: The number of career life insurance agents is on the decline, while aging U.S. consumers are seeking new life products for their retirement years. The solution: Real-time agent/carrier transactions, simplified...

Calendar.(Calendar)
May 1, 2004... LOMA Financial Inforum Sponsor: LOMA When: May 2-5 Where: Hyatt Hill Country, San Antonio, Texas www.loma.org Legal Issues Seminar Sponsor: NAIC When: May 3-4 Where: Marriott Country Club Plaza, Kansas City,...

Clarification.(Correction Notice)
May 1, 2004... Regarding the March news story, "GMAC Insurance, OnStar Build Insurance Sales Vehicle" (page 6): As part of OnStar's agreement with GMAC Insurance, the program revolves exclusively around actual mileage readings for customer insurance...

Regulatory Compliance: Insurer s' Compliance Efforts Are A Work In Progress.
May 1, 2004... Many corporations are catching flak these days for various operational inconsistencies. For instance, a recent survey indicates that companies, including insurers, have implemented seemingly effective, written IT security policies, but...

INN Focus.(Insurance Networking News)
May 1, 2004... The Issue: Despite fast-changing regulatory and corporate governance demands, many insurers have not implemented automated compliance-tracking tools. The Implications: Many carriers address regulatory compliance issues on an...

Product Previews.(PeopleSoft Releases Two Enterprise Solutions, Mitchell Unveils UltraMate Premier Suite and IBM And Prima demonstrate a Voice Interface For insurance Claims Reporting)
May 1, 2004... PeopleSoft Releases Two Enterprise Solutions PeopleSoft Inc. has released an Enterprise Wealth Management solution that enables financial institutions to increase customer retention and revenue through proactive client management. The...

Business Alliances.(miscellanious)
May 1, 2004... Benelogic Partners With Identity Safeguards Benelogic, a Timonium, Md.-based provider of employee benefits administration software, is partnering with Identity Safeguards, a Tualatin, Ore.-based company that provides identity security to...

Insurance Regulation: Discussions For Federal Role Heat Up In Congress.
May 1, 2004... Compromise legislation establishing a federal role in insurance regulation is likely to emerge from the House Financial Services Committee early in May. A hearing in late March yielded strong support for the measure from an industry divided on...

Contracts.(guide)(Directory)
May 1, 2004... The Contracts Update section includes announcements of contracts insurance information technology companies have signed with customers in recent weeks. Contract news can be faxed to Insurance Networking magazine at (312) 913-1366 or by...

Risk Measurement Systems: A Brave New World.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Recent turmoil in the global, economic, business and geopolitical environment has dramatically increased risk levels across the financial services industry. The need for companies to understand and quantify risk-at the top line aggregated level...

Customer Service Solution Answers The Blues' Call: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island needed to get a handle on lengthy call center calls, but not at the expense of reducing customer service. The Blues plan found a solution that accomplished these and other management goals.
May 1, 2004... Time is a critical element of virtually every business process, but it is particularly crucial for customer service. When Providence-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) decided to improve its call center operations, it...

INN Focus.
May 1, 2004... Case Study: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island. At Issue: The Blues plan determined it needed a new call center system that would cut call handling time, reduce CSR training time and improve customer service. The...

OneBeacon Claims XML Savings.(extensible markup language)(OneBeacon Insurance Group)
May 1, 2004... For many carriers, the savings from standardizing data transfer to reduce paperwork represents a quickly demonstrable ROI stemming from XML-based standardization. "The insurance industry has the most to gain from XML because of the paper...

ACORD XML Life & Annuity Implementers.(Agent-Company Organization for Research and Development )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... * AEGON USA * Allstate Insurance Company * ING Americas * GE Financial Assurance * Mutual of Omaha * Phoenix Life Insurance Company * Principal Financial Group * Prudential Financial * Safeco Corp. *...

ACORD Company Membership.(statistics)(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... 1993 109 1994 111 1995 115 1996 168 1997 217 1998 253 1999 307 2000 375 2001 410 2002 436 2003 452 Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved....

ACORD's Evolution.(The Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development)
May 1, 2004... The Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD) is a global, nonprofit organization that functions as a standards-setting body for the insurance, reinsurance and related financial-services industries. Based in...

Frederick Matteson.(officials at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Name: Frederick Matteson Title: CIO Company: Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. Years with Co.: 1 IT Mission: Establish a culture that abides by the premise that business strategies lead the way, with IT providing infrastructural...

Fireman's Fund Insurance Co.(brief)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Headquarters: Novato, Calif. Net Premiums: $4.4 billion in 2003 Employees: 4,800 Major business lines: Personal and commercial property/casualty insurance products, including homeowners, auto, umbrella, watercraft, business...

Matteson Draws Comparison Between Brokerage and Insurance Risk.
May 1, 2004... In his first few months as the chief information officer at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., Frederick Matteson has had a chance to compare and contrast the dynamics of the insurance and brokerage segments. First, risk management binds both,...

It's About Healthy Relationships.(opinion of Carl Ascenzo of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts)
May 1, 2004... A wise insurance executive-perhaps a chief information officer-once stated: "The strategies that worked for us in the past are the same ones that will cause us to fail in the future. That's because those strategies are only competitive for...

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.(brief)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Headquarters: Boston Total Premium: $8 billion in 2003 Total members: 2.5 million Participating HMO physicians: 15,400 Employees: 3,545 Major business lines: Health insurance Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All...

Carl Ascenzo.(officials at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Name: Carl Ascenzo Title: CIO Company: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Years with Co.: 4 IT Mission: Leverage IT to take member services to a world-class level; use IT to develop a robust data warehouse to better...

Making IT A New Competency.
May 1, 2004... Barbara Piehler represents a new breed of corporate CIO, one that no longer requires extensive information technology experience. In the insurance industry, this trend has been reinforced recently through the appointment of several CIOs who...

Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.(brief)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Headquarters: Milwaukee, Wis. Total Premium: $16.5 billion in '03 Employees: 4,621 Major business lines: Life insurance, both permanent and term coverage, disability income, long-term care and annuities Copyright 2004 Thomson...

Barbara Piehler.(officials at Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Name: Barbara Piehler Title: CIO Company: Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Years with Co.: 20 IT Mission: To deliver systems support for network sales force, in the form of paperless tools and technologies, to enable...

E.Business Briefs.(fraud and phishing)
May 1, 2004... E-mail Fraud And Phishing Attacks On The Rise Analysis of unique phishing attacks showed a significant increase in February over January, according to Tumbleweed Communi-cations Corp., a Redwood City, Calif.-based Internet messaging...

E.Capsule.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The program: Hibernian, a large insurer based in Dublin, Ireland, developed an innovative auto insurance program called Ignition, which enables inexperienced drivers to receive premium discounts by successfully completing an advanced...

Instant Messaging Gives Small Insurer a Competitive Edge.(Celina Insurance Group)
May 1, 2004... While one of Ireland's largest insurers is harnessing mobile text messaging to sell a novel auto insurance program, a small U.S. insurance company in the cornfields of Ohio is using enterprise instant messaging to help it compete with the big...

Index Of Advertisers.(Illustration)
May 1, 2004... Advertiser Site Addresses Page # AdminServer www.adminserver.com 5 AQS www.aqsadvantage.com 22 BillMatrix ...

Recurring Payments Offer Benefits: Recurring payments are tailor-made for insurer that have to mail and process paper bills at regular intervals.
May 1, 2004... Recurring payments offer the insurance industry a simple, yet extremely powerful, customer service solution that has the potential to yield hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings, improve cash flow, increase productivity and provide a...