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

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

Are Insurers Gobbling Up SOA-Enabled BI Tools?
September 1, 2007... The Hartford P&C Co. built a single consumer view for both its new business and its renewable policies, including a customer application that gives it instantaneous information about its customers. Its personal lines business also has been able...

Swift Proposals Earn Gains.(Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co.)(Company overview)
September 1, 2007... This is the third in a series of INNovators Award Winners. See page 8 for more information about the awards program. Technology acquisition in insurance companies usually goes something like this: A department sees a need to improve its...

Making Bigger, Better Decisions Even Faster.
September 1, 2007... Some things change; some don't. A 2002 report from Boston-based Celent LLC, stated, at that time, within insurers' IT budgets, expenditures on internal staff consumed the lion's share, roughly 44% on average, with another 11% spent on...

Some Things Never Change.
September 1, 2007... The editorial mission statement from our 1997 inaugural issue of Insurance Networking and Data Management reflected the industry's overarching requirements: "Every issue promises you, our readers, comprehensive and credible information on the...

News Briefs.
September 1, 2007... AGENTS DEMAND REAL-TIME SERVICE Independent insurance agencies are poised for a major service breakthrough with the proliferation of real-time transactions, says a prominent participant in the industry-wide push to double real-time...

2007 Insurance Networking News INNovators.(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Insurance Networking News received a number of entries for its 2007 INNovators Award, a special designation intended to advance the spread of business technology acumen in the insurance industry. Their innovation was required to have been in...

Whether on Paper or Online, Ten Years Later, The Personal Touch Still Matters.
September 1, 2007... Sometimes a decade doesn't make all that much of a difference. Such, it seems, is the case with using Web-based technology to customize the customer's buying experience. In INN's inaugural issue, an article by Kit Ladwig, "Online Quoting...

Solutions.
September 1, 2007... PPS SOFTWARE SUITE Skywire Software, a Frisco, Texas-based provider of software products for the insurance industry, announced the availability of a reporting tool for PPS, its policy production system for managing general agencies and...

News Briefs.
September 1, 2007... TRIA EXTENDED, FIVE YEARS ADDED The House Financial Services Committee passed H.R. 2761, the Terrorism Risk Insurance Revision and Extension Act of 2007 (TRIREA) by a vote of 49 to 20. The legislation will extend the Terrorism Risk...

In 1997, Executive Decisions Take on Different Approaches.
September 1, 2007... In INN's first issue, a trio of stories of addressed different aspects of how technology enables executive decisions. One story, chronicled the attempt of ill-fated, Chicago-based broker Near North Insurance Brokerage Inc. to capitalize on...

Solutions.
September 1, 2007... VERID RATCHETS UP SECURITY IN REAL TIME Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based Verid Inc.'s latest software, IdentityEvent is designed to spot suspicious identity activity and enhance authentication security in real time. The IdentityEvent module...

Time to Buy a Truck?: Managing risks across thousands of potential scenarios requires technology that makes the most out of financial modeling systems.
September 1, 2007... Over the last 20 years, the advances enabled by financial modeling are impressive. Insurers have made improvements in risk management, capital optimization, product development and other important aspects of their business with the help of...

Not Just Business as Usual For Business Intelligence Provider.(ChoicePoint Inc.)
September 1, 2007... Long before the term service-oriented architecture was coined, the industry was already looking at ways to marry business intelligence with technology that enables you to use it to do a variety of different tasks. In fact, the emergence of...

SOA and BI Marriage Produces Many Benefits: More and more carriers are seeing the value of SOA for BI (i.e. business intelligence services). Why? What are the drivers?
September 1, 2007... How can carriers capitalize on the convergence of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and business intelligence (BI)? Insurance Networking News asked Mark Gorman, strategic research advisor, insurance, and David West, research area director,...

Offshoring on the Rise.
September 1, 2007... Outsourcing in financial services is increasing year over year, according to results from two surveys. The surveys also indicate that offshoring is increasing due to cost savings and quality of work. Offshoring is saving the financial...

Carriers of All Sizes Can Reap BPM Benefits: Business process management is oftentimes synonymous with difficult change; but there's light at the end of the tunnel.
September 1, 2007... Among insurers of all sizes, everything is a process. Evaluating whether a process is efficient and cost-effective is oftentimes painful, because it means that workers need to rethink how they are going to work and, ultimately, change the way...

For BPM, What a Difference a Decade Makes.
September 1, 2007... The concept of Business Process Management (BPM) was itself relatively young back when INN was new. However, the underlying issue BPM seeks to address, rethinking how technology can boost operating efficiency and strengthen the bottom line,...

News.
September 1, 2007... ERM TAKING ROOT IN EUROPE Though still nascent, enterprise risk management (ERM) programs are becoming more established amongst European insurers, a report from Standard and Poor's (S&P) has found. In its report, "Enterprise Risk...

Solutions.
September 1, 2007... REAL-TIME ANALYTICS DATA A new version of Gainesville, Fla.-based iWebTrack Holdings Inc.'s iWebTrack 3.0 Beta (V3), a hosted analytics solution, is now available. iWebTrack schedules daily e-mail management and SMS/text reporting as well...

APM and PPM Can Work Together to Produce Results: Seeing synergy between application portfolio and project portfolio management, companies merge once-separate silos.
September 1, 2007... In many circles, codependency is frowned upon. But when it comes to IT implementations at insurance companies, codependency may be a good thing. That's the philosophy behind the IT success at Selective Insurance Group Inc., a Branchville,...

News Briefs.
September 1, 2007... ANALYSTS ADVISE INSURERS TO SPEED UP DEVELOPMENT To remain competitive in the life and annuity industry, insurers should exploit technology to create more innovative products and introduce them faster, according to insurance industry...

Solutions.(Fineos)
September 1, 2007... ESTIMATING PRODUCT PROVIDES PRICES AND PROCESSING POWER Xactware Solutions Inc., Orem, Utah, unveiled Xactimate 25, the latest release of its estimating product, Xactimate 25, which provides published pricing data for more than 460...

New Disciplines Help Set IT Priorities.
September 1, 2007... The cover story of INN's inaugural issue broached what was then, and is now, one of the most important questions for insurers: where do I put my IT dollars? Now, as then, there is no simple answer. The article, by Mark Brohan, contended...

Who's Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services.
September 1, 2007... VALUATION SOLUTION REDUCED CLAIMS SETTLEMENT CYCLE Plymouth Rock Assurance Corp., Boston, selected San Diego-based Mitchell International Inc.'s, Total Logic Valuation as the company's total loss valuation solution to deliver a...

INN September 2007 Editorial Index.(Editorial)
September 1, 2007... Company Name Page # Accenture 31 ACORD 33 Adeptia 32 Agents...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
September 1, 2007... In "Slow on the Uptake" (August 2007) ActiveHealth technology firm was incorrectly said to provide electronic medical records (EMR) services. It provides personal health records, not EMR services. We regret the error. In Who's Buying What...

Ad Index For September 2007.
September 1, 2007... Advertiser Website Address Page # Clear Technology www.clear-technology.com 5 EDS - Solcorp www.edssolcorp.com/adminsystems Cv 2 Fiserv www.fiservinsurance.com Cv 4 IBM/ BIPT www.bipt.com 41 JW Sofware...

Documents Get Smarter: Insurers making intelligent, interactive documents a priority are reaping benefits in both the front and back office.
September 1, 2007... Most companies today understand that customer communications are integral to successful customer relationship management programs. Many of these communications are initiated from field organizations. Letters, proposals, quotations and marketing...