Analytics

Minneapolis - As part of the association's Executive Education Program, the Insurance Accounting & Systems Association (IASA) will present the 3rd Annual CIO Roundtable program on Tuesday, June 5. This exclusive, "by invitation only" event will feature expert educational sessions sponsored by IASA associate member companies, including: AT&T, Document Sciences, Duck Creek Technologies and OnBase Insurance Solutions by Hyland Software. Admittance to the CIO Roundtable is complimentary to any qualifying chief information officer registered to attend the 2007 IASA Annual Educational Conference & Business Show, June 3-6 in Minneapolis.

Washington - Americans show a strong interest in controlling their own electronic medical records, according to a national survey released at a health IT conference.

One of my product managers recently returned from a conference on business process management (BPM). Among the many predictions he brought back was the notion that document and content management are headed for a convergence with BPM.Analyst firms such as Gartner have started examining the BPM components of content management suites, giving higher marks to those with "extended business process management functionality." (Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management, October 2006.)

For many carriers, policy administration systems are the ultimate "legacy applications." Many were custom-built years ago by in-house development teams and still run on mainframe systems with "green-screen" terminal interfaces.However, as carriers begin to explore ways to open up these systems-and make applications and data available to end-users across the enterprise-they are finding themselves at a crossroads, faced with the dilemma of whether to modernize or to replace core policy administration systems.

Customer satisfaction can make or break any business. When it comes to insurance, an agent's ability to provide top-notch customer service can have long-term consequences for revenue and can make or break a carrier's image in the marketplace. That may be why so many carriers provide agents with portals that create a win-win situation."Unknown [or objects of curiosity] a mere seven years ago, agent and policyholder portals are now required channels and are nearly ubiquitous at insurers," says "The Technology Foundations of Advantage for Insurers," a report from Boston-based Celent LLC.

To those questioning whether standards truly make a difference in our ability to function efficiently in the insurance industry, imagine a world without any. Like a congested intersection without benefit of traffic lights, chaos is bound to ensue.Agreed-upon standards embody the ultimate in collaboration: technical, personal and political. Their development requires agreement across disparate areas and agendas, yet those hard at work in their creation tend to ebb and flow with the technology requirements of the industry and focus on the promise of a win-win for all involved.

The article "Brokers Cast a Wide Net With Electronic Exchange" in the March 2007 issue of Insurance Networking News brought a smile to my face. It confirmed the adage about nothing being new under the sun.During the 1970-1973 time frame, a group of brilliant, creative insurance and IT people in the Boston area formed a company called Transystems International. Their mission was to develop a system to facilitate placement of commercial lines risks over a proprietary network with a combination of hard copy and voice communications. More than $4 million (big bucks then) was spent in R&D during the analysis and design phase by about 40 people. Numerous discussions were held with Lloyds about the feasibility, data requirements, etc. Much of the systems design, data analysis and protocols had been worked out.

VOIP RECORDING PORTFOLIO EXPANDED BY CTI GROUP INC.CTI Group Inc., Indianapolis, a provider of VoIP call recording communications, has expanded its VoIP call recording portfolio to include SmartRecord Cards and Recording-enabled SIP Trunks.

CHUBB GOES TO SEA AS WELL AS TO WEB

Back in August, INN reported on a Forrester Research Inc. study that predicted insurance companies will gradually move away from geographic and product silos, focusing more on cross-domain business processes.The report predicted insurance companies will identify processes that can be implemented with common systems and configured for local needs and this trend will increase the use of business process outsourcing (BPO) as carriers outsource nondifferentiated processes.