Joe McKendrick

Innovation, growing the business and keeping the lights on are crucial for insurance IT shops.

An outgrowth of "The Great Recession," The Great Inflection may lay the groundwork for new, more innovative ways to do business over the coming decade.

Despite pronouncements that the recession has ended, we're still not back yet to business as usual.

We may just be emerging from a recession, but these IT shops will soon be facing tough challenges in not only standing up new systems, but finding the talent to do it.

Insurers should look at six key areas going forward to develop a competitive advantage.

An effective social media approach to HR and recruiting may be the LIFT needed to get through what will soon be challenging times for insurers.

Insurers could realize a 105% return on equity as a result of a 10% improvement in data quality and mobility.

Technologies such as business analytics are opening up new possibilities for coaxing businesses out of their comfortable boxes.

While the long-term answer is likely no, many companies presently will be able to succeed without hiring new workers inside or outside of IT.

Expert believes it’s more about communication and less about alignment.

Hyper-social product development and innovation are the next frontier for insurance companies.

How do increased automation and the advent of “swarms” fit in an industry that seriously values its personal interactions and relationships?

Perhaps the answer is to take user-empowered networking and secure it with user empowerment.

A key benefit of having a common MDM repository is enhanced customer support and increased customer loyalty.

There are many avenues open for insurers to either migrate or modernize legacy systems to bring them up to code.

Compliance only seems to be stepping up, as governments require more information and accountability from enterprises.

Containerized data centers may be a viable option for insurers that want to keep their servers in-house, while keeping their purse strings tight.

Employing business transaction management practices is a good starting place.

Definitions and interpretations aside, an effective SOA deployment can lay the groundwork for cloud formations.

Many insurers are now securing their databases by "data masking," which removes confidential data elements and replaces them with usable, fictitious data.