Distribution

When Sachin Shah began working at MetLife in 1999, the carrier was using a DOS-based system to support online benefits administration. Five years later, Shah and the MetLife Inc.'s IT team have built an award-winning benefits administration portal that has been adopted by more than 17,000 corporate customers, brokers and third-party payers.

Health insurers face a difficult dilemma today: Although customers are demanding higher levels of service that are more convenient to access, they are also increasingly sensitive to rising health care costs.Most health carriers are trying to balance these new demands against operational cuts designed to improve their bottom line-a seemingly impossible task.

You no doubt have seen ads from property/casualty insurers that promise fast results when disaster occurs. While customer satisfaction equates with continued revenue, a more pragmatic reason for mobilizing claims adjusters is economic.Carriers are in the risk business and therefore tend to be risk averse-and rightly so. Careful scrutiny should always be paid before deploying new technologies or making large IT expenditures.

ATLANTA--COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services of Bloomington, Ill. announced today the closing of two transactions with Cotton States Insurance Group of Atlanta. Under the first transaction, Cotton States Life Insurance Company merged with a subsidiary of COUNTRY Life Insurance Company. In the second transaction, Cotton States Mutual Insurance Company pooled premiums and losses with those of the COUNTRY property/casualty group.

When it comes to IT spending this year in the insurance industry, it's déjà vu all over again. In general, industry analysts concur that U.S. insurance companies will increase IT spending only slightly this year-between 1% and 4%. Last year, they predicted cautious increases of 2.5% all the way up to 6.7%.Similarly, carriers' priorities for IT spending in 2005 will focus on projects that ranked high on the list last year as well. Namely, their attention will focus on IT projects with the potential to increase revenues by improving distribution and customer service, and those that cut costs by streamlining business processes and workflow. Also like last year, insurance executives remain resolute about making sure their technology investments align with business strategy. IT governance is key.

The challenges insurers face with handling paper documents have been well documented. Dealing with reams of paper is one thing. Coping within a manual and de-centralized content management scheme is another.The process of printing and mailing policies is both cumbersome and costly, as is storing policies in archived files. For some, retrieving older, existing policies is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

SAN FRANCISCO--WorldGroup, a leading provider of flexible, component software solutions for the insurance industry, today announced that it has submitted a signed, definitive agreement to acquire Taliant Software, LLP. Established in 1992, Denver based Taliant has insurance software applications installed and in production use in insurers throughout both the United States and Canada.

INDIANAPOLIS--Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield customers can now enroll in their health care benefits through secure, online tools available at http://anthem.com . The new capabilities not only make enrolling fast and easy for employees and individuals, but allow employers to streamline their work, lower administrative costs, and save time, all in an effort to improve the ease of working with Anthem.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--The MassMutual Financial Group announced today that it has launched a new section of its consumer Web site that includes useful information about how financial products and services can help individuals prepare for life events and meet new life challenges. Called "Learn," the material is included on the "For Individuals" portion of massmutual.com, effective immediately.

ATLANTA--The practice of both outsourcing and offshoring has been rapidly rising and will therefore have a huge impact on the business world for years to come, according to a new report available from LOMA, entitled "Outsourcing and Offshoring: Challenges and Opportunities for Insurance Companies."