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At a time of incredible change in the insurance industry, IT is right in the middle of that change.

To Improve Operating Ratios, Insurers Must Improve Risk Selection, Pricing and Processes For More Predictable Returns.

To become strategic assets, CIOs must learn to 'manage up,' by articulating projects' challenges and business value, securing sponsorship and right sizing expectations.

I was all set to sit down and start writing this last 2012 commentary about what insurers are going to prioritize in 2013 and why: more focus on the consumer, developing strategies for attracting and retaining IT talent, modernization projects, etc. However, at press time, Superstorm Sandy had just delivered a blow to the United States and the insurance industry. As I write this (a week after Sandy struck), the death toll stands at 110, nearly 1 million New Jersey and 650,000 New York City area homes and businesses are still without power, 30,000-40,000 New Yorkers may need to be relocated, flood claims paid by the National Flood Insurance Program are expected to exceed $10 billion, exhausting the program's existing $4 billion in payment authority and insured losses are estimated at $10- 20 billion.

While there are many advantages to moving to a digital environment, insurers are finding that to be successful, a big-picture, stepped approach is required to address compliance issues.

To reestablish system stability and drive efficiencies in the policy administration and finance groups, OptaComp's new policy administration system had to improve workflow, reporting and the company's ability to create and track documents.

While it's impossible to know what you don't know about the massive stores of data insurers accumulate, it's also possible to not understand what you know. That's where predictive analytics comes in. Vince Franz, VP and Chief Actuary, Celina Insurance Group, talked with Insurance Networking News about actuarial practices, the role of predictive analytics and how to justify the cost of such a project.

Aetna, among other insurers, plans to spend millions of dollars to support a group fighting to get coverage for the uninsured.

A survey indicates cloud decisions are being made more and more by business managers rather than, or as well as, by IT.

After a decade of falling rates and large profit margins, a new report from Conning urges insurers to review strategies in light of a changing market environment.