Insure Think

As consumers grow more demanding, insurers would do well to anticipate customer concerns and offer instruction on how to avoid them; but first, they need executive buy-in.

When you look towards the future and preparing for what may come, it is clear you need to examine the next generation technologies and the people who will lead the industry. IT-oLogy Trends 2013 took on both issues and gave us all a glimpse into tomorrow.

IT’s monsters can be slain, says former CIO with Aflac and Allstate, and current Perseus CEO Michael Boyle, but it’s going to take more transparency and a different mindset.

The prospect of AIG retaliating and escalating previous skirmishes with Berkshire Hathaway has already intensified downward pressure on rates.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor predicts a 24 percent increase in demand for professionals with data analytics skills during the next eight years.

Three key concepts of traditional waterfall development are disproved with successful agile operations.

Who's the Boss? Your customers. If you don’t take care of your customers, someone else will. Beneath all of these initiatives are strong core systems that provide the agility, flexibility, and capabilities to create a beneficial customer experience.

Three ways to assert IT's value and shift the perception among business leaders that IT is merely a cost center.

While many IT professionals would argue that lean, agile and CMMI are mutually exclusive, Guru Vasudeva, SVP and CTO of Nationwide, says otherwise.

USAA, a direct seller and one of the first insurers to adapt to social networking, is also, according to J.D. Power, the most trusted brand in the industry.

Some of the same data analysis technologies being used by Western governments are cheap enough to be employed by financial services companies as well.

Accurately and consistently estimating the costs of major IT projects is critical for an IT department's and CIO's credibility.

The wider market is potentially transitioning to a business model of managing multiple sources of outside capital.

Why do men and women behave and react differently in various business situations? Let’s look at the differences between the male and female brain.

You don't have to go it alone. The importance of partnerships has always been an essential part of business and life. There's no need to recreate the wheel and create who new divisions within your company when a partner is there to help you.

In a new survey, most IT executives give their organizations failing marks for handling disruptions.

A profile of some financial services companies that are using social networks to create new collaboration patterns with their customers, distributors and employees

To maintain a positive relationship, here's what should be accomplished when field reps visit the offices of agents.

Cheap mainframe servers that support private cloud computing could change the way insurers think about enterprise architecture.

Has the time arrived for specialist wholesale and reinsurance companies to examine their organizational structures and weed out redundant management and administrative costs?

Half of marketers surveyed for a new report agree that data is “the most underutilized asset” in their organizations, according to a new survey.

There are several questions to answer before you begin looking for C-suite help when it comes to technology and innovation.

Although it's a relatively new technology, SDDC could change the way data centers are funded, designed, provisioned and managed by extracting software and applications from hardware entanglements.

Security and integration are two of the four most important considerations when entering the mobile space or improving what you already have.

Big or small , claims happen. How you handle crises and customers, how quickly you respond, and how long it takes to resolve the claim make all the difference. You need to be sure that your claims operation from its core claims system to your call center, repair networks and more are up to the challenge and that you have a partner to support you and your business strategy.

Data virtualization holds a lot of promise for minimizing data center woes, but it needs to be taken one step at a time.

An outline of where and how insurers should be looking to use big data analytics throughout the enterprise.

Shouldn't digital be part of everyone's job description by now?

Insurance can be complicated and even the best-informed consumer wants advice — from family, friends and professionals. And that's where the opportunity for differentiation lays for insurers.

Passive observation and exploration are generally not enough in a complex business environment — innovation requires experimentation.

Portals have come a long way. They serve a wide range of stakeholders, from prospects to policyholders to distributors, adjusters and others. They are the go-to places for information dissemination and collaboration, creating an experience of easy to do business with them. If you aren't providing a portal to your customers and partners today, time is running out.

An insurer upgrades its data architecture and finds a competitive advantage through faster insights.

Whether it will get you closer to your career goal or you just need a change, there are six factors to examine before deciding to make a cross-functional move.

Five tips for developing an intelligent big data storage system.

When "modern era" computer systems were developed decades ago, many didn't realize that they would still be running insurers' business in the 21st Century. Developers hardly foresaw what was to come. To compete today, insurers have two options: patch or replace. Well there is a third … obsolescence.

The shift to digital means carriers must focus on sales and service portals, agency management and compensation systems.

The more an agency embraces technology and offsite/cloud storage of critical data, the better off they will fair.

Front-end systems and devices for customer engagement are getting more sophisticated, but back-end integration challenges are preventing insurers from taking advantage of them, survey shows.

Auto insurance today isn't as simple as it used to be "back "in the day". Technology has changed that paradigm, making it an all new high-tech ballgame! Telematics is here, it's real, it's growing, and you need to be ready for it.

A guide to get insurers up to speed in social spaces, which aren't going away any time soon.

Being a leader means remaining calm during stressful times. But does it come naturally or do we need to learn and develop it?

When insurers buy a new core system, they're not just buying the technology, they're buying an underlying model for how an insurer should operate.

Social media and digitization have made it easy to get closer to customers; the question is how to use that knowledge and access without becoming invasive.

Here are some practical steps carriers can take toward instituting a management program to support customer self-service.

Catastrophes are now a part of the New Normal. While there's nothing we can do to change the weather or other natural disasters, there are steps insurers can take to prepare themselves and their customers for what may come.

Insurers in the Software Business: The line between software providers and consumers is blurring

The decision announced last week by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to conduct a market study of add-on financial products is raising one or two eyebrows within the industry.

Years of heavy reliance on vendors to deliver agency systems integration means less responsiveness to customers.

The hyper-connected consumer of the next generation will expect a highly tailored customer experience, and it can't hurt to start anticipating these needs now.

If you lead, they will follow, or so the saying goes. Leaders need exceptional qualities such as vision, knowledge, determination, and innovation and they need to lead by example. Through careful evaluation, innovative thinking and deliberation, a leader sets a course towards the future whether it is a well worn path or uncharted territory.

Delivering major technology projects in a timely, cost-effective manner is becoming table stakes for insurers.

Certain bits of common wisdom are falsely being presented as reasons for insurers to avoid an all-in commitment to innovation.