Insure Think

Technology may some day enable cars to sense danger and avoid it, but how will this affect auto insurance?

Employing business transaction management practices is a good starting place.

Understanding your customers and their traits is only the first step.

The innovative app took social networking to new levels, but failed to make it relevant to the humans who tried it.

Grinding out a meaningful cost-benefit analysis is nothing new, but it is the only way to be certain that the varied benefits to your organization outweigh the costs.

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

The negative public perception of the industry only compounds insurers’ challenges to hiring new employees.

An apparent shift in criminals’ strategies toward poorly protected banking services should spark concern, but does it?

License revocations and opprobrium are the inevitable results of those who are seen as having taken advantage of service members or their families.

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

Who thought the entertainment industry might be in a position to liberate insurers from an unrelenting bad rap?

Insurers must devise a plan to communicate with aggregators, properly utilize agents and create an effective multi-channel management strategy.

Social networking and BPM could create a new approach to collaboration across organizations.

Enterprise managers are keeping their cards close to the vest as they wait for the economy to show more definite signs of recovery.

The first ripples from regulatory reform are already being felt.

The business often asks crazy things of IT, but sometimes that craziness can lead to creativity.

Some think mobile devices are the rising stars while PCs are legacy toast. But is that true for insurers?

Survey data reveal that IT employees are more confident about a number of things—including finding employment elsewhere.

The concerns of Japanese insurers are very similar to those of their North American counterparts.

Many business and IT initiatives fail because decision-making responsibilities are given to under-skilled or under-talented managers who wind up making bad decisions.

Investments can be made in one area, but if other related areas are forgotten, the initial investment's benefits may be less than expected.

Giving customers what they want seems like a no-brainer, but where do we draw the line between service and servitude?

Effective deployment of information technology will be a difference-maker for insurers.

Imagine the benefit of agents logging in and accessing application processing or customer verification services, or internal departments helping with claims processing or adjusters in the field.

To reach consumers, the confectioner, like many insurers lately, is eschewing traditional e-mail marketing in favor of social media.

Black Hat was set to expose Chinese cyber-attack capabilities until big-money agencies stepped in to silence them.

Insurers watch and wait as Microsoft looks to standardize cloud services around its Azure platform.

The insurer believes an analytics-based strategy is the future of customer relationships.

No prior IT architecture initiative has had an impact as positive or broad-reaching as SOA.

Researchers and TV shows have already proven that it’s possible, but is it advisable?

Consumers want it, but will we survive it—and how do we insure it?

When was the last time your company rolled out an innovation? Are you playing catch-up?

Effective data management and data quality are no longer “nice to have” options.

Universities have taken up the challenge of grooming willing replacements for needy insurers.

An increase in qualified actuarial resources, and a need to move actuaries into more strategic activities, will offer insurers opportunities that were previously unavailable.

The economy, it seems, is forcing us to make choices.

However, we now have new means and methodologies to add to our toolboxes.

In the face of public anger, and legislators anxious to produce a fix, the insurance industry was able to influence the course of financial reform legislation largely to its liking.

Study shows consumers want responsiveness, but clearly they also don’t trust portals when it comes to more difficult issues.

Insurers are finally starting to stand up and take notice of Lean IT, which has been a staple in the manufacturing world for years.

Insurers should look at how many websites they're running, what they cost and if any of those services could be merged onto cheaper platforms.

The federal government wants to build a place where everyone feels safe online, but are they instead creating a tempting target for cybercriminals and other enemies?

While it doesn’t make sense for insurers to hand over critical systems to third-parties, there are many other processes that can be handed over without worry.

While some hopeful signs are anticipated, economic recovery is still not a reality in terms of IT budget levels.

A new tax on British insurance purchases creates a challenge for insurer IT departments to respond in a timely fashion.

Even the best-aligned insurers face IT departments not quite getting what the users want, and users not understanding how IT operates.

The best way for insurers to differentiate themselves from their competitors is to deliver on this simple promise.

Asian insurance CIOs tend to be very tech-aware, and are actively pursuing process automation.

Pundits and analysts are having a field day with social media for insurance, but is it really that big of a deal?

Not treating data quality as an IT issue and taking critical enterprise info out of employees' heads are two of the keys.

The economic recovery horses are at the starting gate, but when will the race begin, and when do we plunk down our bets?

Insurer says achieving efficient, green data centers need not be expensive or overwhelming.