Insure Think

Eliminating workarounds, or "swamps," can pay great dividends for insurers.

Experts say the answer might be a hybrid cloud and on-site computing model.

In this age of tight markets and a floundering economy, some are suggesting that carriers take all their sales in-house, but will that happen?

A lack of funding for IT and eBusiness initiatives, channel conflicts and confusion about the role of social networking also plague overseas insurers.

What does it mean for an individual or a company to be a thought leader? For some the answer is powerful, but some refuse to drink the Kool-Aid.

Experts believe insurers eventually will buy into the cloud hype, but in the form of "private clouds" contained within enterprises and close partners and agents.

From gathering intelligence to problem solving to making IT decisions, a CIOs job always is varied and busy.

There's been intense debate among insurance tech people lately over what SOA is—or is not—supposed to accomplish. Fortunately, experts at last month's International SOA Symposium have answers.

Will anyone need today’s data a millennium from today? Quite possibly, the answer is yes.

What would it look like if Apple's “I'm-a-Mac” commercials were elevated to the enterprise level?

Holy temblors, Batman, what will the global warming acolytes do with this one?

While legacy architectures may make things easier on IT departments, they don't necessarily ease headaches for users.

Management teams have found a need to reset their strategic direction in 2010, so it's imperative insurers improve project execution.

While the government continues to fumble with determining its oversight plan, insurers struggle with their own compliance efforts.

Access and authority can be tricky and risky, but someone—or some thing—has to be in charge. Is automation an option?

New Celent research examines what's hot and what's not for insurers and their IT investments.

Research from Forrester finds that while U.S. auto insurance customers often utilize the Web to shop, they still prefer to purchase through agents or the call center.

Insurers may call the rapidly increasing pace of change “normal,” but it still amounts to a loss of control.

The challenge to insurance IT proponents is while they have the support of their companies, they need to do a better job of linking IT projects to actual business gains.

Young graduates seem uninterested in computer science, but some say the real problem is that U.S. companies are opting for cheaper foreign labor in their enterprises. The result is a lack of demand for more highly paid American IT workers.

Forrester talked to 70 North American insurers about their hardware and infrastructure investment plans and found that they're very concerned about risks associated with cloud computing and virtualization.

The cumulative costs for insurers of not fixing all the niggling IT issues and workarounds can be significant.

Zach McCoy, SVP at Kaplan Compliance, offers four recommendations for insurers currently seeking to adopt business process management.

One plan is to provide services to agents who already have affinity marketing schemes in place.

While the federal government’s irrational urge to throw money at every problem is sickening, more funding for cyber-security makes a lot of sense, especially for health insurers.

The problem stems partly from the Disney mindset of many parents.

As more and more consumers use comparison-shopping sites, a major question arises for carriers and agents: Are online comparison shoppers really good customers for your book of business?

AHIP's last-second change of heart exposes it to retribution.

We already know the self-service ethic is a winning approach for many insurers, so why not self-service IT?

The real issue buried behind the Justice Department's investigation of IBM is not the hardware monopoly, but the fact that many companies have mission-critical systems running on these mainframes; systems in which they have invested too much money to move.

Reports indicate that revenue support is not going to come from a hardening market.

What do we do when the technology environment changes too quickly for us to respond to it? Quantum physics may provide an answer or two.

Forrester polled 65 insurance IT decision-makers about their infrastructure priorities for 2010, and 48% said extending the life of their hardware was of critical importance.

The power of the list is its ability to bring focus, which is especially helpful for insurance and IT professionals who invariably have their plates full.

Insurers must encrypt or mask sensitive data that leaves production environments regardless of its destination.

Despite the gloomy economic picture, many insurers are still upgrading or replacing policy admin systems but, once done, place more responsibility in the hands of business users than IT.

In this information age, perhaps the biggest challenge for insurers and consumers alike is learning to filter through the media deluge for what's truly meaningful.

Given the rise of smartphone adoption among U.S. insurance customers, there is now a massive demand to engage insurers via the mobile Web.

Royal Bank of Scotland Insurance is reportedly moving its claims management system to India.

IT departments are now expected to play a feature role in driving the future growth of the business.

Insurers cutting maintenance levels is a bit like a pro athlete cutting back his workouts—the lack of “maintenance” will eventually show in his performance, or lack thereof.

Millennials dislike the world their forebears created, and have the current financial crisis, complete with negative opinions of banks and insurers, fueling their disdain.

Insurers should examine their current systems for untapped features and functionality.

Celent says two recent policy admin deals in the UK is a sign insurers are looking to get back on track with IT investments.

The arrival of BPM as a transformational initiative is creating new opportunities for carriers to think about new ways of doing business.

One of the best things about covering the technology industry is that one doesn’t usually have to sully oneself with the hogwash that passes for discourse and wisdom among our nation’s politicians.

Insurance IT Budgets: It’s a tricky time for those who must make plans for next year, but where should insurers draw the line between caution and boldness?

With the acquisition of Perot, the purveyor of servers signals an intention to focus on services.

Insurers should think less about functions and the data itself, and focus instead on processes.

With 40 years of reliability, there may still be a place for mainframes in insurance IT shops.