Insure Think

It seems like a Millennium ago: it's been 10 years since the rollover to the new century, a time when many expected the greatest computer crash in history.

Many of us are trying hard to see positive trends for the coming year, but employment remains the only meaningful bellwether of change.

What to their wondering eyes did appear? Probably not what they were hoping for.

Many times, insurers don’t look closely enough at all available data and information to see clearly, and lose out on opportunities as a result.

Search is now generating thousands of new policies for agents and carriers, making it an indispensable part of their marketing strategy.

A McKinsey & Co. study finds 55% of execs say current performance in providing basic IT services is very or extremely effective, but only 21% are happy with IT's ability to add value to the business.

OK, so some prominent global warming acolytes have been rigging the numbers; let’s just pretend that didn’t happen.

Survey results show younger generation more open to being approached via non-traditional channels.

Sources say PC sales will increase in the commercial sector, but where will the money come from, and who will use them?

Businesses need working solutions to their problems, and spending capital on all the latest bells and whistles is not the answer.

Despite research indicating that 41% of online insurance consumers are interested in PAYD policies, why hasn't this seemingly innovative and intuitive program been adopted by more states, or backed by regulatory groups?

The few insurers that have released mobile apps have but, eventually, every insurer that has invested in a Web-based channel will be taking full advantage of every mobile device.

Fresh thinking and innovation is needed in the health care sector, and only then will IT improvements begin to have their desired impact.

Joblessness has hit most sectors of the U.S. economy, including technology, but companies are still begging for low-cost labor from overseas.

Celent says customer portals should behave in the manner customers expect, which requires continued investments to reflect changing customer behavior, and the leveraging of new technologies.

With the proliferation of security devices and software, you would think that virus infections are decreasing, but exactly the opposite is true. The question is—why?

A new Celent report concludes that the greatest challenge facing insurers is their siloed environments. Improving info sharing would help eliminate this problem.

Fundamental to every insurer's improvement initiative is the need for managers to provide personal-written or verbal permission to make improvements.

While the law may eventually get watered down, the transparency and accountability of information will live on as perhaps insurers' most important corporate value.

No one wants to spend more money these days, but cuts can bleed in ways we never would have imagined.

Move over James Bond, new “gadget-friendly clothing” redefines “cool” for the technophile.

U.S. life carriers need to understand consumer behavior in order to help agents close new business.

Social media is invaluable in helping people find each other, share information, communicate and learn, but it's not without its pitfalls.

Repealing McCarran Ferguson could have serious implications for insurance companies and, ultimately, would burden consumers.

While Web apps are a critical part of many insurers’ business strategies, there needs to be better, more systematic approaches to addressing potential performance issues.

Internet-related crime is a fact of life, but can we afford to simply write it off and forget about it?

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.