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With value delivery at its core, the "reinvention" of the Insurance Networking News Web site is designed to meet the information needs of the ever-changing insurance industry.

Though customer relationship management has been hyped, then written off, carriers are finding new uses for the technology.

ITIL may be key to embedding service orientation into business processes through governance and management of SOA efforts.

Analysts and consultants weigh in on the status of insurers' IT spending. What is driving and/or restricting those purchases?

Chicago - While winter storms do not attract the attention of mega-catastrophes such as hurricanes and earthquakes, these smaller events can add up to impact insurers' bottom lines say experts. However, insurers can now avail themselves of such risks by using new technology to better assess the risks from winter storms and fires, risk modeling experts report.

Sircon Corp. an Okemos, Mich., provider of comprehensive producer lifecycle services for the insurance industry, announced a partnership with the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors - Pennsylvania (NAIFA-PA), a statewide trade association representing approximately 2,300 licensed professionals who provide life, health and multiline insurance and related financial services in Pennsylvania.

Washington – President Bush gave his imprimatur to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2007.

Okemos, Mich. — Sircon Corp., a provider of comprehensive producer lifecycle services for the insurance industry, announced its partnership with the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors - Pennsylvania (NAIFA-PA), a statewide trade association representing about 2,300 licensed professionals who provide life, health and multiline insurance and related financial services in Pennsylvania.

New York — Zurich Financial Services, one of the world’s largest property-casualty insurance companies, named Kevin McCracken as executive VP-casualty, and Joseph Tocco as executive VP-property, for the insurer’s Global Corporate in North America unit, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Both will now report to Paul Horgan, the unit’s newly appointed chief underwriting officer.

Tampa, Fla. — Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a property loss reduction trade association of the property/casualty insurance industry, named Rod Matthews, underwriting VP, property/casualty, with State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., chairman of the board.

Denver — Jackson National Life Insurance Co. (Jackson) has strategically realigned the National Accounts group within Jackson National Life Distributors LLC (JNLD) in order to identify additional avenues for growth in the bank and regional broker-dealer channels, and expand Jackson’s presence among the company’s existing accounts.

St. Paul, Minn. - IT executives overwhelmingly identify user interface as a key criteria when considering an upgrade or replacement purchase, according to a survey conducted on behalf of St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software.

Insurance companies—including actuaries and IT executives—will be under growing pressure to enhance their financial management system capabilities as they face changing financial reporting requirements, and more extensive risk management challenges in 2008.

Alpharetta, Ga. - BB&T Insurance Services plans to expand its metro Atlanta operation with the acquisition of Ott & Co. of Alpharetta, Ga.

New York - XL Insurance, the global insurance operation of XL Capital Ltd., has completed the purchase of Global Asset Protection Services LLC (GAPS) from Swiss Re. GAPS is a provider of unbundled loss prevention consulting services, offering individually tailored risk management solutions to risk managers, insurance brokers and insurance company clients operating on a global basis.

Frisco, Texas - Mark Depker, president of Hall Financial Group's management division, announced Skywire Software signed a new 49,500-square-foot lease for its new worldwide corporate headquarters at 3000 Internet Blvd. in the Hall Office Park development in Frisco, Texas.

Boston - Liberty Mutual Agency Markets (a strategic business unit of Liberty Mutual Group) senior special investigator Barbara Parker was honored by the National Society of Professional Insurance Investigators (NSPII) with the 2007 F. Lee Brininger Award, which annually recognizes one insurance professional's outstanding contribution to the fight against insurance fraud.

Portland, Ore. - Kryptiq Corp., a provider of healthcare connectivity solutions, was recently acknowledged at the annual Portland Business Journal banquet honoring the most-admired companies in Oregon. The company received recognition as the fifth most-admired technology company, as determined by a survey of more than 2,000 Oregon CEOs.

Washington – The House passed a seven-year extension to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) by a margin of 360-53. The passage of bill, which mirrors a version passed by the Senate, paves for the way for a signature by President Bush, who had threatened to veto a more ambitious TRIA extension passed by the House in September.

There is overwhelming evidence that spending on servers is slowing down significantly across a number of market sectors, in some cases by up to a factor of five, according to research conducted by TechNavio from Infiniti Research.