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Armonk, New York - IBM has released more details about its SOA roadmap for the insurance industry. At a conference in May, the company said it would provide roadmaps for eight different industries, including insurance. The roadmaps are based on long-term industry outlooks and new IBM Business Blueprints that enable organizations to better align business and IT. The insurance roadmap provides real-time access to policy, claims and related data through multiple modes of communication with IBM's insurance for agent collaboration framework, the company says. IBM also announced the results of a survey of clients that concludes the strategic decisions about (SOA) adoption are shifting away from the realm of IT staffers to business executives. The survey was conducted for IBM by the Link Group and consisted of a sampling of clients at the IBM Impact 2007 event, which drew more than 4,200 technical and business leaders The survey revealed that 67% of the respondents said the key decision makers responsible for moving to an SOA strategy are business leaders including C-level executives and business managers. Additionally, 65% of clients said that business leaders are also primarily responsible for selecting an IT partner to help achieve business goals in an SOA. At the same time, the survey also found that there is an increasing need for training staff so they possess the unique combination of both business and IT skills required for a business to realize the potential of SOA. Source: MarketWire

Lexington, Mass. - FirstBest Systems, a Lexington, Mass.-based developer of underwriting management software has announced the formation of an Underwriting Knowledge Center.

Las Vegas - A feature on its Web sites that links directly to a physician's office has garnered an award for BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. The feature, called STATchat, took top honors in the "Best Use of Technology" category during the 3rd Annual Call Center Excellence Awards held recently in Las Vegas. STATchat allows a physician's office staff to call BlueCross over the Internet and gives them priority for customer service. Physician office staff members simply click on the STATchat icon to call for assistance without dialing any numbers by using an inexpensive headset with microphone. STATchat links the staff member with a BlueCross provider services agent, ahead of calls from physician offices using traditional phone lines. Both the awards and the conference are organized by the International Quality & Productivity Center (IQPC). Experts and practitioners in the call center field judged this year's award entries. "Providers who utilize our STATchat feature receive the help they need with little or no wait time," said David Boucher, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina's assistant vice president of health care services. "This allows our providers to better focus on their vital role of caring for their patients." Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Source: PR Newswire

Oakland, Calif. - Web-based options are playing a larger role in doctor-patient interaction, notes Kaiser Permanente. The Oakland, Calif., health insurer released a study that was published in the American Journal of Managed Care and describes how secure e-mail changes the way patients choose to access medical care. "Patient access to electronic health record with secure messaging: impact on primary care utilization" examines the use of secure e-mail between Kaiser Permanente members and physicians. According to the study: Patients with online access to an electronic health record (EHR) are choosing to use secure e-mail, thereby decreasing the number of primary care office visits and telephone contact rates. The study noted that the use of secure e-mail linked to an EHR decreased annual adult primary care outpatient visit rates by 7 to 10% and led to 14% fewer phone contacts than those not using online services. "The access to personal health management tools, including secure email is helping our members get care how and when they want it," states Yvonne Zhou, PhD, one of the authors of the study. "It is valuable to have been able to document an evolving trend that shows consumers are choosing to replace office visits and phone calls with electronic communication with their doctors." More than 1.4 million Kaiser Permanente members are registered to use the company's secure online services. Since launching secure e-mail services, more than 2.7 million e-mail messages have been sent to providers. Source: PR Newswire

Zurich, Switzerland - In the latest in a series of insurance-related executive announcements, Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) announced the appointment of Christian Orator to the position of Global Chief Claims Officer. He will assume his new role as of August 1, 2007. Orator, 44, and a Swiss and Austrian citizen, will succeed Jane Tutoki who was appointed Chief Claims Officer for Zurich North America Commercial. In his new position, Orator will be responsible for leading a global network of claims professionals and driving continuous improvement in the group's claims capabilities and customer service. He will be report to John Amore, CEO General Insurance, and will be located in Zurich. Orator currently heads special initiatives within the office of the Group Chief Administrative Office. He has extensive experience in the strategic planning, underwriting and claims fields having held numerous executive and operational positions in Austria, the US, Germany and at Corporate Center since joining Zurich in 1989. These roles include serving as a member of the German Executive Board, responsible for commercial lines and broker distribution. He holds a Ph.D. and master's degree in law from the University of Vienna as well as a master's degree in comparative law from Dickinson School of Law in the United States. Source: Zurich Financial Services Group

Los Angeles – At a time when acquisitions are plentiful in the insurance industry (see "More Acquisitions For the Insurance Industry") Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Group of Companies announced the completion of its acquisition of non-standard auto insurer, Davie, Fla.-based Bristol West Holdings Inc.Bristol West began providing private passenger auto insurance to Florida residents in 1973. Since that time, it grew to be a provider of liability and physical damage insurance at competitive prices. Bristol West operates in 26 states.

Alexandria, Va.-Agents are taking a more active role in the agent/carrier relationship. Agents want to do more than simply view or access forms on a portal; they want to enter data and communicate with multiple carriers and vendors for quoting, policy issue and inquiry-and they want to enter the data once.

CIGNA HealthCare, Hartford, Conn., announced yesterday that it will begin providing online precertification this fall to more than 365,000 physicians in its national network.

Jersey City, N.J. - The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry's net income after taxes dipped to $15.8 billion in first-quarter 2007 from $16.7 billion in first-quarter 2006 and $17.7 billion in first-quarter 2005. Reflecting the declines in net income, the property/casualty industry's annualized rate of return on average policyholders' surplus (statutory net worth) dropped to 12.9% in first-quarter 2007 from 15.5% in first-quarter 2006 and 17.9% in first-quarter 2005, according to Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO Properties Inc. and Des Plaines, Ill.-based Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI).

Brussels – Under a new measure that may be proposed as early as July 10, insurers within the European Union that conduct business across various borders may be supervised by regulators representing larger groups. EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy is expected to propose Solvency II, a law designed to help regulate how insurers set aside money to cover risk and provide increased policyholder protection while creating a more competitive insurance marketplace. But Peter Skinner, who is expected to steer the measure through parliamentary channels, said lawmakers were already considering a "plan B" if no deal is reached on the supervisory aspects of Solvency II. Conflicting news reports state that the Solvency II deadline may be moved to 2010. Currently, multinationals such as Allianz, Generali, Aviva and Axa, account for 85% of total premiums in Europe, and represent 14 of the bloc's 27 member countries. The fear, say analysts, is that if a new measure is passed, national watchdogs could be given a limited role as supervisors in London, Frankfurt and Paris, home to many of the big groups, take charge. Lawmakers say that the assembly and EU states have joint say on Solvency II. A 28th regime would likely be a voluntary scheme outside existing legislation in the 27 EU member states. Skinner reportedly wants home regulators to be responsible for approving an insurer, with local watchdogs keeping a day-to-day eye on how much capital groups have locally to cover domestic risk. Sources: Reuters, The Insurance Insider

Cedar Rapids, Iowa - A recent online survey on P&C insurance technology reveals that leading carriers have become adept at dealing with customers and business partners online. However, virtually all carriers recognize that there is room for improvement and that they must continuously improve their underlying technology to better serve their customers and enhance their competitive position. The results from a survey conducted by Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based technology provider Fiserv Inc. indicates critical business needs and the projects and technologies insurance carriers have underway to address them.Seventy-five percent of respondents agreed that one of their next three large-scale projects would involve their core system for maintaining insurance coverage information. Access to complete and immediate information allows the carrier to respond more effectively and efficiently. Sixty-seven percent said an agency interface or comparative rating system would be on their list of projects planned. Billing and claims projects to make things smoother for the customer tied at 42%.

A former insurance agent from Penn Valley, Calif., was convicted of one felony count of insurance fraud and three misdemeanor counts of petty theft for collecting insurance premiums from clients for commercial general liability and commercial automobile insurance and failed to remit the premiums to insurers. A former Allstate insurance agent was charged with a single count of theft, a Class D felony, after an investigation revealed that he had accepted and deposited his clients' checks without applying the funds toward their policies. A Louisiana-based agent was arrested, transported to jail and booked on four counts of insurance fraud and one count of forgery for altering insurance applications to increase the previously agreed upon premium amount, thereby increasing his commission. In one instance, he forged the client's initials to changes without the client's knowledge or consent.All three of these stories graced the news within a week-and-a-half, and are just a few that have recently made headlines. Independent agents seem to be finding more ways to commit fraud and practice unethical business--creating false insurance entities, fraud rings, misinterpreting policies and just flat--out stealing policyholders' money.

Roughly a decade after insurance carriers began adding customers' credit scores to the stew of statistics used to set premiums for auto and homeowner's coverage, negative reaction and feedback appears to be waning.Opponents still contend that credit scoring tends to raise premiums overall, that it doesn't correlate directly with risk and that it may serve as a proxy for racial and ethnic discrimination, because some minority groups have lower incomes and are more likely to have credit problems.

In 2006, Auto Club Group (ACG) found that its document composition capabilities were highly inflexible and, faced with a legacy environment, it could not manipulate its print stream-at least without contracting additional workers.The Dearborn, Mich.-based company was unable to deal with spikes in mailings, which occurred when it had to send bulk materials to a large credit union, for example. And yet, employees and equipment often sat idle during lighter mailing periods.

In the world of programming, what does the future hold? This was one of the questions a panel of industry experts at the IASA 2007 Educational Conference and Business Show pondered during the IT Town Hall meeting session. The future doesn't look very bright unless some labor changes are made. One panelist said that 30% of his staff is eligible for retirement in 3-5 years and he can't find the COBOL programmers necessary to replace them. And, there just aren't experienced programmers entering the workforce.As insurance companies migrate away from COBOL, how will they maintain the applications written in the legacy code? Gone are the days of COBOL classes. The next generation has little interest in COBOL, as XML and other standards allow them to talk to existing code (such as COBOL or RPG).

Identity theft, long the bane of IT departments, is also providing insurance companies with opportunities to offer a new kind of coverage and score some marketing points at the same time.Carriers are hiring third-party services to restore policyholders' stolen identities. In general, here's how it works: The victim calls the insurer to report the ID theft. After establishing the validity of the claim, the carrier transfers the caller to the vendor's call center. The third-party vendor swings into action, drawing upon relationships with credit rating agencies and other institutions to refurbish the victim's credit. Meanwhile, the insurer can track the case until closure.

BANKS SHOULD SET SIGHTS ON RELATIONSTo entice customers to buy more financial products and services, financial services companies need to focus on improving their relationship strategies, according to Gartner Inc., a research firm headquartered in Stamford, Conn.

ISTREAM TO INCLUDE NEW FUNCTIONALITYWhitehill Technologies Inc., Moncton, New Brunswick, announced new functionality in the IStream document automation suite, including IStream Publisher and IStream Document Manager. The IStream suite is designed to enable business users to create 'model documents' that control the language, layout and look of complex files, such as policies and contracts. IStream can be used to create and control virtually any kind of insurance document, from contracts to welcome kits to group booklets. New functionality includes add-ins for Microsoft Word and Adobe Reader, letting users create complex documents in a familiar, easy-to-use, interactive environment. As data or standard wordings change, users can automatically update their documents to reflect those changes. Leveraging industry-standard applications gives insurers the power to create and update documents easily as part of their normal processes.

Insurance carriers need product development flexibility and "speed to market" to maintain competitive advantage. To help accomplish those goals, INN asked Doug Roller, CEO of Bolivar, Mo.-headquartered Duck Creek Technologies Inc., to describe his "product in a day" concept.INN: How would you define "product in a day?"

Most it executives never think of service-oriented architecture (SOA) as applying to batch applications. How could they possibly fit?But SOA is about reuse. And a business function used in online transactions may be the same business function used in batch processes, so organizations should think about their IT modernization strategy and consider SOA as a standardized application integration mechanism if nothing else.