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Warren, N.J. - The Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. has created an online system that is designed to make it easier for agents and brokers to quickly obtain a rate, quote or binder for contractors' equipment risks with schedules up to $5 million.Contractor's Equipment Express, or CEQ Express, is available to agents and brokers through @chubb, the secure Web site that provides agents and brokers access to Chubb products and services.

Long before the power of bits and bytes helped facilitate the insurance industry's growth, forward-moving companies adhered to disciplines and principles that focused on consistent, repeatable processes that enabled cross-functional groups to work more efficiently. In the 1950s, educators were already teaching these principles, and not much has changed in terms of applying good common sense to core business processes.The advent of technology, however, changed the playing field. With automation came simplicity: Paperless audit trails, straight-through processing, real-time communications, wireless, the list goes on. But few would argue that the simplicity offered by technology has brought with it a paradoxical level of mounting complexity. And, for the insurance industry, that complexity isn't just affected by increased competition; it's saddled with regulatory and reporting requirements that make IT management arduous at best. Simply put: the insurance industry's IT organizations are coming out of the cold room to embrace and share knowledge and expertise-via best practices.

A fast-growing market of more than 40 million people, representing $600 billion per year of income, cannot be ignored for too long. The financial services insurance industry is finally learning how to embrace people of Spanish heritage within the United States, and use technology to better respond to this underserved segment.Reaching out to this market involves more than simple translation of documents and Web sites. The Hispanic or Latino market is a highly diverse one. While members of this market are not likely to respond to standard industry pitches, it is a receptive audience to insurance products.

Early in his career, Gary Kaplan spent a decade in loss control engineering, Then he moved into the underwriting arena and found that all the effort he and his colleagues had put into their engineering was arbitrarily applied to underwriting decisions."When I went into underwriting in 1988, I was appalled at how loose it was-the lack of structure and the lack of guidelines," says Kaplan, who is now senior vice president and chief underwriting officer at Zurich. "There was no consistency. The way business was priced was very disappointing to me after 10 years in engineering. I said, 'This is how all my work got translated into a price?'"

A new study that purports to pinpoint the economic losses stemming from state-by-state regulation of the life insurance industry finally provides the smoking gun that advocates of optional federal regulation say they need to bolster their case before Congress.Commissioned by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), the study contends that life insurers could save more than $600 million annually, or $6 billion over 10 years, if a federal regulatory charter option were enacted.

U.S. financial service providers (FSPs) are expected to spend $65.7 million on IT services in 2005. However less than 30% will outsource any strategic projects by the end of 2006, according to Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn."Most FSPs currently use outsourcing tactically to augment staff for faster project turnaround or to reduce operational costs, rather than for strategic value," says Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, research vice president at Gartner. "FSPs should now begin outsourcing strategic projects in order to gain larger-scale, enterprisewide value."

Insurers sell promises, and after Hurricane Katrina, they certainly have a lot of promises to keep.At press time, the economic loss from what appears to be the worst hurricane in U.S. history-along with subsequent flooding of New Orleans-was expected to exceed $125 billion, according to Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a Newark, Calif.-based catastrophe management technology and services provider.

Verbalizing its intent to become the No. 1 customer relationship management (CRM) applications company, Oracle Corp. at press time had announced it had agreed to buy Siebel Systems Inc., San Mateo, Calif. The deal is valued at approximately $5.85 billion, or $3.61 billion net of Siebel's cash on hand of $2.24 billion."Siebel's 4,000 applications customers and 3,400,000 CRM users strengthen our No. 1 position in applications in North America and move us closer to the No. 1 position in applications globally," said CEO Larry Ellison from Oracle's Redwood Shores, Calif., headquarters.

The technology may seem a panacea to some, but for the insurance industry, there are still some unanswered questions concerning Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and data convergence implementation.Donald Light, senior analyst at Boston-based Celent Communications Inc., a research and advisory firm, confirms the pensive posture of the insurance sector. "Insurance is being a cautious adopter. Visualizing the curve, the insurance industry is just now stepping up into growth," he says.

For better or worse, the reinsurance industry is in the middle of its 15 minutes of fame. With regulators shining a spotlight-some might call it a blinding one-on the industry, insurance companies are being forced to take a hard look at their reinsurance practices.Regardless of the overall impact the attention will have on the reinsurance market-specifically on finite reinsurance (see "Regulators Focus on Finite Reinsurance" ), it's a safe bet to say that insurance carriers will start to more closely examine their reinsurance automation needs, according to Donald Light, senior analyst at Celent Communications Inc., a Boston-based financial services research and consulting firm.

Before Keith Hawkyard's employer implemented a Web-based enterprise incentive management (EIM) system, he spent several hours every month leafing thro-ugh paper reports looking for his cancelled accounts.Now, with a new EIM system in place, Hawkyard, who sells automobile and homeowners insurance for San Francisco-based California State Automobile Association (CSAA), spends minutes rather than hours locating those accounts-with more time for follow-up calls to turn those cancellations back into policies.

The evolution of real-time text communications technology, in which messages can be sent, received and viewed immediately-a.k.a. instant messaging (IM)-is a welcome one for most companies.As IM moves from being a novelty for teens and college students to a viable communications vehicle for business, many organizations realize its potential: to improve collaboration and productivity.

In spite of centuries of sales experience, most insurers rely heavily on price for acquiring and retaining customers. The reality is that customers base insurance purchasing decisions on many factors. While this does not mean that we can ignore pricing, it does mean that alternatives exist for insurers to remain competitive.For some companies, the frustrating cycle of hard and soft markets will not exist. By relying on the power of data mining, they can maintain the consistency and accuracy of their underwriting decisions; they can significantly reduce the impact of fraudulent claims; and they can have a better understanding of their customers' wants and needs.

San Diego, Calif. - According to a recent report issued by San Diego-based messaging security developer Akonix Systems Inc., some 25 new viruses were reported on corporate IM networks during the month of September.

Boston - In 2003, Allianz Life transformed its Individual Insurance Group Call Center with key features including a single converged voice and data network, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phones, simple and understandable 800 number access for agents and policyholders, and intelligent call routing.Allianz's new call center has produced both financial and nonfinancial benefits, according to a report from Celent Communications Inc., titled "Upgrading Call Center Technology at Allianz Life." Productivity (measured by utilization of internal sales reps) has increased from 85% to 92%. Current year sales are up 78% year-over-year with essentially the same staff count. Management has a much better ability to track performance both real-time and retrospectively. Perhaps most importantly, the introduction of skill-based routing has facilitated the matching of calls to sales representatives.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - One million consumers have heeded the call of the Drive Insurance from Progressive marketing campaign and visited driveinsurance.com to find out more about the benefits of buying auto insurance through an independent agent or broker, including personal service and advice, competitive rates, and choice.The Web site was introduced in December 2004 as part of the launch of the Drive brand, which promotes the more than 30,000 independent agencies that sell Drive Insurance products across the country. The Drive Group of Progressive Insurance companies is the country's number one writer of private passenger auto insurance through independent agents and brokers.

Brea, Calif. - ChoicePoint and The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. have co-led a $20 million strategic investment that funds the expansion of XDimensional Technologies Inc. in the independent insurance agency market. Additional terms of the transaction were not disclosed.XDimensional's flagship product, Nexsure, is an agency management Internet service for the insurance industry. Nexsure is designed to put information at the fingertips of agents and carriers, delivering a progression of the entire customer/policy life cycle for any and all lines of business, from first contact, to submission, to sale and to in-force policy service.

Hartford, Conn., - Two insurers are partnering to bring advanced workers' compensation services to businesses throughout the Connecticut. The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., has contracted with Aetna to offer its customers the Aetna Workers' Comp Access (AWCA) network of health care providers. This arrangement, which became effective Sept. 1, follows a June 1 initiative when

Kansas City, Mo. - State insurance regulators, working cooperatively through the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), are working to ensure that survivors of Hurricane Katrina are being treated fairly and in compliance with the state insurance laws. To help respond to consumers' needs, the NAIC is creating an Emergency Responder database of state resources. This database will serve as a network of consumer assistance representatives from around the nation, who will help support state insurance departments in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, as they respond to losses associated with the disaster.

Alexandria, Va. - The national board of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) has adopted a new policy on producer compensation disclosure by carriers.