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At a time when U.S. companies are cutting back on health care benefits and the number of uninsured Americans continues to grow, Web-based companies are stepping up their efforts to attract individuals and small-business owners.It's estimated that 43 million Americans do not have health insurance. In targeting this untapped market, Web-based insurance companies continue to expand their products and service offerings, and are actively pursuing more partnerships with both online and offline insurance providers, financial groups, civic organizations and other businesses.

When Atlantic Mutual Cos. moved its back-office operations from New York to Roanoke, Va., in 1977, David Mitchell was working on school redistricting as a programmer for the Roanoke City schools.Tipped off by IBM Corp.'s local representative about Atlantic Mutual's plans, Mitchell jumped at the opportunity and was hired by the New York-based insurer as a senior programmer.

Insurance carriers and their employer customers face two diametrically opposing challenges regarding Web-based employee benefits programs: online benefits programs that are rarely used or those that are accessed too frequently.Specifically, if a majority of employees aren't sold on the virtues of accessing benefits information via the Internet, the return on investment for the program's sponsors can be delayed or vastly reduced.

Although asset management is a relatively new focus for carriers, they're on a steady course for targeting affluent customers with a wave of products and services.As the U.S. economy caught wind during the past decade, more consumers joined the ranks of the affluent population. Recognizing this socioeconomic shift, insurance carriers began steering their business strategies toward asset management services.

It's solid. It's established. It's "the rock." And despite a 125-year history and $371 billion in assets that could have slowed it down, Prudential Insurance Co. of America has defied inertia and rapidly transformed itself into a 21st century operation determined to hold its own in the high-speed New Economy. Two recent strategic IT initiatives have contributed significantly to Prudential's transformation. They stand out not only for their scope, but also for the speed with which they've been implemented.Namely, the rollout of the $130 million LaunchPad laptop program, which was initiated three years ago to equip Prudential's entire field force of 12,000 with IBM ThinkPad notebook computers, has been recognized as a phenomenal achievement. "That's just mind-boggling-to roll out thousands of PCs on a very concerted basis," says John McFadden, chief technology officer of Loyola College in Timonium, Md.

When a global financial services behemoth such as Zurich Financial Services Group decides to merge three commercial property/casualty businesses into one regional unit, it would be reasonable to assume that consolidating their IT resources into one common platform would take longer than nine months.After all, large corporations aren't usually nimble and quick, insurance companies are known for their cumbersome legacy systems, and mergers of any kind are difficult to implement.

If you want a tip on selecting technologies that will enable your company to achieve its business goals, here's a good one from Stephen Wiggins, CIO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina: Don't chase it. Let the business tell you what to do."We do not develop technology for technology's sake here," Wiggins says. "Our basic philosophy is leverage what you have. As long as what you have is flexible enough to meet your business needs, then build on it-because it retains knowledge from the past."

The rise and fall of San Francisco-based eCoverage Inc. isn't the only dot- com whose demise has surprised industry experts.In late April, Chicago-based Iwix.net, the first independent business-to- business online marketplace to link agents and brokers with specialty insurance carriers, ceased operations after failing to raise additional funding.

Less than two years ago, San Francisco-based Internet auto insurance provider eCoverage Inc. made a proclamation seemingly as bold as it was preposterous.Promising that "the insurance industry is history," eCoverage executives launched an automated quote-to-claim operating model intriguing enough to make even ardent dot-com skeptics sit up and take notice.

Insurance agents by their nature tend to be anxious, especially when it concerns customer information. Coverage confirmation, billing information and personal data are critical pieces of information in any agent's customer database, and fast access to up-to-date data is an important customer service criteria.At DS Barkley Insurance Management Services, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based managing general agency that underwrites nonstandard auto insurance in five states, meeting these informational needs for its 150 agents was more than a full-time job for its support staff.

ess than a year after launching an ambitious program targeting small-business owners via the Internet, Wausau Insurance has shut down its eWausau operations.The decision was stunning, given that the company in April partnered with InsureZone to offer its products to banks and Web portals.

The Internet will continue to be a major focus of insurers' technology spending plans, according to the findings of a new global survey of insurance industry leaders.The survey, conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit and PricewaterhouseCoopers, reveals that spending on technologies supporting e-business initiatives will increase 89% over the next three years. More than 150 leading insurance providers including carriers, agents/brokers, reinsurers, banks, broker-dealers and dotcoms, participated in the study.

Although the insurance market has proved to be a hard nut to crack for dot-com startups, that hasn't deterred new entrants from trying to gain a foothold on the Internet.One of the more recent entrants is NetInsurance, an online insurance agency that, claiming to be the first operation of its kind, offers customers the ability to comparison shop for and buy auto insurance in a single online session.

Insurance companies have lagged behind Corporate America in adopting the Internet as a distribution channel. But over the last two years, carriers have directed IT and advertising resources toward developing the technology and promoting their Internet sales strategies.

Nearly 40 years ago-long before Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) was ratified-Charlotte, N.C.-based First Union Corp. was diligently establishing a modest insurance program designed to complement its core banking competencies.

First-time homebuyers who are preparing to sign off on a mortgage loan aren't always cognizant of the sudden long-term financial needs that await them. But savvy financial services providers are."Through the proper customer relationship management technology, we're well positioned to drill down and tailor individual products for customers," David deGorter, president of Charlotte, N.C.-based First Union Insurance Group, explains.

Insurance executives apparently are unfazed by the dot-com meltdown of 2001. Business-to-business e-commerce clearly dominates the IT efforts of insurance carriers as they seek to increase online product delivery and data exchange with business partners, according to the findings of a recent survey of 73 carriers, agents and brokers conducted by Insurance Networking.

Conseco Inc. has undergone rapid change in Gary Wendt's brief tenure as chairman and CEO. In 10 months at the helm of the Indianapolis-based insurance and consumer finance company, Wendt has overseen the disposal of $1.7 billion of assets-including a $122 million stake in the Argosy Gaming riverboat-and the elimination of 2,000 jobs at Conseco Finance.In April, the company stepped up its efforts to rein in expenses by announcing plans to shift some of the company's call center servicing and back-office processing to India. Related to this decision, Conseco is acquiring exlService, a firm specializing in these functions which is based in Hyderbat, India.

Following in the footsteps of the American Bankers Asso-ciation Insurance Association (ABAIA), which proposed an optional federal charter for insurers, Washington, D.C.-based American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) has released its own draft proposal-this one geared to the life insurance industry.The draft-which was assembled by about 30 working groups involving more than 200 ACLI member companies-calls for the creation of the National Insurer Act, the National Insurer Solvency Act and an Office of National Insurers in the Department of the Treasury.

When colleagues describe Robert V. James, there's no mistaking him for the tradition-bound stereotype of an insurance executive. Instead, they use such adjectives as progressive, creative and charismatic.Co-workers credit his high energy for rapid changes at Chicago-based CNA Insurance Cos. As executive vice president of CNA's Technology Solutions Group, James has attracted top talent to his team, launched an eBusiness initiative from scratch and revolutionized the way the insurer communicates with its agents.