When Brigitte Hamilton looks back on the humble beginnings of her organization's intranet, there were only six divisional areas of the site and upwards of about 500 pages.That was in 1997. Since then, Oregon's largest workers' compensation insurance company, Salem-based State Accident Insurance Fund of Oregon (SAIF), has added nearly a dozen other divisional areas to its Web site, resulting in a page count pushing 15,000.

The best analogy for insurance technology solutions may be "trying to put a square peg in a round hole." And I suppose no matter which cliché you use, the meaning is the same: making an inappropriate object or solution fit where it doesn't really belong.With a plethora of similar technology solutions invading the insurance industry, determining which one really is "next-generation," "cutting-edge" or "the perfect fit" is often virtually impossible. For instance, the confusion surrounding one of today's most useful and functional technology solutions-enterprise content management (ECM)-has put more than one insurer in a tough spot.

Toronto - IT Governance 2006, a symposium designed to equip financial services and other organizations with the knowledge needed to identify and implement a sound IT governance framework, including the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT), will be held August 6-8 in Orlando.

Washington, D.C. - Microsoft Corp. has launched a technology framework for the health plan industry, called "Knowledge Driven Health Plans." The announcement came as Microsoft participated in the third annual World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C.As health plans face mounting pressure to respond to the rising costs of healthcare, growing member and provider expectations, intense competition, regulation, and the inefficiencies of a fragmented care-delivery ecosystem, Microsoft's Knowledge Driven Health Plans solutions framework is designed to deliver a technology platform that enables seamless business transformation. Microsoft and its industry partners are working together to provide health plans with integrated solutions designed to improve collaboration and access to information, thereby empowering people to make business and healthcare decisions that are based on the best evidence available.

Newark, Calif. – A new 2006 analysis from Risk Management Solutions (RMS) reveals that a Mw7.9 earthquake on the northern section of the San Andreas Fault today would result in at least $260 billion of damages to residential and commercial exposures, of which $50 billion to $80 billion would be covered by property and workers' compensation insurers. In contrast to the 1906 event, where 80% of the losses were caused by fire, less than 15% of the estimated total insured property losses are expected to be fire-related in 2006.The study analyzes the impacts of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire based on the 2006 population and property exposures of the San Francisco Bay Area. The property and workers 'compensation losses estimated in the RMS report include residential and commercial property and contents losses, as well as direct business interruption and additional living expenses due to ground shaking. In the RMS scenario, strong ground shaking affects 19 Bay Area counties, with an estimated building inventory value of approximately $2 trillion for residential, commercial, and industrial properties.

Warwick, R.I.--InsureMyTrip.com, a worldwide on-line travel insurance aggregator, has expanded operations into Canada, providing a new resource for the Canadian travel consumer. InsureMyTrip.ca allows consumers to analyze, rate, compare and purchase travel insurance from Canada's top travel insurers, all on one site.

Mayfield Heights, Ohio - The Progressive Group of Insurance Cos.' national catastrophe response team (NCRT) stands at the ready to handle increased claims volume resulting from weather-related events including hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms and floods.The company has opened its first permanent catastrophe response center in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, claiming it is even better positioned to deliver 24/7 claims service when people need fast, accurate claims resolution most.

Jersey City, N.J. - ISO has identified a six-point strategy where technology now exists for the effective management of claims through improved visibility of the claims handling process, establishing best practices and a more accurate assessment of injuries and recovery implications.Statistics from the Insurance Research Council (IRC) have shown that claims cost inflation has risen at an average of around 7% every year since 1997, with the average bodily injury claim cost rising from $4,804 in 1997 to $6,711 in 2002.

Tampa, Fla. - CGI Group Inc. has signed of a seven-year agreement valued at between $45 million and $75 million to provide Universal Insurance of North America, Sarasota, Florida, with policy and accounting business process services (BPS).CGI will process Universal's personal lines (book of business) including homeowners, dwelling-fire, auto, and umbrella in Texas and Florida. CGI will continue to support Universal's business processing needs as they expand their services into new markets.

Simsbury, Conn. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has named Mark Esposito as chief information officer for its individual life division.Esposito, who is also vice president and director of business technology, will lead the division's project management office and technology initiatives. He will be a member of the senior planning group, which helps Executive Vice President Michael Kalen, director of individual life, set direction for the division.

Washington - At a hearing before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, Joseph Smith, senior vice president and chief information officer of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, urged Congress to adopt a realistic timetable for a major shift in medical coding, moving systems from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Smith testified at the hearing, which focused on health care information technology, on behalf of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA).The bill Smith referenced, HR 4157, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2005, calls for the major conversion of diagnostic and procedural codes that providers and insurers must use by 2009. Systems would change from ICD-9 diagnosis codes, which include 13,000 codes, to ICD-10, which includes over 120,000 possible codes.

Andover, Mass. - CGI's special investigative unit (SIU) operating within Clarendon National Insurance Co. has concluded a probe that resulted in the arrest of four California residents. Six felony charges have been lodged in connection with a fraudulent auto theft claim that was filed with Clarendon.On March 1, 2006, California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi announced the arrests and added: "These types of false claims cost all of us more in the form of higher insurance premiums. My department will continue to fight this fraud to help ensure a fair, affordable insurance system for all Californians."

El Segundo, Calif. - In response to interest, Computer Sciences Corp.'s board of directors has decided to explore strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including a potential sale of the company.The company has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its financial advisor in this process. CSC cautions that there can be no assurance the exploration of strategic alternatives will result in a transaction, and the company does not intend to disclose developments regarding its exploration unless and until the Board of Directors has approved a specific transaction.

Santa Clara, Calif. - Itemfield, a provider of complex data transformation software, has formed a relationship with Adobe Systems Inc. to work together to develop a solution designed specifically for the insurance industry.The combination of Adobe's intelligent forms that support the ACORD XML data standard with the process-specific business rules and complex data transformation capabilities from Itemfield can help insurers increase efficiency by accelerating the processing of transactional data in electronic forms, such as quotations and new business submissions, according to the two companies.

Seattle - Safeco has named William Jenks chief information officer, effective April 17, 2006.Jenks most recently served as executive vice president and chief information officer of worldwide operations at Publicis Groupe, one of the world's largest advertising and media companies. At Publicis, Jenks led the consolidation of separate technology platforms following a major corporate acquisition. He also realigned the company's technical resources to support top-line business objectives and improve the efficiency of its global workforce.

Las Vegas - Recognizing the growing role of enterprise systems in assisting companies to meet the increasing challenges of corporate compliance and risk management, SAP AG is acquiring Virsa Systems Inc., a privately-held supplier of cross-enterprise compliance solutions. The announcement was made at Simplify, the 2006 Virsa Customer Conference, being held in Las Vegas.Founded in 1996, Virsa has more than 300 enterprise customers, many of which are global 1000 companies, across all major vertical market segments. SAP stated that the transaction with Virsa is continuing evidence of its strategy to use "fill-in" acquisitions to add to its broad solution offering by gaining specific technologies and capabilities that meet the needs of its customers, within industries or across industries, while maintaining its successful organic growth track record. Terms of the all-cash transaction were not disclosed.

Gilsbar Inc. has had a detailed disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place since 1996. The New Orleans-based third-party administrator, which handles claims for about 150,000 members, employs a certified disaster recovery specialist. And, the company's executives and technical staff go through tabletop disaster recovery scenarios at least twice a year.Like many other insurance companies, Gilsbar is prepared for catastrophes. However, when Hurricane Katrina hit last year, insurance executives were caught by surprise and had to act on their feet and respond to a bevy of unexpected circumstances.

He ain't no Oprah; but he's definitely a force to reckon with. At Aflac, at least, he's the senior vice president and CIO-and, like Oprah, he likes books. In fact, Gerald Shields likes books so much he established a lunchtime book club several years ago for his entire IT leadership team. Every week, some 50 or so Aflac IT executives, directors and managers attend the one-and-a-half-hour meeting."It's more than just a book club," says Shields. "It's a way for me to invest in our people." Shields has been CIO at Aflac since last July. And, before that, since 2002, he was vice president, information technology-enterprise services at the Columbus, Ga.-based insurer best known for its lovable quacking duck.

In a sign of the major benefits to be won by insurance firms that accentuate Web-based and electronic solutions, the Blue Bell, Pa.-based insurer PMA Insurance Group received superlative ratings in customer service in a recent survey conducted by an independent researcher.In the survey, J.P. Murphy and Co., a Malvern, Pa.-based marketing and opinion research firm, asked approximately 500 of PMA's active clients about the quality of customer service that the insurer offered in areas including claims processing, risk assessment, risk management and cost control.

Despite reeling from the worst year in history for claims losses, pundits say the insurance industry plans to increase its spending on claims technology in 2006. For some, the idea of stepping up to new technology sounds like the perfect way to address inefficiencies that continue to plague claims processing. To others, it's yet another Band-Aid that may or may not be effective in solving what has become a hushed, off-the-record issue: claims leakage."Claims leakage is the difference between what you spent on a claim and what you should have spent," says one East Coast health insurance claims executive, who, like many sources interviewed for this story, asked to remain anonymous.