Depending on whom you listen to, offshore outsourcing is the best - or the worst option available to insurance companies.The downbeat discussion typically follows the "hidden costs have pushed the business cycle full circle" path, while proponents focus on the logistical effort and patience required for an improved-if not elusive-bottom line.

One of the most frustrating aspects of life for American consumers in the 21st Century is trying to complete a transaction or obtain information from a company over the telephone.Whether it's ordering a new pair of shoes, checking the status of a utility bill, or seeking help with a computer problem, the experience can be both exasperating and mind numbing.

TRANSAMERICA RECEIVES SIX 'BEST IN CLASS' RANKINGSAs a testament to its relationship with its clients, Los Angeles-based Transamerica Retirement Services received six "Best in Class" ratings from the Chatham Partners' 2005 Client Satisfaction Analysis. Transamerica received "Best in Class" ratings: timeliness of contributions, distributions and loans, accuracy of contributions, overall satisfaction with processing of employee transactions, accuracy of participant statements, clarity of participant statements, and courtesy and professionalism of personnel.

Several years ago, a rising deluge of spam, much of it offensive to the firm's largely female workforce, prompted Tollman & Wiker InWest (TWIW) Insurance Services, LLC, to seek better ways of protecting its incoming e-mail."We felt as employers we should protect our staff from this stuff," recalls Kevin Dickmann, who, as technology manager, ran IT single-handedly for the 85-person insurance agency based in Ventura, Calif. "Every morning, our employees were finding 30 to 40 messages they had to review and delete." What's more, e-mail's importance to daily operations was growing by leaps and bounds, so keeping it safe and sound was critical.

In early 2005, after being pounded by hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jean, Glen Distefano pondered the technology model for the soon to be established St. Petersburg, Fla., insurance company.SUNZ Insurance Co. set up shop this year to provide workers compensation and related liability coverage through a direct sales force to a select clientele-a controlled group of Florida-based professional employer organizations (PEOs), staffing companies and other preferred large risks. After agreeing to take the helm as chief information officer at the company, Distefano thought about the 8,000 businesses and 100,000 jobs lost from 1992's Hurricane Andrew.

Insurance firms that lack a cohesive vision and strategy across their entire enterprise are failing to take advantage of the bounty of newfound technological options available to them and are limiting their capacity for differentiation and growth.This message, highlighted in the report "Business Architecture: Aligning Process, Content and Data to Enhance Profitability" by TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass.-based research and consulting firm, serves as a clarion call for insurers to embrace enterprisewide initiatives now or else cede an important competitive advantage.

A year ago, faced with stiff pressures to reduce costs and increase production, Penn National Insurance began searching for a robust solution to handle its document management functions for its different business lines."It wouldn't become our enterprise solution overnight, of course," says Timothy Caskey, senior systems analyst for the Harrisburg, Pa.-based insurer. "But ultimately it would become our print engine-the document composition and printing tool for the company."

VERIO ALIGNS WITH ARSENAL TO PROVIDE EXPANDED DATA PROTECTIONVerio Inc., an Englewood, Colo.-based managed hosting provider, has expanded its data protection and managed storage service offerings through a partnership with Arsenal Digital Solutions, Cary, N.C. Verio's managed storage and data protection services include remote data backup and restore; data center backup and restore; managed storage area network solutions; and database backup.

WEALTH RISK MANAGEMENTThe Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., Warren, N.J., has selected New York-based Risk Control Strategies to support its new Signature Suite offering of luxury personal risk management services. Signature Suite is designed to help identify potential threats and help affluent individuals protect their families and wealth. Risk Control Strategies will provide Chubb's high-net-worth and family office customers with a complimentary personal risk assessment. Risk Control Strategies will also offer Chubb's clients an array of services including cyber crime investigations, identity theft prevention and response, and premise security strategy and implementation.

Blue Bell, Pa. - As ID fraud, privacy and compliance with security-related regulations continue to shake the mind set of how financial institutions think about securing their business operations, experts at Unisys Corp. foresee the following five trends that will help banks and insurers rebuild eroding customer trust, and maintain a competitive edge in 2006 and beyond:1. Coordinated, "industrialized" fraud attacks will continue to rise causing more government intervention and pushing financial institutions to work together on common standards to fight increasingly sophisticated cyber criminals.

Hartford, Conn. - The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., is customizing its approach to the technology sector with the formation of a Technology Practice Group, which will leverage The Hartford's existing line of technology insurance products to serve both current and future players in the growing market. The new group will be headquartered at the company's home office in Hartford, Conn. It will be staffed by a team of underwriters located throughout the country, as well as legal, claim, product and risk management professionals, the group provides the tools, support and know-how to help agents protect their technology clients from a wide range of rapidly-changing business risks.

Framingham, Mass.– Financial Insights, an IDC company, has released its annual report identifying the Top 10 IT initiatives that will have key strategic importance for insurance organizations worldwide in 2006.The report, titled "Top 10 Strategic Initiatives for 2006: Insurance Industry Must Pick Up The Pace," describes these initiatives, examines why they will have an impact in 2006 and explains why they should be on the minds of business and technology executives at insurance companies and vendors serving the industry. Namely, the top 10 strategic initiatives for insurance are the following:

Competitive pressures will force insurance companies to get serious about rationalizing the number of operational systems they support, notes a report issued by research and advisory firm Financial Insights, a Framingham, Mass., IDC company. The focus on rationalizing operational systems is one of the top 10 IT initiatives that will have key strategic importance for insurance organizations worldwide in 2006, according to the firm.

Framingham, Mass. - Companies ranging from regionals to multinationals will spend 2006 wringing more efficiency from their data storage infrastructures and holding down costs through information lifecycle management (ILM) rather than improving security, according to the "2006 Storage Budget Survey" released by GlassHouse Technologies, a provider of enterprise storages services.Despite a rash of high-profile security failures in 2005, nearly 100 companies in every size category--with storage budgets from less than $10 million to $150 million and above --ranked improving their storage infrastructure usage as either their first or second concern.

Pittsburgh - A full 90% of carriers have adopted some form of Web Services within their information technology architecture, and 58% of those have adopted the industry-specific ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) XML standards as part of their Web Services initiatives.These are the results of a recent survey of top insurance carriers conducted by SEEC Inc., a provider of business component software for the insurance and financial services industries.

Columbus, Ohio - Customers of Nationwide can now monitor their damaged vehicle repairs online through Nationwide AutoWatch--an Internet-based software tool. AutoWatch is currently being piloted in multiple states and may be rolled out as an optional service in the coming months."The Web site enables customers to log on 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to monitor their vehicle at different points during the repair process at participating Nationwide/Allied Insurance Blue Ribbon Repair Shops," says Terry Fortner, Nationwide associate vice president of claims.

Chicago - InsuranceNoodle Inc. has received U.S. Patent Office notification that the patent application claims relating to innovations for its "Methods and Apparatus for Selecting an Insurance Carrier for an Online Insurance Policy Purchase" have been allowed for issuance within the next few months."We are extremely excited the Patent Office has made this decision after four years of extensive application review," says InsuranceNoodle CEO Kathryn Emmerson. "This approval--as well as the fact that more than 2,500 agencies across the country are active NoodleNetwork partners--supports and validates our proprietary, Web-based technology platform and its capability to provide fast, efficient online quoting from multiple carriers for a variety of commercial products."

Washington, D.C. - The Federal Emergency Management Association's National Flood Insurance Program has launched a Web site to provide educational materials and other new content to insurance agents.

London -- Companies that outsource their IT systems are increasing their potential vulnerability to security breaches causing possible long term damage to their business, according to London-based insurer ACE European Group Ltd. (ACE).ACE has uncovered a lack of awareness among many European businesses of the increasing risks that outsourcing poses to their networks. ACE is also aware that there is a degree of uncertainty among many businesses, both as to the level of protection given to their computer systems and the cover provided by their existing insurance policies.

Cupertino, Calif. - Software security provider Symantec announced today that it completed its acquisition of Houston-based BindView Development Corp., a provider of agent-less IT security compliance software.