Data and information management

Competitors from unlikely verticals, a reduction in IT staff, and the ability to clean up data stores and use them to garner business intelligence are but some of the challenges insurers will face through the year 2012.

Business intelligence constitutes relevant, accurate, timely information that can be used in an integrated fashion.

It’s tempting to view STP implementation as an enterprise-scale undertaking, but the best approach may be step-by-step.

Foresight, and a focus on usability, will help those converting to straight-through processing reap dividends from the process.

A widening array of solutions is giving carriers more options to backup and safeguard their critical data.

Insurers with legacy systems face an uphill battle: find replacements for retiring IT workers or retire their legacy systems.

New technologies take virtualization to the application and database level, helping it reshape and transcend the data center.

Hardware-centric HP buys enterprise software provider Exstream in order to push into the variable data publishing arena.

Stamford, Conn. — Towers Perrin is expanding its reinsurance intermediary business to serve the French domestic market.

Paris — Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), a Columbia, S.C., provider of insurance technology solutions, will work in collaboration with SUADEO, a French company that provides business intelligence (BI) solutions for health, and risk and protection insurance businesses, to integrate CSC’s health, risk and protection software, GraphTalk A.I.A., with SUADEO’s BI solution, SUADEO Plateforme.

Columbia, S.C. — In business less than one year, EagleEye Analytics, an insurance technology company that concentrates on predictive analytics and data information services, has chosen Columbia, S.C. for its new corporate headquarters.

Presenters at Insurance Networking News’ 1st annual Web Services and SOA summit stressed an incremental approach, and an emphasis on communication when undertaking SOA initiatives.

Alexandria, Va. — When 10 Generation X independent agents attending the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (Big I) Young Agents Leadership Conference in San Diego this past September discussed their future, technology was at the forefront of their success strategies.

A new Web site marketplace offers insurers and brokers a chance to market their voluntary benefits packages to employers and their employees.

Cambridge, Mass. — Is business rules technology finally hitting its stride? That's the question posed by Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based research firm, which says business rules are now a key enabling technology for dynamic business applications.

Redwood Shores, Calif. — Oracle Corp. and San Jose, Calif.-based BEA Systems Inc. entered into a definitive agreement under which Oracle will acquire all outstanding shares of BEA for $19.375 per share in cash. The offer is valued at approximately $8.5 billion, or $7.2 billion net of BEA's cash on hand of $1.3 billion. "We expect this deal to be accretive to Oracle's earnings by at least 1-2 cents on a non-GAAP basis in its first full year after closing," says Oracle president and CFO Safra Catz.

Meeting business demands with technology requires knowledge from both sides of the house, a clear understanding of how to execute on well-developed strategies, and a certain amount of finesse. Such was the overarching theme communicated by three distinct-yet-seasoned technology executives at the Celent U.S. CIO/CTO Roundtable, held January 10 in New York.

Edison, N.J. - Sudhakar Ram, the chairman, managing director and group CEO of Mumbai-based Mastek, the parent company of Edison, N.J.-based MajescoMastek, has been honored as the 2007 CNBC Asia "India Business Leader of the Year."

Core systems, front office and data mastery top the list of IT initiatives for 2008.

A new study from Gartner and ACORD finds that while insurers continue to adopt XML initiatives, they're not following the best practices in XML governance, funding and oversight.