Data and information management

Boston - AIR Worldwide Corp. (AIR), a provider of risk management data and services, announced results of the latest research by its team of scientists into the link between the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and landfall activity. The latest findings provide a context for better understanding the 2004-2007 hurricane seasons and demonstrate that using Atlantic basin activity as a proxy for landfall activity can lead to erroneous estimates of both landfall risk and potential insured losses, says the company.

Despite taking much longer than initially expected, e-signature adoption is picking up steam, but is it worth it?

ERM platforms help gather data across siloed risk management domains, presenting an enterprisewide view of risk.

HARLEYSVILLE ROLLS OUT POLICY ADMIN PLATFORM

The race to deliver new products to market requires innovation, agility and the ability to customize and support them.

Business departments need to be cognizant of the true cost of the technologies they use.

IT decision makers are starting to take action to minimize the amount of electricity data centers and servers consume.

With value delivery at its core, the "reinvention" of the Insurance Networking News Web site is designed to meet the information needs of the ever-changing insurance industry.

Though customer relationship management has been hyped, then written off, carriers are finding new uses for the technology.

ITIL may be key to embedding service orientation into business processes through governance and management of SOA efforts.

Analysts and consultants weigh in on the status of insurers' IT spending. What is driving and/or restricting those purchases?

Chicago - While winter storms do not attract the attention of mega-catastrophes such as hurricanes and earthquakes, these smaller events can add up to impact insurers' bottom lines say experts. However, insurers can now avail themselves of such risks by using new technology to better assess the risks from winter storms and fires, risk modeling experts report.

St. Paul, Minn. - IT executives overwhelmingly identify user interface as a key criteria when considering an upgrade or replacement purchase, according to a survey conducted on behalf of St. Paul, Minn.-based Lawson Software.

Insurance companies—including actuaries and IT executives—will be under growing pressure to enhance their financial management system capabilities as they face changing financial reporting requirements, and more extensive risk management challenges in 2008.

New York - XL Insurance, the global insurance operation of XL Capital Ltd., has completed the purchase of Global Asset Protection Services LLC (GAPS) from Swiss Re. GAPS is a provider of unbundled loss prevention consulting services, offering individually tailored risk management solutions to risk managers, insurance brokers and insurance company clients operating on a global basis.

There is overwhelming evidence that spending on servers is slowing down significantly across a number of market sectors, in some cases by up to a factor of five, according to research conducted by TechNavio from Infiniti Research.

On the heels of its merger with LIMRA, LOMA is offering conferences at the beginning of the new year designed to help insurers capitalize on the technologies that will enable them to do more business, and do it better.

Simsbury, Conn., and Powell, Ohio - In a move designed to offer defined benefit plan sponsors the latest in Internet functionality, The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has agreed to acquire TopNoggin, a Powell, Ohio-based firm with proprietary technology that tackles data management, administration and benefit calculations.

Approaches to policy administration systems may differ from region to region, but the factors driving replacement are similar.

Zurich — Zurich Financial Services Group announced that it is elevating the role of Chief Risk Officer to Group Executive Committee status, and appointing Axel Lehmann to the position, effective Jan. 1, 2008. Also on that date, Mike Foley will succeed Lehmann as CEO of Zurich’s North America Commercial (NAC) division, and will become a member of the Group Executive Committee.