Data and information management

Newark, Calif. - In response to a growing insurance industry need, Risk Management Solutions (RMS) completed of a probabilistic model for assessing the risk of influenza pandemics across multiple countries.Many published studies have already illustrated the effects of various pandemic scenarios, most commonly a repeat of the 1918 influenza pandemic that had a mortality level of 0.67% in the U.S. and even more severe effects in other countries. Analysis of the virology and epidemiological science shows that more severe pandemics are possible, and probabilistic estimation of virus characteristics incorporating the recent H5N1 suggests that there is a one in five chance of a pandemic that is more severe than that experienced in 1918.

London - Guy Carpenter & Co. Inc., a global risk and reinsurance specialist and a part of the Marsh & McLennan Cos., is launching its Electronic Claims File (ECF) initiative for reinsurers in the London market after development, testing and implementation of a pilot project with select Lloyd's managing agents.As one of the largest reinsurance brokers to offer ECF, a key component of the broader London Market reform program, Guy Carpenter will be able to process and conduct many of its claims transactions in a completely paperless environment with its current trading partners.

The analysts say it's a given. More than 65% of insurance companies in a study conducted more than two years ago by Gartner Inc., a Stamford, Conn., research firm, agreed that the general trend for IT architecture is toward a "services-oriented approach."Mark Gorman, research director with TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass.-based research firm, says its current research confirms that carriers are using some form of services-oriented architecture (SOA). "Carriers are more advanced in their knowledge of SOA," he says. "They're not just analyzing it any more."

Like perfection, Straight-through processing (STP) is something many insurance company IT departments are striving for but may find hard to call fully conquered.

I had the pleasure recently of meeting malcom gladwell, the well-known New York author of "The Tipping Point" and his latest treatise, "Blink." Gladwell had been invited to speak to a group of insurance and banking executives on the theories contained in his new book; namely, that great decision-makers are not those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing."Thin-slicing refers to the snap (in the blink of an eye) decisions we make based on the ability to filter-from an overwhelming number of variables-the very few factors that matter to the subject at hand.

Anti-money laundering (AML) Compliance Prog-ram: Hopefully, this term is not new to you, because the deadline for 31 CFR 103.137 compliance is May 2, 2006.This regulation, which is part of the USA PATRIOT Act, was developed to better protect a class of financial institutions from potential abuse by criminals and terrorists, which will in turn enhance protection of the U.S. financial system, according to the Federal Register.

You have heard, and probably have even used, the phrase: "Time is of the essence." No one knows that better than insurers answering requests from customers who want their information now. Hence, the real-time phenomenon in the industry.After discovering customer data wasn't easily accessible, executives at Sioux Falls-based South Dakota State Medical Holding Co. Inc. (Dakotacare) decided the company needed a business intelligence tool to retrieve claims data from its database of 140 million records.

New York - In an effort to improve the quality, availability and performance of its Web-based Policy Express policy issuance system, Hastings Mutual Insurance, a regional insurance company serving the Midwest, has deployed AppSight Application Problem Resolution System from Identify Software. Policy Express is a vital business application that is accessed by nearly 850 Hastings agents each day as they quote and write customers' policies. Ninety percent of all new homeowners and personal automobile policies that Hastings issues are processed though Policy Express."We were initially looking for a performance management solution to improve our service levels by detecting application performance problems before they become a productivity issue for our agent community," says Bob Eshelbrenner, CIO of Hastings Mutual Insurance. "With AppSight, we can not only identify our applications' performance problems faster, we also gain the visibility to rapidly determine the root cause, leading to a much faster resolution, which is the end-game after all."

Farmington, Conn.-InsurBanc, a federal savings bank organized in 2001 specifically to serve independent insurance agents, brokers and their clients, is focusing its efforts to offer competitive personal banking products such as checking accounts, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, retirement accounts, credit and debit cards and online banking."Now that more and more agents have placed their trust in us and realize our commitment to helping them succeed and plan for their business futures, they are also looking to us for competitive personal products," says David W. Tralka, president and CEO of InsurBanc.

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.

Chapin, S.C. - With roots in the insurance industry, General Information Services Inc. (GIS) claims to be one of the two original providers of nationwide background investigations.

Toronto - One of the country's largest providers of health, dental, group, life, disability and long-term care benefits, Aetna Inc. has selected CiRBA's data center intelligence (DCI) solution to capture and better understand the attributes and dynamics of the company's data center assets and resources"Aetna is expanding its business through acquisition and organic growth at an accelerated rate, with revenues increasing to over $22.5 billion in 2005," says Patti Schlosser, head of server & storage services, of Aetna Information Services. "Supporting an employee base of 28,000, Aetna's business segments demand increased flexibility, performance and reliability from its IT resources. With the growth of our business, the size, diversity and complexity of our IT infrastructure have dramatically increased, requiring us to have a firm grip on the management of the technologies and processes within that environment. We view CiRBA's Data Center Intelligence (DCI) as a solution that will immediately address Aetna's configuration management and compliance reporting requirements."

Baltimore - With last year's record catastrophe losses of $58 billion still fresh in listeners' minds, AIR Worldwide President and CEO Karen Clark warns property/casualty claims professionals that they face "a 5% chance we'll have losses greater than Hurricane Katrina in 2006."In her keynote remarks at the 2006 PCS Catastrophe Conference, Clark also predicted catastrophe losses "will double about every 10 years due to increases in the numbers and values of properties at risk."

Honolulu - St. Paul Travelers has released a new and enhanced dashboard for e-CARMA, the customer portal to its risk management information system.Launched at the Risk and Insurance Management Society Inc. (RIMS) conference, e-CARMA is available for demonstration. Customers can view a choice of three distinct dashboards that are available directly from e-CARMA's home page. These dashboards automatically organize and visually present actionable information (red flags), performance trends, and claim outcome and metric drill-down analysis.

New York - In the April 2006 online edition of Marketplace Realities and Risk Management Solutions, Willis Group Holdings describes events in the natural catastrophe (Nat Cat) segment of the property marketplace as "nothing less than tumultuous." Directly affected are "clients with assets and operations in areas exposed to the Nat Cat perils of wind, flood and earthquake and to the peril of terrorism."With the beginning of the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season fast approaching, "Terms and conditions offered by insurers and reinsurers have deteriorated rapidly and precipitously." The bar has been raised "for program design and marketing strategies for programs renewing in the near term, while prompting comprehensive studies of long-term business plans and risk-funding arrangements."

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.

Oakland, Calif. - Canadian-based Commonwealth Insurance Co. will use an enterprise platform and XML interface technology from EQECAT Inc., Oakland, Calif., to create an integrated catastrophe management system, the companies report. EQECAT is a provider of analysis tools and methodologies that quantify insurers' and major corporations' exposure to natural and man-made catastrophic risk.

Waltham, Mass. - Effective procedures are critical to business success. That's the finding from nearly 700 U.S. business professionals recently surveyed by Information Mapping Inc. (IMI).Findings show 90% of those surveyed report that documented procedures are either 'extremely important' or 'very important' in meeting their company's objectives. The results also show, for those surveyed:

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.