Data security

Washington - A notice published in the Federal Register seeking comments for a broad Treasury Department review of financial regulation is biased in favor of federal regulation of insurance and foreign business entities, according to the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA).The specifics of the Nov. 11, 2007 published notice "raise critical concerns about the direction, purpose and intent of the review process itself, concerns we are compelled to address directly to you at this time," states PIA in a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Stamford, Conn.—A recent release from Pitney Bowes Inc. announced its Pitney Bowes Group 1 Software and Pitney Bowes MapInfo business units, acquired separately, will combine into a single software company. The move is effective immediately, and the businesses will merge operations over the next several months.

Miami - To deliver on the commitment to promote ecosystem-based innovation and collaboration, Walldorf, Germany-based SAP AG announced that the industry value network (IVN) for insurance will join 13 existing industry-focused IVNs hosted by SAP. The IVN for insurance will bring together independent software vendors, system integrators and SAP to co-innovate with insurers to help them improve profits, customer relationships and their competitive position through effective applications and a flexible IT environment. Members of the IVN for insurance will initially focus on issues facing property/casualty insurers in the North American market in the areas of claims, customer service, sales and distribution, and underwriting and policy processing.Plans for the IVN for insurance currently include key innovative partners in the insurance industry: Adobe, CGI, IBM, MSG, Opentext, Planetsoft and Skywire. The partners and SAP will initially collaborate to bring together industry expertise, knowledge and capabilities in a multi-vendor ecosystem to address the high-value business needs of customers. Customers will be invited to participate in the second phase of the IVN.

Salt Lake City - To help benefit administrators improve payment accuracy and prevent unnecessary losses associated with fraudulent claims, Sandy, Utah-based HealthCare Insight LLC (HCI) formed a strategic alliance with EZ-CAP, the flagship product of Longwood, Fla.-based MZI HealthCare LLC (MZIHC), a provider of health plan administration software.

Denver - Colorado Casualty's appointed agents in Arizona and New Mexico are the first in the Liberty Mutual Group member's six-state territory to be equipped with Commercial IQ, the company's, Web-based technology for commercial lines quoting, binding and policy issuance.Commercial IQ is designed to deliver an automated underwriting process with expanded, yet simplified, eligibility criteria, and a sophisticated pricing system with multiple price points, which results in fewer referrals, less intervention, the best price up front and quicker policy issuance. Commercial IQ's "Quick Quote" feature enables agents instant access to a faster online quote with minimal entry of information, according to Liberty Mutual Group. Agents also can select the most appropriate product for a commercial risk using Commercial IQ's SmartNav, the pre-qualification tool that requires only a business class code and responses to a few basic eligibility questions to best meet customers' needs.

Boston — Karen Clark, former president and CEO of AIR Worldwide formed an independent firm—Karen Clark & Co.—to help companies better use catastrophe models as sophisticated tools for making important risk management decisions.

Armonk, N.Y. and Ottawa - IBM and Cognos have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Cognos, a publicly held company based in Ottawa, in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately $5 billion or $58 per share, with a net transaction value of $4.9 billion. The acquisition is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.The acquisition of Cognos supports IBM's Information on Demand strategy, a cross-company initiative announced on Feb. 16, 2006 that combines IBM's strength in information integration, content and data management and business consulting services to unlock the business value of information, according to IBM. Integrating Cognos, the 23rd IBM acquisition in support of its Information on Demand strategy, will enable new business insights to be delivered to a broader set of people across an organization, beyond the traditional users of business intelligence.

Schaumburg, Ill. – News reports of poison toothpaste and lead-laced toys have not just caught the attention of consumers. The nation’s importers, and the commercial lines writers who serve them, are keenly aware of the dire implications of unsafe products.

Des Plaines, Ill. — The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through information analysis, investigations, training and public awareness, is launching a free service to help protect the nation's consumers.

New York - With location-specific terrorism risk exposure data, TerrorRisk is a unique risk assessment model that provides the insurance industry with targeted and actionable terrorism risk forecasts to help maximize opportunities and mitigate risk. Developed by New York-based Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Exclusive Analysis, TerrorRisk utilizes fact-based, location-specific metrics to score the propensity and likely severity of violent and political risks on more than 3,700 global points of interest to help insurers and risk managers make more insightful underwriting, rating, coverage and risk selection decisions.

Warren, N.J. - To address the complex and unique risks that information and network technology companies face serving the federal government, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Warren, N.J. , assembled a group of underwriters, loss control engineers and claim specialists to offer specialized products and services for federal contractors in close collaboration with outside legal counsel.

Chicago — Risk management provider Aon Corp. and Arup, a London-based global multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm, today announced a strategic alliance that brings to the marketplace an unprecedented pre- and post-loss consulting service that offers clients an independent, global catastrophic risk management solution.

Boston — Karen Clark, previously of Applied Insurance Research, is now providing comprehensive reviews of company internal catastrophe risk assessment and management processes. The independent reviews, provided by Boston-based Karen Clark & Co., her newest company, are designed to help companies ensure they have in place holistic risk management processes that comply with best practices. Holistic risk management practices incorporate independent benchmarks and metrics to assess the quality of catastrophe model input and output.

XSELL RELEASES INSURANCE FRAMEWORX PLATFORMXSell LLC, a Jacksonville, Fla., provider of on-demand marketing solutions, released XSell's Insurance FrameworX, a version of its Web-based Customer Interaction Marketing platform.

London - Risk Management Solutions Inc. (RMS), a Newark , Calif. , provider of products and services for catastrophe risk management, launched a new initiative among six of Lloyd's largest managing agents this week designed to change the way exposure data is used in the London Market. The RMS London Market Data Community gives members access to data that has been standardized for use among the members. Data is prepared once by the RMS Data Cleansing Team, and then made available to the community, saving subscribers the time and money involved in preparing the information individually.

Chicago – Citing increased competition and falling rates, insurance brokerage Aon Corp., said yesterday that it will cut 2,700 jobs, or approximately 6% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring plan.The broker made the announcement as part of its release of its 3rd quarter financial results.

New Orleans — Carriers using advanced analytics in their underwriting, claims and marketing efforts will have a better chance of surviving the current and future state of a softening insurance market, Frank Coyne, chairman, president and CEO of ISO told the 800 attendees in attendance this week at the company’s ISOTech 2007 Connect Conference in New Orleans, La.

Armonk, N.Y. – In the past three years, 62% of enterprises with more than $5 billion in revenue encountered a major risk event, and 42% of these enterprises were not well prepared for the event, according to a study of more than 1,200 chief financial officers (CFOs) and senior finance executives from 79 countries worldwide. The study, from IBM, concludes that a surprising number of enterprises are not well prepared to handle the impact of a major risk event to their organization.

New York - Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC, a global risk and reinsurance specialist and a part of the Marsh & McLennan Cos., expanded its award-winning, Web-enabled i-aXs data management platform to include both workers' compensation and accident and health lines.

Wakefield, Mass. and Jersey City, N.J.– P&C policy and rating solutions provider ISO Insurance Technology Solutions (ISO-ITS) and consulting firm Edgewater Technology Inc. have entered into a strategic alliance.