Policy adminstration

You no doubt have seen ads from property/casualty insurers that promise fast results when disaster occurs. While customer satisfaction equates with continued revenue, a more pragmatic reason for mobilizing claims adjusters is economic.Carriers are in the risk business and therefore tend to be risk averse-and rightly so. Careful scrutiny should always be paid before deploying new technologies or making large IT expenditures.

ATLANTA--COUNTRY Insurance & Financial Services of Bloomington, Ill. announced today the closing of two transactions with Cotton States Insurance Group of Atlanta. Under the first transaction, Cotton States Life Insurance Company merged with a subsidiary of COUNTRY Life Insurance Company. In the second transaction, Cotton States Mutual Insurance Company pooled premiums and losses with those of the COUNTRY property/casualty group.

When it comes to IT spending this year in the insurance industry, it's déjà vu all over again. In general, industry analysts concur that U.S. insurance companies will increase IT spending only slightly this year-between 1% and 4%. Last year, they predicted cautious increases of 2.5% all the way up to 6.7%.Similarly, carriers' priorities for IT spending in 2005 will focus on projects that ranked high on the list last year as well. Namely, their attention will focus on IT projects with the potential to increase revenues by improving distribution and customer service, and those that cut costs by streamlining business processes and workflow. Also like last year, insurance executives remain resolute about making sure their technology investments align with business strategy. IT governance is key.

The challenges insurers face with handling paper documents have been well documented. Dealing with reams of paper is one thing. Coping within a manual and de-centralized content management scheme is another.The process of printing and mailing policies is both cumbersome and costly, as is storing policies in archived files. For some, retrieving older, existing policies is akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

Automobile dealers anxiously refer to it as the "test drive." It's the ritual where prospective car buyers put a new or used auto through its paces to determine comfort, handling and performance.

SAN FRANCISCO--WorldGroup, a leading provider of flexible, component software solutions for the insurance industry, today announced that it has submitted a signed, definitive agreement to acquire Taliant Software, LLP. Established in 1992, Denver based Taliant has insurance software applications installed and in production use in insurers throughout both the United States and Canada.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--The MassMutual Financial Group announced today that it has launched a new section of its consumer Web site that includes useful information about how financial products and services can help individuals prepare for life events and meet new life challenges. Called "Learn," the material is included on the "For Individuals" portion of massmutual.com, effective immediately.

ATLANTA--The practice of both outsourcing and offshoring has been rapidly rising and will therefore have a huge impact on the business world for years to come, according to a new report available from LOMA, entitled "Outsourcing and Offshoring: Challenges and Opportunities for Insurance Companies."

HARTFORD, Conn.--The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB) today announced it is offering to insurers identity recovery coverage that combines identity theft insurance with services that help victims restore their credit history and identity records.

COLUMBIA, S.C.--Following a new study by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) which found that auto injury claims in four No Fault states have escalated at dramatically different rates, ISO has identified three key areas where software can help reduce the dramatic rise in No Fault auto insurance claims costs.

MAYFIELD VILLAGE, Ohio--The Progressive group of companies, the third largest auto insurance group in the country based on premiums written, today announced the debut of its newest Web site, driveinsurance.com, highlighting the important role that independent agents and brokers play in Progressive's business model.

PEARL RIVER, NY--ACORD was presented with the prestigious Innovation of the Year Award at the 2004 Insurance Day Awards in London on December 1. ACORD President and CEO, Gregory A. Maciag, accepted the award on behalf of ACORD's more than 480 members worldwide.

HARTFORD, Conn.--The paper application for Builders Risk coverage has gone the way of the thatched roof, replaced by electronic application submission, rating, quoting and binding from The

COLUMBUS, Ohio--Grange Insurance is introducing a new extranet Web site for its independent insurance agents featuring technology to streamline business processes. The site also offers comprehensive functionality that helps agents manage the sales process and their Grange policies. The new Web site, http://www.grangeagent.com , is being rolled out to Grange's 1,200 independent agencies.

PALO ALTO, CALIF--Corporate America's information architecture is replete with obsolete, redundant and unused software applications--so many, in fact, that maintaining them drains tens of billions of dollars per year from the most information-intensive companies alone. However, nearly three quarters of these companies have no process in place for retiring outmoded software and less than half conduct regular software audits to see how much software is on the network.

BOCA RATON--The LexisNexis RiskWise Rate Evasion Evaluation service helps insurance providers prevent application and premium fraud using sophisticated models powered by public records data.

ALPHARETTA, Ga.--ChoicePoint today announced its acquisition of Priority Data Systems, based in Omaha, Neb., a provider of comparative rating software solutions to the independent insurance agency market. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

When insurance underwriting cycles turn sour, as they inevitably do, industry experts are quick to criticize the industry for not following strict underwriting guidelines. The easiest solution for insurers to turn a "soft" market around is to raise premium rates, but some carriers, such as Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., are revamping their underwriting systems to improve underwriting consistency and discipline.As part of a broad initiative that includes reorganizing its field force of independent agents and developing an enterprisewide approach to IT systems to support a cohesive distribution strategy, the Novato, Calif.-based carrier will implement the Accenture Underwriting Components Solution. The Web-based platform uses diagnostics and rules-based technology to help improve underwriting efficiencies.

Each year, insurers identify the flexible, non-proprietary and enterprisewide benefits of Web services, although insurers continue to cite three prevailing reasons to table e-services investments for another day. These reasons include reliance on multiple legacy system operating environments, security issues and overall costs.In a survey of 132 property/casualty insurers conducted in October, Troy, N.Y.-based MapInfo Inc., a global provider of location-based geo-spatial software solutions, determined that there's been increased adoption of Web services and integration technology. The survey was largely targeted to IT managers and senior-level executives.

The Chubb Group of Cos. is making processing E&O insurance coverage easier for agents with an intuitive, customized Web-based solution that's proving to be a smart investment.Providers of errors and omissions (E&O) insurance coverage market the product knowing that corporations are eternally liable for their mistakes and oversights.