Policy adminstration

Boston - Wrap platforms are changing the way UK insurance firms are able to distribute their products and will raise a number of challenges for IT departments, according to a new report issued by Boston-based research firm Celent LLC.

Cambridge, Mass. - Across every generation, females are more likely than males to say that life insurers meet their needs, and the relationship female seniors have with their life insurance providers is especially strong, according to new report by Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. Forrester's Report, "Do Financial Institutions Meet Customer Needs" evaluated the relationships consumers have with eight types of financial institutions, including insurance. This most recent report is based on findings from Forrester's NACTAS Q3 2006 Survey. No surprise, banks were reported as the most prevalent provider, and seven of 10 consumers in the report--across all age groups--believe that banks meet their current needs. Both male and female seniors believe that home and auto insurers meet their needs. At the other end of the spectrum, only about half of consumers of all ages think that their credit card providers meet their needs. Across all of the other institutions, the Generation Y Group (consumers born between 1976 and 1982) are the least likely to have a relationship with a financial institution, says Bruce Temkin, Forrester senior analyst and author of the report. "We also found that credit card providers most often meet the needs of seniors and life insurers meet the needs of females more often than they do males. Looking across the institutions, it's clear that younger Boomers could use more attention," says Temkin. For more information, visit www.forrester.com

New York - A number of life insurance executives recently surveyed by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP's insurance industry group related that technology is more likely to be considered a barrier at this point in time, rather than a strength. Many stated they can do better in terms of streamlining the growth processes to enhance the distributor and customer experience, and they do not believe their technology is as advanced as it can and should be.The survey of 20 C-suite executives from top life insurance companies, as well as an analysis of life insurance industry growth patterns contributed to a report--"Organic Growth for Life Insurers: A Playbook for Market Advantage."

Despite dire warnings from health officials and risk experts, only a tiny percentage of the nation's insurance carriers have developed formal plans to keep their businesses running in the face of a deadly, long-term influenza pandemic.While 82% of carriers have prepared business continuity plans (BCP) for survival in the wake of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes and floods, only 11% are ready for a pandemic, says Clare DeNicola, president and CEO of IVANS, a Stamford, Conn., company that provides communications services to insurance companies. IVANS surveyed CIOs and directors in May 2006.

ITIL, the IT Infrastructure Library, entered the North American consciousness just in time to help shift the focus from putting technology first to putting business first. It's a change that amounts to a seismic jolt to the culture of insurance company IT departments.The 30-odd volumes of ITIL, which are slated for an update next month, provide a common language for IT staffs and a framework for honing IT processes. For most insurers on these shores, the idea of ITIL gained significant momentum in 2004 and reached critical mass in 2005, IT people say.

There has been no end of bad press for the property and casualty insurance industry this month. Allegations of price gouging, faulty catastrophe models and calls for a congressional probe into post-Katrina hurricane claims flooded the news wires.Most of the negative press pointed a finger at an odd coincidence. First, the year after more than 993,000 homeowners' insurance claims were settled in the two states most affected by Katrina and, according to the Property Casualty Insurers Association, Des Plaines, Ill., the insurance industry paid $51+ billion in overall catastrophe-related claims. Then, the industry experienced a relatively catastrophe-quiet-and profitable-year.

Disposal represents one of the biggest points of failure in computer asset management because companies just don't know how many assets they have, where they are located, who's using them or what specific data resides on them, says Gartner analyst Frances O'Brien."Unless you know that information you're at risk from Day One," O'Brien says.

Forget the stereotypes--ASP isn't just for small, IT-challenged carriers any more, and many of the ASP problems that gave insurance companies pause only a few years ago are being solved. Dollar savings and fast time to market are still big pluses for ASP, but today there are a lot of other reasons to consider it.The market among insurance carriers for ASPs, or application service providers, is growing by about 10% a year-slower than in most other industries-according to Marc Cecere, vice president and principal analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. From a supply-side perspective, that's partly because of the structure of the insurance industry and partly because of the regulatory scene for insurance companies.

MODELS UNVEILED FOR NATIONWIDE HEALTH NETWORKPrototypes for a standards-based nationwide health information network (NHIN) were scheduled for presentation at a conference last month in Washington, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

ADOBE EXPANDS ACROBATAdobe Systems Inc., San Jose, Calif., introduced Adobe Acrobat Connect software, a Web conference and collaboration product with "always-on" personal meeting rooms. It is designed to enable workers to connect online instantly with a Web browser and the ubiquitous Flash Player software. Together with Adobe Acrobat 8 software the expanded Acrobat family accelerates the flow of business by allowing people to work together in real-time, according to Adobe. The new, extended Acrobat family brings together the two critical components of knowledge work-documents and people. Acrobat Connect enables users to choose a Web address for their online personal meeting room, with unlimited use for up to 15 participants for one monthly fee.

W.L. Gore & Associates is about as far removed from the financial services industry as any company can get. Newark, N.J.-based Gore, best known as the creator of the durable GORE-TEX fabric so popular in outdoor wear, is a manufacturer of consumer products, textiles, electronics, medical and healthcare products, sealants, and filtration. What can a company in the financial services sector learn from Gore?Plenty, and that's why Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C., hired the head of Gore's research and development team to bring analytical thinking to its own operations.

Not many adjusters would argue against technology as a means of easing their workload-certainly not the adjusters at Farmers Mutual of Nebraska. After all, the company's claims estimating system was efficiently processing information at the desktop. But that apparent blessing was actually part of the problem: the system processed data at the desktop and not in the field, where much of the real work takes place."Our adjusters would go out in the field and inspect the loss, noting the damage just on a piece of paper," says Jamie Fredrickson, director of Field Services. "Then they would go back to their district offices, sit down at their computers and manually re-enter all of this information to generate their estimates."

How can SOA help carriers? That's what Insurance Networking News asked Andy Labrot, chief technology officer for the Innovation Group, Hartford, Conn. Labrot has 20 years of IT experience and leads his company's R&D efforts.INN: As carriers grapple with aging technology infrastructure, how does service-oriented architecture (SOA) address their needs and challenges?

No one ever said guiding a distribution network to optimal performance is easy. The insurance and financial services industry's supply chain is as complex as ever, and carriers across all lines want to exploit its value.How do you know how much business you may be missing? How do you hold your distribution network accountable for increased growth and profitability? For many carriers, it becomes the classic "what to do with all that data" dilemma.

Two factors that define a customer's image of an insurance provider are the quality of the buying experience and the effectiveness of the underlying communication. That's why carriers find a comprehensive enterprise communications platform critical. What's needed in communications is consistent excellence.Insurance carriers are feverishly modernizing almost every other aspect of their business, from claims and policy administration systems to agent automation. Large and mid-sized carriers alike are engaged in sweeping projects to grow their businesses and streamline internal processes. In many cases, those efforts provide an opportunity to embrace new capabilities. Yet their approach to document generation has remained static.

CANAL SELECTS TRUMBULL FOR SUBROGATION MGT.Canal Insurance Co., Greenville, S.C., entered an agreement with Trumbull Services, Windsor, Conn., to use Trumbull's Subrooutsource, an internally developed, advanced system designed to enhance subrogation recovery activities for all lines of business nationwide. Trumbull, in conjunction with an experienced subrogation team, will manage the entire subrogation process, leveraging the system's abilities to increase recoveries through effective resource allocation, automated workflows and a continuous improvement model.

Passage of the Pension Protection Act in August 2006 has made siloed IT designs obsolete. Life, annuity and long-term care combinations are now acceptable from a tax and regulatory compliance perspective. Recent pension legislation allows combinations of long-term care policies and annuities. As a result, we can expect a frenzy of product introductions in the near future and beyond.What does this new set of possible combination contracts mean to the IT systems of insurance organizations? It means co-existence and configurability are now of paramount importance. That gives rise to the bigger question: Are carriers' software solutions ready to support the new hybrid product world?

New York - New York Life Insurance Co. promoted Alexander Burbatsky to senior vice president in the corporate information department, reporting to senior vice president Eileen Slevin.

Dallas - Insurers name e-signatures and online applications; document management, workflow and imaging; and Web self-service for distributors and/or customers (portals) as the technology strategies they are very likely or likely to implement, according to a survey from Dallas-based Robert E. Nolan Co.

New York - Two technology providers each released a Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) prototype in one week—first Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM and now Accenture. Accenture demonstrated its prototype solution for a fully integrated health information system at the 3rd Nationwide Health Information Network Forum on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2005, in Washington, D.C., where IBM also demonstrated its prototype. The solution shows that patient data can be extracted from disparate information systems and converted to a common format that enables sharing among physician offices, medical laboratories, hospitals and other clinical settings.