Des Moines, Iowa - The Principal Financial Group has launched an online claim submission form for group long-term and short-term disability customers."Even a brief disability can be difficult to overcome, which is why we stress early intervention and ongoing claim communication throughout the process," says Cindy Ford, claims director, the Principal Financial Group. "Offering online submission is simply one more way we can expedite the process to ensure the best possible outcome for our members."

Cheshire, Conn. - Chicago-based Aon Consulting has set its sights on beefing up the real-time health claims data it delivers to its customers.

Indianapolis - When the Market Regulation & Consumer Affairs Committee at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) agreed to do no further work on a model law regulating the use of claims databases for underwriting purposes, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), Indianapolis, praised the decision. The decision by NAIC was made at the organization's winter meeting last week in Chicago

Boston - Following the release of a detailed China earthquake model earlier this year, Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp. (AIR) and ISO, Jersey City, N.J., plan to open a Beijing Representative Office in China.

Sterling, Va.- The popular best practice initiative called the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) has become even more popular among financial institutions driven by service quality and a need to align IT with larger business objectives, according to Evergreen Systems, an IT technology and process consulting firm. ITIL is non-proprietary approach for managing IT that helps make business sense of tools, standards and processes. Evergreen released the results of an assessment survey of IT managers and executives, conducted at the IT Service Management forum (itSMF) conference in late September.

Westlake Village, Calif. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program. The Hartford property and casualty sales and service centers are the first in the insurance industry to be certified under the program.Through its direct personal lines business, the Hartford, Conn.-based carrier handled more than 10,000,000 telephone, e-mail and fax interactions in 2004 from its call centers in Southington, Conn., Allentown, Pa., Santee, Calif., and Oklahoma City.

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill extending a federal program that guarantees the government's support of some losses from terrorist attacks, a measure that insurers and property owners call critical to the economy.

Stamford, Ct. - The lack of IT budget and resources, and perceived higher priorities for spending elsewhere will no longer be a barrier for P & C carriers making major investments in claims technologies, according to a report released today from Gartner, a Stamford, Ct. research firm. In fact, tight profit margins and high operational costs, as well as consumer demands for quality service, are now driving insurers to address these problems, says the report's author, Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, who predicts that claims technology and process improvement projects will increase by more than 20 percent in 2006 among P&C insurers.

Using the right analytic tools to analyze and manage terrorism risk is paramount, according to a review of methodologies available for insurers and reinsurers published by Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp., a risk management division of ISO, Jersey City, N.J.

They began in the late 1990s as personal Web sites for hobbyist-authors to climb on their soapboxes, voice their opinions and reveal their daily activities to the whole wide world. Today, there are more than 17 million "blogs"-short for weblogs-and they're making their way into the business world, including the world of insurance."Weblogs have such a strong appeal to Web users," says Julie Ferguson, a communications consultant for Lynch, Ryan & Associates, a Westborough, Mass.-based workers' compensation consulting firm. "They're an important source of information, and if companies do them right, they speak with a more authentic voice than other forms of communication."

How important is your distribution network? Is it the lifeline of your business? What if your distribution network was a finely tuned machine, cranking out more business than capacity allows? As seen in our cover story, carriers agree that technology is the key to solving many distribution dilemmas. In another article in this issue (page 20), we learn that they're not all that excited about investing in technology that enables agents to leverage single-entry, multiple carrier interface (SEMCI) technology. It may depend who you ask, but few would disagree that technology plays a critical role in independent agents' ability to help carriers realize success-across all lines.So, who is ultimately responsible for making sure that happens? In a recent Insurance Networking News virtual trade show, available on the INN Web site, we posed that question to Jeff Yates, executive director of the Agents' Council for Technology for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, a national alliance of 300,000 business owners and their employees.

Since 2000, when the Gramm-Leach-Bliley bill made it possible for banks to enter the insurance business, the selling world has seen an invasion of financial institutions, such as Wachovia and BB&T, who have bought insurance agencies or created their own to sell life, disability and other products.Now, the insurance industry seems to believe that turnabout is fair play. In addition to a number of insurance companies, including MetLife, State Farm and Allstate, that created their own banks several years ago, one firm, InBank, is going so far as to offer insurance companies "private-label banking," which executives say allows insurers to sell banking products without the attendant capital costs and regulatory responsibility.

In this age of Blackberries and instant messaging, insurance carriers and agents alike are focused on finding high-tech solutions to conduct their businesses. Enter: Single Entry Multiple Carrier Interface-also known as SEMCI.The concept of SEMCI technology sounds simple. Vendors create applications that enable independent insurance agents to access one site, hopefully through their own agency management system, enter data once and then communicate with multiple insurance carriers to obtain real-time quotes.

When you've got a lemon, make lemonade. That's basically what Medical Mutual of Ohio did when the Cleveland-based health insurer decided it was time to ditch its 15-year old phone system.While installing a new private branch exchange (PBX) and automatic call distributor (ACD), the company took advantage of the new technology's advanced functionality to bring its two call centers up to award-winning status.

Kansas City, Mo. - Representatives of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the United States Department of Treasury will be attending the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Winter National Meeting in Chicago during the Antifraud Task Force meeting on Monday, December 5, to present two final rules that will affect certain insurance companies.

In a new report, Celent, a Boston-based research and consulting firm, predicts how new technologies are impacting the future of the insurance industry.

Washington, D.C. - The American Insurance Association (AIA) is urging insurance regulators to go slow in considering a national catastrophe insurance program, affirming support for catastrophe modeling technology but discouraging federal and state governments from storming through private sector business practices.

New York, N.Y. - Financial services companies are currently capturing less than one-third of the potential cost savings offered by offshoring operations, according to a study by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT).

Jersey City, N.J. - ISO and claims technology provider First Notice Systems (FNS) have entered into an agreement to deliver a new first-notice-of-loss (FNOL) fraud-detection solution to the property/casualty insurance marketplace.

Warren, N.J. - Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Warren, N.J., has released its Business Recovery Planning Guide, a CD-ROM designed to help businesses create site-specific plans. The interactive CD-ROM features revised editable questionnaires and checklists to help companies analyze their current exposures and develop a business-recovery plan.