Content posted in February 2005
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Plumtree Adds Financial-Services Companies To Customer Roster
First Franklin and Banknorth Insurance will implement portal software for business intelligence and claims processing.
Claims: Electronic Medical Records and Claims Management: Perfect Together?
I usually am skeptical when the government proposes something it asserts will make my life better. However, when it comes to the recent enthusiasm for adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs), I might be persuaded.
Claims: Life Insurance Claims Processing: Accommodating Change
ACORD data standards are helping insurers take measures to modernize business processing, and improve claims processing and workflows to increase profitability. Standards streamline the communication of claims data, reduce costs and increase business processing efficiency.
Claims Technology Alignment: Getting From Here to There
Technology holds the key to making the claims process "more": more rapid, more accurate, more fair and more efficient. Using that key requires alignment among business drivers and claims initiatives, among initiatives and outcomes, and among business- and technology-side staff. This is easy to say, but harder to do. The challenge is how to get from here to there.
Insurance Exec Joins Advisory Committee for Homeland Security
Department names members to a new committee that will advise on technological issues affecting privacy, as well as data integrity and interoperability.
Standard Tames Tundra
Standard Insurance Co., a subsidiary of StanCorp Financial Group (Portland, Ore.; $156 million 2003 net income), will post an audio Web log from the frozen territory between Anchorage and Nome, Alaska, dedicated to the efforts of sled racer Rachel Scdoris, whom Standard is sponsoring.
Nordlin Drives Alignment
Farmers Insurance (Los Angeles) will place a strategic emphasis on growth this year, according to Markus Nordlin, who became the company's CIO in August.
Techwatch
Security; Product Calculations; Policy Administration; Business Rules Mgmt.; Data Integration; Fraud Prevention; State Filing; Secure Printing
Easing Connectivity
SeaPass Solutions (New York) developed a connectivity solution for insurance agents and carriers that has been implemented by The Hartford Financial Services Group (Hartford; $18.7 billion in revenue).
Cutting Costs of Allied Care
Fraud and inappropriate care are major contributors to rising healthcare premiums.
Change Management For Compliance
Seeking to achieve and maintain regulatory compliance by automating the collection and analysis of data from multiple platforms across the enterprise, Erie Insurance Group (2003 operating revenue of $1 billion) implemented Computer Associates International's (CA; Islandia, N.Y.) AllFusion Harvest Change Manager and AllFusion Endevor Change Manager applications.
EPolicy Adds Expertise
Torrance, Calif.-based ePolicy Solutions entered into a marketing agreement with TM Floyd & Co. (Columbia, S.C.), a provider of information technology and consulting services to healthcare and P&C industries.
Budgeting and Reporting
Portland, Ore.-based SRC Software has launched SRC for Insurance, the first comprehensive budgeting, forecasting and reporting solution for the P&C insurance industry, according to the vendor.
SOA: Plug and Play
For insurers, service-oriented architecture can enable interoperability among systems and foster more effective application integration, while leveraging previous investments in core applications.
Achieving True Enterprise Content Management Proceed With Caution
Insurers are taking steps to gain an enterprisewide view of their business, but no single solution can achieve true ECM on its own.
Getting to One
Technology doesn't drive mergers and acquisitions, but astute technology management is indispensable for achieving successful outcomes. Insurance & Technology looks at two large and one smaller merger to examine M&A best practices.
Manufacturer and Distributor
Russ Bostick, Chief Technology Officer, Chase Insurance Former Zurich Life CIO Russ Bostick has had a wild ride. In May 2003, the acquisition of Zurich by Bank One was announced, and by July 2004, the acquisition of Bank One by JPMorgan Chase was concluded.
Going With the Workflow
Thanks to Verity's Medi-Claim solution, workers' compensation insurer State Fund Mutual is able to dig out from under mounds of paper.
Off to a Good Start
Startup carrier EquiTrust gambles and wins with implementation of a new life and annuity policy administration system from Systems Engineering Group.
The End of the Paper Trail
P&C carrier Fireman's Fund employs Xenos solution to cut document printing costs and ease business for agents and customers.
Working Together
IT and business alignment remains a top priority for insurance CIOs.
BCBSM Gets Personal
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network provide free online access to health appraisal and management tools.
An Ounce of Prevention
CIGNA Behavioral Health's automated online coaching application provides effective prevention at lower cost.
AIA Aids Security Efforts
P&C group joins Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Homeland Security.
Extreme Makeover
To reposition itself for growth, Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. enters into new contracts with AT&T and IBM to completely rebuild its networks and technology infrastructure.
Blogging for Dollars
There are many ways to track trends and movements, but, for me, the real sign that something is reaching critical mass is when my husband or my parents - none of whom would be mistaken for technology "first-movers" - ask me about it.
Claims: National farm union adds remote functionality
Connecting to the remote areas of its clientele, National Farmers Union finds added benefits to Internet-based processing as a replacement for an AS/400 legacy system.
Claims: Picking Up The Pace
Insurers have closed nearly 86 percent of the record total of claims reported for the four major storms of 2004, according to William Bailey, director of the Hurricane Insurance Information Center.
Claims: Excellence Is Fundamental
For insurers, the claim is the moment of truth.
Connected Claims
Leveraging technology to manage the inherent complexity of claims can bring greater consistency and accuracy to the claims process, resulting in increased efficiency, effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Introducing Connected Enterprise
Technology is enabling a new era of connectivity in this most paper- and process-bound of industries. Employees, clients, distributors and partners are linking in ways that allow them to transact quickly, accurately and securely.
Bankers Unveils Web Portal for Sales Force Support
Bankers Life and Casualty provides its 4,000-plus field employees with a proprietary Web-based portal to support the sales life cycle.
New Realities, New Requirements
Insurance & Technology Reader Advisory Board member Scott McKay reflects on how insurance CIOs must be catalysts for change in a shifting market.
2005 Technology Issues for Health Insurance
Insurance & Technology Reader Advisory Board member Bruce Goodman discusses the increased importance of business alignment to the health insurance industry in the coming year.
Former Aetna And CNA IT Leader Named CIO Of Connecticut
Diane Wallace tapped to replace the state's first CIO, Rock Regan.
Insurer Moves To Self-Service Claim Filing
Fireman's Fund wants a policyholder's first contact with the company to be via a Web-based claim-reporting app.
BCBSMA’s Ascenzo Cultivates Success
On his own time, Carl Ascenzo plants seeds in his garden. As CIO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts he is planting the seeds of initiatives with the potential not only to reduce costs and improve efficiencies and services for the company but to transform Massachusetts' health-care community and provide a model for other parts of the nation.
MetLife Acquires Citigroup Businesses
Seeking to substantially expand its distribution capacity, MetLife will purchase Citigroup's Traveler's Life and Annuity business and virtually all of the financial services firm's international insurance business.
Multiple Paths to Service Enlightenment: Best Practices in Online Policy Changes
Insurers are trying to shift policy changes to the Web, but gaining traction has not been easy, owing to users' unfamiliarity with the company's secure site or because of misleading notifications after a user has logged on and begun the process.
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While much discussion centers on how CIOs will fare in mergers and acquisitions, their role in an ancillary event--the divestiture of a business unit--is rarely on the radar. Yet, these transactions are riddled with legal risks that can be costly if not addressed, and in the worst cases, can have serious operational impact.
Optimize: Real Deals--And Challenges
EXECUTIVE ROUNDTABLE: As we entered the new year, a new round of merger-and-acquisition activity heated up across a wide spectrum of industries. While many discussions center on the financial aspects of these deals, Optimize invited four M&A veterans to discuss what goes on behind the scenes when IT operations are upended and then reassembled to support a new corporation.
Optimize: Mind Over Merger
With great fanfare, your CEO announces the big merger, and, for one day, your company beams with optimism and pulses with energy. There are news conferences, press releases, and television cameras. The deal is splashed across the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Astute CIOs, however, know better than to celebrate the news of a megamerger.
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