Profile of Anthony O'Donnell
Blog Posts: 2240
Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information technology in the property/casualty, life and health insurance industries, following the trends and issues faced by senior technology executives. In addition to reporting and editorial duties for I&T, O'Donnell also serves as a moderator and speaker at industry events and broadcasts. He began his editorial career in the healthcare industry where he reported and edited for medical publications with a variety of audiences, from the general public to physicians and researchers. He has also worked in the healthcare field as a media relations professional and Spanish/English interpreter/translator, and has taught English composition and conversation classes to native speakers of Spanish, both in the United States and in Latin America. O'Donnell lives in the Portland, Oregon area with his wife and two sons.
Articles by Anthony O'Donnell
7/3/2013
While MIG's IT organization's initial attempts to build enterprise BI capabilities lacked support, incremental delivery of business value through focused "User Stories" has put the company on track to develop BI as a core competency.
6/25/2013
The rapidly increasing volume, variety and velocity of information circulation will affect how insurers manage enterprise risk, but many carriers are struggling with the basic problems of data aggregation, integration and governance.
6/21/2013
No great movements or team accomplishments of any kind happen without commitment on the part of leaders and followers, urges executive coaching consultant Catherine Stagg-Macey, formerly of Celent.
6/19/2013
The carrier will utilize Valen's Predict risk selection and pricing tool to drive improved underwriting for both existing business segments and in support of the carrier's growth strategy into other areas.
6/19/2013
Technical competence is never enough, at least not for inspiring excellence in execution in others, helping them to be better than the teams you're competing against.
6/18/2013
The carrier's goal was to implement a solution that would provide greater self-sufficiency, enabling the company to better respond to market and product changes with less reliance on the technology vendor.
6/17/2013
The Milwaukee, Wisc.-based life insurer has taken the risk out of leading-edge technology exploration by creating a dedicated fund and project team.
6/14/2013
What a new Gartner report terms "active loss prevention" could usher in a new era of insurer/policyholder cooperation in the prevention of loss of property and person — potentially reshaping consumers' perception of the value of the insurance industry.
6/14/2013
Start up ventures without legacy burdens enjoy a great opportunity for a forward-looking management team to really embed analytics and digital communications into their strategy, but others can leverage technology for specialty success, suggests Martina Conlon, Novarica.
6/14/2013
The Ben Franklin-founded company set out to find a core systems solution that could meet expectations of producers and insureds for service and information access, while providing internal process efficiencies and continual upgrades as technology advances.
6/13/2013
New York Insurance Commissioner Ben Lawsky's criticism of captive reinsurance deals appears sensationalist in light of the yesterday's FIO report and industry-side statements.
6/10/2013
CIO Pawel Brzeksi and vendor technical lead Michal Majcher recounted ING Poland’s journey from case management to customer engagement at the PegaWORLD user group meeting at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort in Orlando, Fla.
6/4/2013
Narragansett Bay Insurance’s dynamic reaction plan and Blue Cod’s services enabled the carrier to handle more than double anticipated claims.
6/3/2013
E-application, e-signature and automated underwriting capabilities help distributors sell life insurance.
6/3/2013
The Retirement Radar application has eased the guaranteed income conversation between financial advisers and clients, letting the insurer expand marketing of lifetime annuities beyond its captive distribution force.
6/3/2013
Built around the vendor's Quicksolver core platform, Quicksolver Connect is a virtual shopping mall of pre-integrated, web-deployed software components enabling a best-of-breed approach to meet insurers' specific needs.
6/3/2013
The solution, which includes call center integration, will be used by over 13,000 insurance producers selling Sentinel Security’s final expense products in 25 states.
6/1/2013
The carrier has added the ePolicy Delivery process to its Quick Request short-form tickets for new applications to create what Senior VP Chris Olson calls a front-to-back electronic offering that is hard to beat, from a producer's perspective.
5/24/2013
If insurers were permitted to put aside funds with favorable tax treatment, it would not take long to build up significant reserves that would be available in the event of a catastrophe, notes Howard Mills, chief advisor with Deloitte LLP's insurance industry group.
5/21/2013
Insurance losses are expected to be at least in the hundreds of millions, but it's too early to tell whether the event will exceed the $1 billion in losses of the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado of 1999.
5/20/2013
Already used by top ten P&C carriers and reinsurers, the tool has been made generally available to enable customers to create realistic footprints for hurricanes both before and after landfall and to conduct detailed claims analyses using their own loss experience.
5/17/2013
Insurers are responding to increased fraud activity with more anti-fraud technology budget, aimed at detecting potentially fraud as early as possible in the claims lifecycle.
5/17/2013
As part of his effort to accommodate an IT organization under increasing demand, CIO Mark Clark envisions the creation of an innovation-friendly workspace to foster collaborative work.
5/15/2013
Gary Shaw, Deloitte's new insurance industry lead, talks about major market forces that the consulting firm's clients face.
5/15/2013
Using advanced regression techniques, CUNA Mutual has developed improved models to target customers in direct business, resulting in better customer satisfaction, increased revenue and reduced cost.
5/14/2013
Guidewire has characterized the deal as providing the ability to help customers to accelerate replacement of their legacy core systems and to improve management of operational data in their policy, billing, and claims functions.
5/12/2013
The Columbus, Ohio-based carrier chose WebXL as a comprehensive solution providing enhanced data access, improved controls and fully automated processing.
5/12/2013
The carrier says Tuo addresses its need for an end-to-end portal solution as well as a repository of customer information and an internal workflow to support enrollment and customer relationship management.
5/10/2013
Pandey seeks to build on his successful enhancements to agent ease of doing business undertaken during his tenure as CIO of Donegal Insurance Group.
5/9/2013
The new environment will provide intuitive, enterprise-wide access to real-time risk intelligence, enabling decision-makers at every level of the organization - from risk analysts to the CEO - the opportunity to ask questions and get answers in real time, according to the vendor.
5/7/2013
The solution will help carriers reduce costs while increasing business flexibility, improving customer service, the vendor asserts.
5/7/2013
Settlement processes similar to those that reduce needed capital from $80 billon to $12 billion on the London market are poised through an Xchanging/Deutsche Bank partnership to address $3 trillion global market, with the possibility of a 85% reduction in the working capital required.
5/7/2013
OMSNIC will use Accenture's Policy Administration, Billing and Claim Components software in order to create a single integrated solution for rating, quoting, underwriting, billing, claims administration and policy lifecycle support.
5/7/2013
Following a deployment that took lest than five months, se2 is currently processing term, whole life and interest-sensitive policies.
5/7/2013
IT managers must think of employees as people, not as interchangeable resources, says author and former insurance CIO Frank Wander.
5/6/2013
By consolidating business rules into a central, audit trail-supported repository, DECISION for Insurance is designed to give carriers full control of decision execution throughout the enterprise, and consistency across multiple systems.
5/6/2013
CIO Alexander Bockelmann shares three key strategies for optimizing efficiency and effectiveness.
5/3/2013
X by 2's Ram Sundaram says insurers pursuing IT transformation should do the opposite of five rules that represent conventional wisdom.
5/2/2013
A combination of economic, cultural and technological forces is making insurance CIOs rethink the configuration of their IT organizations.
5/2/2013
In his new role as analyst, former Navy Mutual CIO Tom Benton will report on core system transformation, IT strategy and project management, with a focus on life and annuity carriers.
5/1/2013
The new version includes user experience improvements, as well as group business features, such as a dedicated CRM desktop and simplified accounting and underwriting process review.
5/1/2013
The U.K.-based vendor's acquisition of a distribution technology leader gives it a strong foothold, but succeeding in both geographies won't be easy.
4/30/2013
The newly rebranded vendor's InsureRight offering, now covering all lines of business, is designed to give carriers statistically valid portfolio insights that they can distribute to individual underwriters in a simple, easy-to-understand language.
4/30/2013
Celent's Chuck Johnston says its makes sense that compelling new solution offerings in the group administration space should come from property & casualty system vendors such as Exigen.
4/29/2013
Along with significant efficiency and ease-of-doing-business benefits for agents, Columbian Financial Group will be able to build on its record of growth more effectively and efficiently through the operational unity afforded by its systems consolidation.
4/29/2013
The firms have adopted a "unique" approach will provide exposure to sources of return traditionally available only to investors in hedge funds but with significantly lower fees and capital charges as well as greater transparency and liquidity.
4/29/2013
Rao Tadepalli, CIO of Republic Indemnity, has found ways to innovate in a resource-constrained environment, finding efficiencies through digitizing documentation and improving efficiencies through core system transformation and process reengineering.
4/26/2013
New York Life’s senior managing director and chief information officer in the company’s Investments Group recommends seven stages to complete a successful first 100 days, leading to longer-term success.
4/26/2013
The brave and loving family of our friend inspires us and many others through great strength despite their terrible loss.
4/25/2013
The insurer's use of SundaySky’s SmartVideo technology improves customer experience by rendering complex information easily intelligible.
4/24/2013
Quindell will leverage iter8's significant footprint in the agent/broker technology space to gain market share in the new business technology arena during the coming year.
4/22/2013
The system lets agents work with their customers to create a customized experience built on features such as combined billing options, flexible billing dates, billing plan options and mobile interaction.
4/22/2013
The new system will deliver value to both distributors and customers by allowing agents to shift their attention from answering questions about billing to focusing on customer relationships, according to CIO Greg Tranter.
4/19/2013
Speculation on the part of a Reddit user led to erroneous assumptions that law enforcement authorities have since refuted.
4/17/2013
Policy holders concentrated by type and geography are among the reasons mutual insurers are more susceptible to catastrophe claims challenges, but proactive measures and technology solutions can enable carriers to compensate, according to Willis Re.
4/16/2013
The attack introduced new risks into social life, which will ultimately affect risk management, security measures and insurance.
4/12/2013
Steven Kandarian's comments at the April 10 Capital Markets Summit harmonize with those of other carriers and industry associations in a rare case of unanimity.
4/11/2013
Insurance chief risk officers are rising to greater prominence within their organizations as regulation and technological possibilities drive rapid evolution of risk quantification technology and techniques.
4/5/2013
PwC identifies several key challenges that insurers will face during 2013, in areas such as risk management, strategy and operations.
4/4/2013
The BOLT Platform reflects the rapid evolution of the insurance distribution ecosystem in which now both commercial and personal customers demand multi-channel availability of quotes, comparisons, customer service and transactional efficiencies.
4/1/2013
Pat Speer brings over ten years of experience to a role focused issues affecting senior executives within the property/casualty insurance sector.
4/1/2013
Technology is democratizing insurers' access to high-performance computing and expanding their view of risk exposure.
3/29/2013
Changes at CNO will support the company's focus on the customer by creating a strategic marketing organization that leverages customer analytics, leads, and products across the enterprise.
3/28/2013
Financial services company's strategic conception of data underlies its multichannel, multiproduct and customer-centric growth aspirations.
3/26/2013
Deployment of the Oracle system enables the individual dental insurance carrier to accelerate policy enrollment and deliver efficient and enhanced billing experiences to customers, among other benefits.
3/20/2013
Now in their 15th year, I&T's Elite 8 Awards recognize CIOs and other senior executives who have driven energetic, creative and innovative use of information technology to advance their company's success.
3/18/2013
SAP has made a splash with its Hana in-memory database technology, but its utility for insurance will depend on carriers' need for speed.
3/14/2013
The record revealed by investigations into IT performance is bad. Unfortunately, according to author and former Guardian Life CIO Frank Wander, the truth is even worse.
3/10/2013
A former insurance CIO traces the endemic failure of IT projects — and the economic waste it implies — to the imposition of an industrial process on the social phenomenon of knowledge work.
3/8/2013
The ISO dimension of this week's core systems M&A is significant, but perhaps Applied Systems/IVANS is the more important deal to the industry.
3/7/2013
This latest manifestation of the Hartford-based vendor's renaissance exemplifies several industry trends, including a preference for core system suites, the importance of scale and the demand for ISO rating capabilities.
3/5/2013
Linking Milliman’s MG-ALFA system with Conning’s GEMS Economic Scenario Generator will respond to regulators’ and raters increasing demand for stochastic modeling capabilities and foster a holistic approach to risk management.
2/28/2013
Decision making is never fundamentally about available information, but rather the questions one is able to ask about it.
2/27/2013
Catastrophes have blunted improved underwriting results across geographies, and two out of three customers are at risk of retention with only a neutral or negative customer experience.
2/26/2013
The great English house is a legacy system embedded in an institution with a history of hostile takeover. Its survival depends on accessing new talent and reorienting itself to understand its mission from an outside-in perspective.
2/22/2013
The modern insurance enterprise begins with a shift to systems of engagement from systems of record.
2/20/2013
The insurance industry has begun to provide relevant mobile capabilities to customers and distributors, but carriers must develop strategies of engagement beyond mobile that embrace the data processing implications of 'the Internet of things.'
2/20/2013
The non-traditional competitor's use of telematics, data visualization and customer engagement pioneers the virtues of the insurance digital enterprise in a creative, technology-driven business model.
2/19/2013
Attention to customer expectations can result in companies ending up in a better place than they were before they ran into trouble, as Insurity’s experience shows.
2/15/2013
HFSC urges FIO to deliver "long overdue" reports and says it will work to limit the FIO from imposing unwarranted or excessive data collection burdens on the insurance sector or on small insurers in particular.
2/14/2013
Wolters Kluwers' NILS INsource and NILS INcompass solutions will help Fireman's Fund's compliance team simplify regulatory research while ensuring relevant regulatory changes are being implemented throughout the company.
2/14/2013
Even in auto insurance, the impact of price-driven insurance buyers can be overestimated, according to a McKinsey survey. Ovum emphasizes the important of knowing the customer and crafting a satisfactory experience.
2/13/2013
Wide use of mobile technologies lets insurers engage better with claimants, adjusters and others across a spectrum of communications, business continuity and claims handling activities.
2/6/2013
The selection of a package for a massive volume of business settles rather than opens the question about the industry's technological direction.
2/1/2013
The Fort Lauderdale-based workers' comp carrier's new iPad and iPhone app, available in the Apple App Store, provides targeted information and geography based instant communication capabilities to the insurers customer, agents and employees.
2/1/2013
Big Data and analytics are implicated in four of the respondents' top five business disruptors and explicitly identified as comprising the fifth.
1/31/2013
Microinsurance may cover as many as 1 billion people by 2020, according to the Microinsurance Network, but questions remain as to the potential profitability of the business in a given geography.
1/29/2013
Insurance CIOs must begin to address legacy issues and skill deficits in order to be able to meet the service, operational efficiency and profitability demands of the next decade.
1/25/2013
AIR Worldwide and Willis counsel against increased risks from natural catastrophe, cyber risk, reputational risk and the potential consequences of abandoning ERM efforts.
1/24/2013
CIO Jim Korcykoski and project leader Seth Flory, VP, Business Transformation Office, relate how Nationwide decided the time — and the target system — was right for a package policy admin system implementation for processing policies representing about $9 billion in premium.
1/22/2013
Industry associations and commentators praise Nelson’s government and insurance experience at a time when the industry is under closer scrutiny by the federal government.
1/18/2013
The picture of how well or how poorly insurers responded to Hurricane Sandy is complex. While some carriers did outstanding work, others were slow to respond, disappointing the public, agents and brokers. Some carriers' legalistic wrangling about claims has magnified that disappointment.
1/15/2013
Three of the top five risks ranked by 1,000 influential respondents from around the world could have a profound effect on the insurance industry, according to Michel-Kerjan of the Wharton School.
1/11/2013
Former Bank of the West EVP and CTO James Hanna will support Genworth Financial Wealth Management's continuing efforts to deliver innovative solutions and functionality for advisors and their clients.
1/10/2013
"On-board" technologies are not the only ones insurers need to consider as having the potential to reduce auto premium, insists Celent's Donald Light.
1/9/2013
The Philadelphia-based vendor, whose forwardPAS system has a pedigree through pioneer L&A-focused system AdminServer, will support Mumbai-based Health India TPA Services’ healthcare claims administration.
1/4/2013
Cigna will invest in Audax Health and partner with the company to develop a digital health experience that seeks to make health-related activities a fun part of everyday life.
1/3/2013
The inherent autonomy of self-driving cars raises issues about driver liability and also data privacy, according to Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at Stanford’s Center for the Internet and Society.
12/21/2012
The global insurer seeks to reduce the complexity of its employee work environment in order to enable staff to better serve customers.
12/14/2012
Insurers must evaluate risk with greater accuracy, granularity and timeliness. Ernst & Young's Bill Spinard provides a framework for the proper concepts, procedures and technology to achieve genuine enterprise risk management.
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