ACORD LOMA 2010: The Year of Facebook
5/27/2010The Facebook buzz is the latest and most alarming signal that consumer behavior is accelerating beyond the insurance industry's ability to keep pace with it.
Profile of Anthony O'Donnell
Blog Posts: 2240Anthony 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
posted in May 2010
posted in May 2010
The Facebook buzz is the latest and most alarming signal that consumer behavior is accelerating beyond the insurance industry's ability to keep pace with it.
Accenture Debuts Enhanced Technology Offerings at ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum
5/27/2010Among the systems revamped include Accenture Claim Components, Accenture Policy Components and the Accenture Life Insurance Platform.
OneShield Introduces Dragon Intelligence at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum
5/27/2010Dragon Intelligence takes into account a carrier's specific business models to analyze specific key risk underwriting benchmarks, as well as workflow job functions, while interweaving external data sources to provide a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary view of the complete insurance enterprise, the vendor says.
DTRIC Insurance Adds New DRC DecisionMaker Business Line Support
5/27/2010The addition of commercial auto and truckers to lines supported by DecisionMaker brings to four the total number of lines in production within the solution at the Honolulu-based P&C carrier.
Northwestern Mutual Names John E. Schlifske Chairman and CEO
5/27/2010Current company president John E. Schlifske will succeed Ed Zore as CEO on July 1 and chairman as of Aug. 1. Gary Poliner will take on Schlifske's former role of president, and has also been named chief risk officer by Northwestern Mutual's board of trustees.
InsPro Technologies Adapts Flagship Solution For Life & Annuity Market
5/26/2010InsPro has adopted a market strategy to enable its InsPro Enterprise policy admin solution to support a wide range life and annuity products.
Thunderhead Launches New Forms Management Feature Set
5/26/2010The new Thunderhead NOW Advanced Forms Management feature set delivers four capabilities that provide greater management control and visibility, and reduce the risk of noncompliance while expediting form completion.
L&T Infotech Introduces Insurance Mobile Components at ACORD LOMA Systems Forum
5/26/2010In the face of rapidly increased consumer use of smart phones, the iMC Suite is designed to help insurers expedite the adoption of mobile technologies.
Carriers Shifting Distribution Dollars To Mobile, Accenture Research Finds
5/26/2010Insurers are planning to invest on average $84 million on strategic distribution improvements over the next three years according to a survey of 125 insurers globally.
Matching the UI to the User: A Conversation With StoneRiver's Rodney Griffin
5/26/2010Insurers developing sites for either internal or external use need to bear in mind basic aesthetic and ergonomic factors, but they should take another step: UIs need to be crafted not only to meet the task at hand but also the type of user.
Talking Claims Transformation With Ernst & Young's David Connolly
5/25/2010"Even a 5 percent reduction in leakage is enough to justify the replacement costs for software and services," comments David Connolly, Ernst & Young.
Alfa Vision Insurance Taps SAS To Improve Customer Retention
5/25/2010The SAS Analytics Pro solution, combined with an Elite Technology Solutions-developed retention model will be applied to eight program rollouts during 2010.
HP Introduces Claims Correspondence Solution
5/25/2010The HP Exstream solution, which supports critical front-office claims business processes, is designed to improve customer retention while reducing costs and compliance risks.
Genpact, MajescoMastek Partnership Combines BPO and Tech Solutions
5/24/2010Both parties plan to develop what they describe as innovative, platform-based business process management solutions across the industry value chain, including policy services, billing, claims, distribution management and new business/underwriting.
National Western Life Goes Life with FAST Component
5/24/2010The life and annuity case management workflow automation component was built in three months, using FAST's 8x framework.
StoneRiver Debuts Customer Stream Solution
5/24/2010A component within StoneRiver's Stream product suite, the browser-based Customer Stream solution enables P&C carriers to manage information about parties such as claimants, agents, and body repair shops.
FICO and Microsoft Team on End-To-End Claims Solution
5/24/2010The solution integrates FICO Blaze Advisor business rules management system with Microsoft applications such as SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Senate Financial Reform Bill Mostly a Relief for Insurers
5/21/2010The potential for duplicative federal insurance regulation did not materialize within the Restoring American Stability Act of 2010 passed by the Senate, but concerns still remain how the final law will affect the industry after passage through the House later this year.
Data Mastery Drives Access Insurance's 'Instant Access' Business Technology Platform
5/20/2010Access Insurance Holdings leverages real-time data in its Instant Access technology platform to inform business strategy, provide a superior customer experience and lower operational costs.
Amerisafe Extends Legacy System Life With Help From FirstBest
5/18/2010Workers' comp specialist achieves modernized agent service without retiring aging policy administration technology.
Jackson's First Quarter Sales Rise 62 Percent
5/17/2010Jackson National Life's flagship variable annuity offering Perspective II has helped the carrier tall a 108 percent year-over-year rise in variable annuity sales to $3.1 billion.
SAP's Acquisition of Sybase Brings Strategic Synergies
5/17/2010SAP will help Sybase increase its penetration in the insurance market, while Sybase's mobile capabilities will open up possibilities for new ways to deliver SAP solutions to insurance carriers and their customers.
Farmers Expands eZsign Claims E-Signature Capability to 16 States
5/13/2010Launched in Dec. 2009, the eZsign capability enables Farmers to provide customers the option to receive document links via email, sign online, and submit them instantly to expedite payment.
EXL Acquires LifePRO PAS Vendor PDMA
5/13/2010Through its client work, services firm EXL has deep experience working on the LifePRO policy administration platform, which is deployed at about 40 insurers worldwide.
Kansas City Blue Plan Implements Colibrium's Tuo Underwriting
5/13/2010The Tuo Underwriting solution implementation is planned to enable Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City to expand and change underwriting methodologies quickly, without costly development efforts.
SAP Will Acquire Sybase for $5.8b
5/12/2010Sybase will continue to operate on a standalone basis after the acquisition, which SAP says will create synergistic benefits for both companies.
Allstate CIO Details Cloud Computing Strategy
5/12/2010"For a company like Allstate with a data and customer-centric focus, being able to ensure performance, operability and integration are of utmost importance," says Allstate CIO Cathy Brune. "The business case isn't always there either - it's not always less expensive or better."
Turkey's Leading P&C Insurer Selects Accenture's Claims Components
5/11/2010The Claim Components implementation figures within a broader transformation initiative by Anadolu Sigorta begun in 2008 and aimed at establishing an operating model focused on customer satisfaction and growth.
Kognitio and Quomation Partner on DaaS Pricing Service for Auto Insurers
5/10/2010The partnership will result in the joining of Kognitio's WX2 in-memory analytical database, via its Data Warehousing as a Service (DaaS) model, with Quomation's PowerBatch and PowerQuote solutions.
Facebook FTC Complaint: Insurers Should Distance Themselves From Exploitative Practices
5/10/2010Prominent insurance users of the platform have adopted the best practice of not using Facebook or other social media sites to directly advertise products or transact business. To emphasize that more respectful distance from direct commercial conversations, they may want to explicitly state their disapproval of Facebook's exploitation of user information, if the allegations are demonstrated to be true.
New Tech Increasingly Extends the Life of Legacy Policy Admin Systems
5/7/2010Newer technologies have provided increasingly effective means to extend the life of existing systems. For example, MajescoMastek has utilized service-oriented architecture (SOA) to build its service bridge offering, which unifies data from policy admin systems to branch office systems, new business systems and practically any other systems.
StoneRiver Adds Billing Offering to Stream Solution Set
5/7/2010Billing Stream is designed to maximize real-time processing and support standard direct bill functionality, including single policy- and account-level billing, and multiple payment options, such as electronic funds transfer, credit cards, mortgagee billing, and payroll deduction.
Reveille Announces Experience and Performance Manager (EPM) 6.0
5/7/2010Version 6.0 includes performance scorecard dashboard capabilities for enterprise content management (ECM) applications, expanding the vendor's agentless application monitoring into measurement of ECM operational key performance indicators.
Senators Agree to Cut Resolution Fund From Financial Reform Bill
5/6/2010A bipartisan amendment gets releases financial services companies, including some insurers, from having to contribute to a $50 billion fund for winding down troubled companies.
Profit With A Purpose: Microinsurance Fund Logs Record Investments
5/6/2010If microinsurance is indeed a viable business, then we should look forward to companies like J.P.Morgan touting its profitability rather than emphasizing its social value. Charity may or may not be effective, but a business proposition that truly benefits both parties to the deal will ensure that capital will continue to flow to places where it can do great good.
Novarica: Carriers Replace For Growth, Not Efficiency
5/5/2010Anticipating a large number of policy administration projects likely to be undertaken in the near future, Novarica's reports reflect peer experience over the last decade.
Beacon Mutual To Implement FirstBest Agent Portal
5/5/2010FirstBest Agent will be an integral part of Beacon Mutual's BEACONNECT site, providing upload, supplemental questions, STP quoting, and real-time collaboration and visibility into the submission process for its 400 agents, according to the vendor.
The Principal Implements Portico Systems Integrated Provider Management
5/4/2010The IPM solutions are being used by The Principal to identify, recruit and manage providers in its network.
NAMIC Calls for "Responsibility Fee" to Target TARP Companies
5/4/2010The nation's largest P&C insurance association says that the Obama Administration's proposed fee would unfairly sanction P&C companies who pose little or no risk and did not receive TARP funds.
iPipeline Launches V7.2 of the Velocity On-Demand Platform
5/3/2010Improvements within Version 7.2 of the Velocity platform include a new interface, case exchange capabilities and system integrations.
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