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
posted in October 2008
10/23/2008
While retaining his chief architect responsibilities, Steve Byrne will drive refinements to Harleysville Insurance's agent-facing capabilities as vice president of agency and field automation technology.
10/23/2008
Starting in the first quarter of 2009, Colonial Life will conduct all volunteer benefits enrollments on its flexible, user-friendly Harmony enrollment platform.
10/21/2008
The circumstances of a very large established company suing a smaller, newer vendor has raised the question of whether Accenture is engaging in "software by litigation" and thereby establishing a malign precedent for an industry segment that has remained relatively free of such activity. However, Accenture's size and power ultimately has no bearing on whether its relevant partners genuinely believe their rights have been abused.
10/20/2008
Perhaps the surest sign that the cosmic order is reasserting itself is the Boston Red Sox's loss of the American League championship to the Tampa Bay Rays last night. However, the Curse of the Bambino remains broken and the Sox retain their place in the pantheon of recent World Series winners.
10/20/2008
With our 10th Anniversary Elite 8 November issue, and here on the I&T blog, we present the complete list of Elite 8 honorees, going back to 1999, the year it all started. For a graphically rich version, with additional reporting on some of the past honorees, see the print issue version of the list, "The Elite 8 Hall of Fame."
10/17/2008
CNA's John Golden was unable to come to the phone for a couple of weeks. His excuse topped any I've heard during my years of persistently knocking on CIO doors to secure interviews: he was climbing a mountain in the Himalayas. Giving new meaning to the term "Executive Summit," Golden is currently training for an attempt to reach the top of Mt. Everest next year both as a personal goal and to benefit wounded veterans.
10/16/2008
According to the Delaware U.S. District Court, Accenture's "bare allegations" were insufficient to support either a claim that Guidewire stole trade secrets or the charge that Guidewire could be damaged by such allegations. Accenture continues to press its patent infringement suit.
10/13/2008
Rejecting the false dichotomy of buy-versus-build, Bill Jenkins has leveraged the best of both in Penn National's systems transformation.
Down
10/13/2008
Since 2005, Akhil Tripathi has delivered a state-of-the-art portal, two new policy administration platforms and innovative underwriting capabilities.
10/13/2008
While far from insignificant, the bad debt associated with subprime mortgages merely exposed widespread vulnerability owing to the thin capitalization associated with high leverage ratios. The delusion that high debt-to-capital ratios were viable rested, Samuelson writes, on "the presumption...that the MBA types had learned how to 'manage risk.'"
10/10/2008
Akhil Tripathi has provided the vision and direction to move Harleysville Insurance into a leadership position.
10/10/2008
As every day brings new financial calamities and the essential contingency of our prosperity is exposed, austerity may be the best we can hope for.
10/9/2008
While current conditions will drive intensified cost-consciousness, the continued need for improved capabilities, increased productivity and greater profitability will ensure that insurers' IT budgets will not face significant cuts.
10/8/2008
Rejecting the false dichotomy of buy-versus-build, Elite 8 Bill Jenkins has leveraged the best of both in Penn National's systems transformation.
10/8/2008
Through CNA's operating platform transformation, CIO John Golden's IT organization is driving the carrier's emergence as an industry leader.
10/8/2008
What will the insurance CIO role look like 10 years from now? I&T's Elite 8 advisory panel participants weigh in on the evolution of the job — and technology — over the past decade and look to the future.
10/6/2008
Along with Munich-based Allianz's investment, The Hartford announces third quarter losses and the appointment of a new chief investment officer.
10/6/2008
Former state insurer Rosgosstrakh seeks to leverage rapid product development, distribution and service capabilities to gain largest market share in a newly competitive market.
10/6/2008
Property/casualty merger deal expected to close by year-end.
10/3/2008
As the crisis evolves, the fate of variable annuities programs ought to be of interest because it may deliver some important lessons about the uses and limitations of risk modeling. It may be that these instruments will work over the long haul, but it also appears that they could be more risky than anticipated.
10/1/2008
Benefitfocus Max Standard Solutions' data exchange standards are designed to ease the labor-intensive, low-return activities associated with uploading small employer accounts.
10/1/2008
A blogger named Edgeling details his misgivings about telematics in an amusing essay. The author describes the decision of a consumer named Scott Weires to forego buying a coveted Nissan GT-R. The car is everything he had hoped for, but he backs out of a deal when he discovers that it comes with a "black box" electronic data recorder that transmits telemetry allowing others to monitor his driving.
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