Tower Life Transforms Its Call Center with Zeacom Platform
3/31/2010Tower Life has transformed its legacy call center into a true contact center through the integrated capabilities of the Zeacom Communication Center platform.
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 March 2010
posted in March 2010
Tower Life has transformed its legacy call center into a true contact center through the integrated capabilities of the Zeacom Communication Center platform.
Tufts Health Plan Taps CGI For Application Development and Support
3/31/2010Tufts will utilize CGI's resources to help improve processes, lower IT cost structure and have access to specialized technical skills.
Aiming to Stop Cargo Theft, CargoNet Expands Its Insurance Membership
3/31/2010Launched in January, the ISO-managed national information-sharing network unites insurance company, transportation, manufacturing, retail and law enforcement participants in the fight against cargo theft.
Healthcare Reform Will Require Massive Insurance IT Spending
3/31/2010Complying with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will require both massive IT spending and increased operational efficiency from insurers.
Recent Natural Catastrophes Should Alert U.S. Insurers to Dangers
3/30/2010Experience with seismic events mitigated the human and property toll of the February Chile earthquake -- lessons that should inform insurers' planning in parts of the U.S.
New York Life Names Michael Gordon Senior Vice President, Agency-Life Operations
3/30/2010Gordon is responsible for overseeing the eight sub-units of the newly formed Agency-Life Operations organization. He reports to Paul Pasteris, COO of New York Life's U.S. Life Insurance.
AIG Completes Sale of PineBridge Investments
3/29/2010Hong Kong-based Pacific Century Group has paid $277 million in cash for the portion of AIG's asset management business.
American General Life and Accident Adopts iPipeline Illustration Suite
3/29/2010The Nashville-based insurer will use iPipeline's solution for its life and annuity products within a system branded internally as AGLA Passport.
Insurance Associations Express Concerns About Financial Reform Bill
3/29/2010Sen. Christopher Dodd's reform bill proposes only modest changes to the existing insurance regulatory regime, but industry associations are pushing back against resolution funding requirements and potentially duplicative regulation.
The Hartford to Participate In ProspX Online Search and Sales Collaboration Platform
3/26/2010The Web-based platform will give participating commercial insurance agents and brokers real-time access to information about The Hartford's expertise, the types of risks it insures and key contacts.
Fidel Castro Applauds US Healthcare Reform
3/26/2010Castro calls reform a "miracle" and a victory over "lobbyists and political mercenaries," in qualified praise of President Obama, whom he calls a "fanatical believer in the imperialist capitalist system."
Bear River Mutual Chooses StoneRiver Policy and Billing Solutions
3/24/2010Utah-based P&C carrier sees the solutions as key in preparing infrastructure in support of growth objectives.
New Mexico Chooses Valen's UnderRight
3/23/2010New Mexico Mutual will use the solution to enhance its already dominant position in the New Mexico workers' comp market through identification of opportunities and precise pricing of risk.
Thoughts on Distribution Management
3/23/2010Carriers have made significant progress in speed-to-market by implementing rules-based systems and tightening their product development capabilities. They have aggressively moved to create more tailored products marketable through more diverse channels. However, their engagement with those channels is remains challenged by the limitations of their existing distribution systems.
DST Health Solutions Debuts Enhanced ACG System
3/22/2010ACG Version 9.0 builds on the success of previous releases by identifying members with chronic conditions that are at risk for low adherence to prescription regimens, poor coordination of care among primary care providers and specialists or acute hospitalization needs.
Insurance Industry: Healthcare Reform Fails to Address Costs
3/22/2010Health insurance carriers praise coverage, lament cost. Distributor association expresses disappointment on cost to small businesses and procedural liberties taken by Congress to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
House Vote Addresses Health Insurers' Abuses, Answers Americans' Prayers
3/22/2010I begin to wonder how my contacts in the health insurance industry sleep at night. Possibly their excesses and abuses leave them exhausted at the end of the day. Fortunately, whether we know what's good for us or not, the President and Congress have found a way to put an end to the tyranny of health insurers. Some things turn out to be easier than they seem.
Accident Fund Names Joanne Topa Director, Enterprise Applications
3/19/2010Topa will be involved with initiatives within content management, Web services and business relations throughout the organization.
Don Desiderato Joins Novarica
3/19/2010Former Prudential and ING divisional CIO has focused on transformational initiatives within the life/annuity industry throughout his 25-year career.
Jackson National Life Selects Thunderhead NOW
3/18/2010The life, annuities and institutional products insurer will use the Thunderhead platform to streamline the production and delivery of its policy documentation, correspondence and other personalized content.
The Hartford Prices Share Offerings
3/18/2010The Hartford plans to use the net proceeds of the offerings, together with proceeds from a planned debt offering and available funds to repurchase in full the $3.4 billion of The Hartford's preferred shares issued to the U.S. Treasury Department under Treasury's Capital Purchase Program.
PayFlex Releases New HSA
3/17/2010PayFlex's new custodian-agnostic product enhances flexibility and control for employers and insurers, while extending its HSA offering to any financial institution, the vendor claims
Verex Implements edge IPK edgeConnect
3/17/2010The edge IPK product underpins a solution designed to enable Verex to offer a range of branded insurance products directly to automobile manufacturers, dealers and their customers.
Early Insurance Industry Reaction to Sen. Dodd's Financial Reform Bill
3/16/2010If one were to summarize the reaction of insurance industry associations to Senator Chris Dodd's financial reform bill it would be: "If it aint broke, don't fix it."
Brit Insurance Selects Prodiance ERM to Manage Spreadsheets
3/16/2010The solution will support a strategic initiative to automate internal controls over mission-critical spreadsheets used to capture and report on financial information.
Pegasystems Will Acquire Chordiant Software
3/16/2010Under the terms of the agreement, Pegasystems will make a cash tender offer of $5.00 per share for all outstanding shares of Chordiant common stock for a total purchase price of up to approximately $161.5 million.
Torus Specialty Selects Duck Creek for Policy Admin, Billing
3/15/2010The carrier has signed a contract for Duck Creek's solutions in order to support expansion into new lines of business.
Colonial Life Taps Top Down Systems for Document Automation
3/15/2010Colonial Life will use the solution in support of customer correspondence to save time and money on operational and information technology involvement, as well as eliminate document duplication.
Northwestern Mutual's CIO: IT as a Business Asset
3/12/2010In discussions of the contribution of IT to the insurance enterprise, it's hard not to speak in terms of IT as separate from "the business." IT is an enabler of business process after all, no matter how pervasive and strategic its role has become. Nevertheless, CIOs often insist that IT is part of the business, even as it supports it, and certainly not without reason. Tim Schaefer<
DRC Enables Cloud Delivery of DecisionMaker Rating Enterprise
3/12/2010DecisionMaker Rating Enterprise customers will be able to minimize overhead, create multiple cloned environments and quickly perform "what if" analysis with version 7.1, the vendor says.
Narragansett Bay Launches New Homeowner Web Site, Agent Portal
3/12/2010The enhancements fall within the company's APEX project, an agent-focused series of technical initiatives to be completed in 2001 that will allow the company to fulfill new customer needs and provide what the carrier describes as outstanding service to its policies with advanced straight-through processing to its independent agents.
Hyland Aims to Bridge Online/Offline Worlds with OnBase 9.2
3/11/2010Enhancements to the enterprise content management suite include a "full-featured" offline client, Mobile Workflow for BlackBerry and workflow integration with Microsoft Outlook.
TIBCO Spotfire 3.1 Makes Predictive Analytics Available for All Business Apps
3/11/2010Carriers Must Put Profitability Before Growth
3/10/2010Companies that effectively leverage analytics to refine their ability to segment risk, have a window into the profitability of customer segments. Those who lag behind in analytic capabilities are flying blind in this respect. And not only are they less able to gauge profitability, they are more likely to be stuck with the worst risks relative to their competitors.
Guidewire Releases Guidewire BillingCenter 3.0
3/10/2010Guidewire describes its approach to the billing product as shifting from a traditional view of billing as a back-office function to a "front and center" concept that offers increased flexibility to customers.
Equitable Life of Canada Uses HP Exstream to Streamline Customer Communications
3/10/2010HP Exstream will provide a single software platform for Equitable Life of Canada to create, manage and deliver a variety of communications, in multiple languages , to its customers.
Thrivent Notifies Members of Breach of Unsecured Personal Information
3/10/2010Laptop stolen from Pennsylvania office contained personal information, including name, address, social security number and health information.
OneShield Launches Customer/Employee Wiki
3/9/2010The vendor describes OneShield Wiki as a comprehensive source of training materials, shared documents and resources, contact information and complete documentation on its Dragon policy admin system's components, functionality and architecture.
AIR: Losses From U.S. Winter Storm From $150m to $350m
3/8/2010The storm combined heavy snowfall, flooding rain and high winds, some of which reached hurricane-strength, according to an AIR source.
Travelers Launches Free Mobile Apps for Accident Assistance, Claims
3/8/2010Travelers customers can begin the claim reporting process directly through an iPhone app or by accessing the Travelers mobile Web site through their BlackBerry.
SUNZ Insurance Names Scott Robertson President
3/5/2010Founder of Umbrella Group/BenefitPort Southeast, Robertson has also worked as an consultant and as president of the Florida Association of Health Underwriters.
Selective Makes Officer Appointments
3/5/2010Technology appointments include John Bresney to VP, infrastructure services and operations; and Robert McKenna to VP, infrastructure architecture and engineering.
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield Goes Live on SunGard's iWorks BPM
3/5/2010iWorks BPM provides integration, workflow and scalability to help the health insurer augment its claims management and inventory control.
Golden Bear Insurance Deploys ISI's WebWriter
3/5/2010The Stockton, Calif.-based carrier will use Insurance Systems, Inc.'s P&C policy admin suite within its personal lines business.
AIG Will Sell Remaining Shares in Transatlantic Holdings
3/5/2010AIG's American Home Assurance Company (AHAC) subsidiary currently intends to commence an offering on or prior to March 9, 2010, concurrent with TRH's addition to the S&P Midcap 400 Index.
Communicating With the Emerging Life Insurance Buyer
3/4/2010There remains a large untapped life insurance and annuity market, a mass of people who really want to invest more in their future. Carriers have a special opportunity today to reach those prospects, hold their attention and make it easier for them to finally do what they think they should. What carriers can learn today by exploiting this opportunity could make a long-term difference in the way life insurance is sold - and bought.
David Zona Joins Fireman's Fund as SVP of Product Management, Commercial Insurance
3/4/2010Zona will be responsible for setting direction and priorities for various commercial insurance product lines and will have primary accountability for driving profitable growth.
Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society Renews Contract with Sapiens for Closed Book Business
3/3/2010The five-year, $7 million contract covers services for Sapiens INSIGHT for Closed Books, which is used to administer 3 million LV= policies.
USAA Teams With VeriSign to Deploy Improved Mobile Log-on
3/3/2010Instead of a three-step process of submitting username, password and PIN, members can now access their accounts through a secure four-digit PIN, making the log-on process simpler and safer, according to USAA.
Striking the Right Tone Online: Style Without Offense
3/2/2010Frankly, I'm not looking to "built a better future" with my auto insurer, much as I might appreciate that they're trying to pollute less and give something back to communities where they make a profit. I've always considered the pursuit of happiness to be a private matter.
David Wheat Named Hannover Re CFO
3/2/2010Wheat will head the company's finance, corporate actuarial, treasury, risk management, and controller functions.
Progressive Launches Public "Social Responsibility" Site
3/2/2010The auto insurer will publicize all of what it characterizes as its social responsibility activities through the site, including environmental measures and charitable donations.
European Windstorm Xynthia Causes at Least 50 Deaths
3/1/2010High winds and flooding have caused widespread damage and fatalities in Portugal, Spain, France and Germany.
Lessons from Chile and Haiti
3/1/2010This weekend's earthquake in Chile - following quickly on the heels of the Haiti quake - will no doubt reshape the popular appreciation of seismic risk in North America.
Lessons In Chile's Strength
3/1/2010San Franciscans also live in a zone where they are reminded frequently by perceptible shaking. That is not the case in the Pacific Northwest, where seismic activity is seldom perceptible and usually associated with volcanic eruptions rather than earthquakes per se. The Chile quake should be a wake-up call to the U.S. Northwest.
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