Insurance
NETWORKING NEWS
Connecting the Business & Technology Communities

July/August 2009, Volume 13 Issue 1 www.insurancenetworking.com

>>INNFOCUS | LIFE

THE ROAD TO WIDESPREAD acceptance for e-signatures among carriers has been a long and rocky one. But, with legal, technological and cultural issues issues largely resolved,

By Daniel Joelson

Life Insurers Jump Into
the e-Signature Ring

>>IT SPENDING

IN SPITE OF RECESSION-related constraints on financial resources allocated to technology, there is still a proven demand for insurance IT. This puts the onus on CIOs, who for years saw annual increases, not decreases, in their IT budgets. Now forced to be creative in their efforts to economize, successful CIOs are rethinking their IT spend plans for the remainder of 2009 and into 2010, and approaching this difficult task by respond-

By Pat Speer

Industry Tightens Belt
Against Economic Ills

STORING DATA IS ENDEMIC to the operations of every insurer, so it seems odd that many large issues regarding storage garner so little attention.

While the long struggle to digitize formerly paperbound information yields numerous advantages, it is giving rise to a large array of challenges.

Foremost among these is pro-
viding storage space for the
ever-expanding amount of
data while keeping costs in
line. Fortunately, new tech-
nologies, such as storage area
networks and related tech-
niques are emerging that are
helping carriers store more
with less. Read on to see the
strategies insurers are
employing to combat this
digital sprawl.

>>COVER STORY | STORAGE Drowning in Data? Carriers Find a Way Out

Story on page 16

By Bill Kenealy

Who Said It?

If you try STP without e-signatures, it’s like having a race car without tires.

Story on page 10

Insurers are finding self-service portals to be an important distribution channel and are taking steps to improve their functionality.

Front Office
6

Of insurance customers who

visit social networking sites

monthly:

22
Stat Speaking

Researched auto

insurance in the past year

Applied for auto

insurance in the past year

Researched life

insurance in the past year

Applied for life

insurance in the past year 37%

34%

38%

34%

2459% of insurers would efinitely buy vended software products again

and the other 41% aren’t

so sure. What could have

been done differently?

INNSight

forward-thinking organizations

are employing e-signatures to

achieve straight-through pro-

cessing and a competitive

advantage.

Story on page 10

ing—not reacting—with a steady, thoughtful course of action. Somewhat surprisingly, their actions are also based on a measure of cautious optimism. That optimism is derived from taking a pragmatic approach to new and existing projects, setting realistic delivery lead times, and being able to communicate IT’s inherent value as a business enabler. For some examples, read on.