BACK OFFICE
Strategies and technologies to boost
behind-the-scenes efficiencies
United States] with some local regulato-
ry and compliance changes.”
However, the pace of deployment is
different from region to region. But even
within a given geography, the pace of
change can vary greatly. For example,
Japan lags significantly behind when it
comes to the pace of technological
change in the insurance industry, says
Aite Group analyst Clark Troy. “The post
office is the primary means of distribut-
ing financial products,” he says.
Conversely, some emerging countries
may have an advantage when it comes to
SOA; as the markets are still developing,
companies have the opportunity to
bypass aging technology.
For example, the Chinese government has given out several new licenses
for property/casualty insurers over the
past couple of years, says Sudhakar Ram,
CEO and chairman of Mastek Inc. These
companies started out with the bare
minimum of technology—spreadsheets,
in some cases—but have been growing
well and are now ready to invest in modern technology, he says.
A CLEAN SLATE
There are similar “clean slate” opportunities elsewhere in Asia.
“In India, there are about six or
seven new companies being set up in
“New technology
is being adopted to
develop point-of-
sale applications
integrated with our
core admin systems.”
– Rajeev Shirodkar, Future Generali
India Life Insurance Co Ltd.
the area of life insurance,” Ram says.
“They are willing to go directly into
SOA because they don’t have any lega-
cy—they don’t have any existing poli-
cies to administer.”
One of these companies is Aegon
Religare Life Insurance, a joint venture
between The Hague, Netherlands-based
life insurer Aegon and Mumbai, India-
based financial services group Religare.
The company, founded in the summer
of 2008, uses Web services to manage
interfaces and ensure data integrity.
“We have aligned our systems toward
SOA from day one,” says Srinivasan
Iyengar, the firm’s director of IT and
operations.
As a result, the company has been
able to roll out a multi-channel operation, including telephone-based self-service with an interactive voice
response system. The company also has
recently launched an Internet-specific
product and will be launching mobile
applications over the course of this coming year, Iyengar adds. INN
Maria Korolov Trombly is president of Hong
Kong-based Trombly Ltd.
For more about SOA
efforts worldwide,
search “SOA Manifesto”
at www.insurancenetworking.com.
BACK OFFICE SOLUTIONS
KAREN CLARK OFFERS NEW
CAT MANAGEMENT REVIEW
Karen Clark & Co., Boston-based independent experts in catastrophe risk, catastrophe
models and catastrophe risk management,
announced the introduction of a new service, “Thinking Outside the Black Box”
Catastrophe Management Operational
Review. The review provides a comprehensive examination of a company’s use of
catastrophe models, and the integration of
catastrophe loss analytics into risk management operations.
Catastrophe models have become an
essential component of the risk management process of most insurers. Many companies, however, don’t fully understand the
uncertainty inherent in the models, or how
to best utilize the models in light of this
uncertainty.
The catastrophe management operational review helps insurers develop better
and more holistic risk assessment and risk
management processes, the company says.
It addresses the essential components of
sound catastrophe management, including
data management, catastrophe modeling,
underwriting, pricing and risk management.
Among other benefits, the review is
designed to help insurers determine
whether they can:
• Accurately collect information per-
taining to the exposure associated with
new business
• Utilize appropriate and robust analytic
tools as applied to their book of business
• Effectively use underwriting processes
to accept business and control aggregate
exposure
• Properly reflect catastrophe exposure
in the development of rate indications and
rating plans
• Appropriately reflect catastrophe
exposure in determining target levels of
profitability.
PITNEY BOWES BUSINESS
INSIGHT OFFERS LEGACY
MIGRATION SERVICE
Pitney Bowes Business Insight, a Troy, N. Y.-based provider of data quality and location
intelligence solutions, reports the availability of its Customer Communications
Management (CCM) Legacy Migration
Service and import utility tools.
The products and services are designed
to help property/casualty insurance companies efficiently and effectively move
their legacy applications to Pitney Bowes
Business Insight’s next-generation CCM
technology.
Pitney Bowes Business Insight’s CCM
Legacy Migration Service involves a five-step conversion process designed to speed
conversion times and reduce costs while
concurrently ensuring the quality of clients’
communications.
To start the process, Pitney Bowes
Business Insight maps out a client’s current
CCM landscape including policies, claims,
agent correspondence and collects existing
document samples as well as assembly
rules and existing data materials, according
to the company.
From these design artifacts, the document architecture and customized conversion solution can be defined. The team will
then define and prepare test cases, and
implement a pilot project to validate the
new document architecture and customized process and make adjustments as
necessary to ensure an easier transition for
future conversion efforts.
Its proven process utilizes an easy-to-use batch import utility tool to speed conversions and improve overall quality of the
result, according to the company.
