Story on page 18
Linkage between the
business strategy and
functional capabilities
required to achieve that
strategy is essential.
July 2010
www.insurancenetworking.com
The Tech glut
6
faster and cheaper
mobile and analytic
technologies will
redefine the role of It.
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iPad’s insurance role
11
Insurance CIos believe
tablet devices may
help revive network
computing.
18
to fully reap the
benefits of their It
investments, insurers
should
By Ed McKinley
>>e-signaTures
Sign of the Times
CarrIers use e-sIGnatures
for many reasons—cut costs,
save time, trim staffs, discourage
litigation, move a step closer
to straight-through processing
and prevent customers from
dropping out due to the
tedious snail-mail signing
process. however, carriers can’t
do this on their own; they need
their agents’ buy-in.
some agents are ready for the
change. Clark-Mortenson agency
and McClain Insurance services,
already use e-signatures—and
require it of the carriers with
whom they do business.
not all agents are so willing.
for fear of the unknown, some
agents refuse to adopt e-signatures, but experts say others
just need a nudge to understand
and appreciate the benefits.
that nudge comes in
different flavors: Country
financial’s agents advocate for
e-signatures by sharing success
stories; liberty Mutual Group
offers agents e-signature
coaching sessions.these efforts
and more are helping otherwise
reluctant agents successfully
adopt the technology.
>>Mas Ter Da Ta ManageMen T
The Path to Analytics is
Paved With Good Data
By Joe McKendrick
If the old saw “you are
what you eat” is true for
people, it is probably more
so for business analytics.
accordingly, insurers are taking
extra care to make sure that the
increasing amount of data they
feed their analytics engines is
of the highest quality.
to do so, companies such
as Chartis’ Privant Client Group
are under-taking master data
management initiatives and
building out data warehouses
in order to create a central hub
of up-to-date, clean data. Given
the persistence of silos and
legacy applications, and the
increasingly frequent use of
third-party data sources, these
efforts can present some
serious challenges.yet, with
use of business intelligence
and predictive analytics fast
becoming a competitive
necessity in certain lines of
business, insurers may find
these endeavors well worth
the effort.
analytics for auditing
22
how some workers’
compensation insurers
apply predictive
analytics to prevent
premium leakage.
INN Online
insurancenetworking.com
• nationwide Takes Multi-Prong
strategy to greener Operations
• i T Jobs, salaries rising
• insurers Make Last attempt
to sway regulatory reform
