Tech Decisions January 2011
Cover Story
You Should See the Other Guy
Insurers can expect fierce battles to attract new policyholders and retain their own best customers in 2011.
Features
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Possibilities or Limitations?
Policy administration system implementations consistently make the ‘A List’ of important projects for insurers every year. There always are a large number of policy administration projects under consideration in the insurance industry—some to handle new lines of business, some to manage processing for new companies—but the vast majority are undertaken...
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PAS or Play?
In a cutthroat commercial lines marketplace, insurers have sharpened their focus on modernization of their policy administration systems (PAS). Failure to address this issue is a gamble insurers can’t afford to make.
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The Relationship Game
Technology is changing the relationship between the client, producer, and the insurance carrier. While some view that as a detriment to producers, others see room for adaptation and growth that will ultimately benefit consumers, independent agents, and carriers.
News
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Moving from Efficient to Proficient
Faced with a host of challenges and pressures, insurers have been driven to look for new ways to improve results in areas such as reducing claims leakage, improving underwriting performance, and generally reducing costs.
Editor's Note
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New Home for News
There’s a new home for all the content we produce. It’s called PropertyCasualty360.com, a portal that connects all the publications and Web sites that make up the Property Casualty Group of our parent company, Summit Business Media.
Stats Watch
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IT Providers Get High Scores
A recent report by Celent called “What Insurance Customers Really Think: An IT Service Provider Report Card” explores customer feedback about satisfaction and the types of services being outsourced. Overall, insurers seem to be positive about their existing relationships.
Business Solutions
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Growing Together
Starting an insurance business from scratch put American Alliance Casualty in an enviable position, particularly when it came to purchasing a policy administration system.
Trends & Tech
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Who Do You Trust?
Cloud-based computing has created new challenges for authentication and authorization that we simply don’t have when we are able to maintain all of our applications and users inside the firewall. Claims-based authentication systems can help.
Top Tech
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Eye on the Prize
For Robert Norris, CIO at Pinnacol Assurance, being involved in strategic business decisions is more than a component of his role as the company’s IT leader—it’s also part of his job title.
Columns
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Minimizing PAS Failure
There are three “mitigation strategies” that a carrier can use to minimize both the risk and the potential impact of project failure.
Departments
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GEICO Customers Can Shop With Smartphones
Mobile users now have the ability to get a quote and purchase a policy from GEICO by using their iPhone or Android mobile application.
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Real-time Functionality Tops IIABA Tech Issues
Marketing the agency effectively over the Internet, security, and ease of use of new real-time functionality have become the top three technology issues for owners of independent agencies.
