There probably isn't any group in the IT department that has toaddress the question, "What have you done for me lately?" moreoften than the Web designers. The life insurance carrier New YorkLife upgrades its Web site about a half-dozen times a year,according to Ken Hittel, vice president of the corporate Internetdepartment for the carrier, in a constant effort to improve thesite.

"Most of our strategic planning for the site occurs within theconfines of New York Life and is organized around the question:What can New York Life intelligently do on the Web?" says Hittel."That's been our mantra. We pay attention to general phenomena onthe Internet and what our near competitors are doing, but we steerour own ship."

Recent additions to the site offer improved access to thevisually and reading impaired (as well as plain, old-fashionedmultitaskers) along with some of the attributes of Web 2.0,including social networking.

By clicking the new "Read this Page" function on the carrier'sWeb site (www.newyorklife.com), visitors can hear the item read tothem or they can download the audio file to an iPod or MP3 andlisten at a later time. VoiceCorp International supplied thecarrier with the functionality for the service, known asReadSpeaker, reports Hittel.

New York Life had multiple ideas for using the service, relatesHittel. "The first idea came from the angle of providing assistancetechnology," he says. Estimates are some 10 million Americans arevisually impaired, so the carrier felt there was a need to providethis technology.

"Initially we had in mind accessibility for the disabled, butbeyond that [we wanted] to supply a technology that would allow foreasier access to our content rather than having the user sit thereand read it [off the monitor] or print it and read it later," hesays. "You can listen to [the audio file] while you do somethingelse. That's the multitask aspect to it."

The carrier also noticed the tremendous growth in popularity ofiPods. "The initial assumption is: iPods equal iTunes equal music,"says Hittel. "That's the case for the great majority of people, butwe know there are a lot of people using these devices to listen toall kinds of material."

Hittel knew people such as portfolio managers and investmentbankers were using the devices to listen to market forecasts.People considering life insurance purchases who are in an activeconversation with an agent also use the devices. "[Customers] candownload three or four different articles off newyorklife.com andlisten to the articles while they're doing their nightly run aroundthe reservoir at Central Park," he says. "It may not be the mostexciting listening they'll do that day, but it's extremely usefulfor them."

Hittel believes this type of technology is being embraced byagents, as well, who he feels often are in the forefront oftechnology use. "They are very mobile people as part of how they dobusiness," he says. "We assume they will embrace this quite abit."

The social networking aspects of the Web site are described byHittel as being in the embryonic stages. "We're getting inlightly," he says. "I think for us at this point we're moreinterested in listening than anything else."

Hittel emphasizes the insurer wants to hear what visitors to thesite have to say. "In some cases, that's no more sophisticated than'this article gets four stars out of five,'" he says.

Most people would expect a "post a comment" feature to pertainto the specific article that was made available on the Web site,but Hittel explains the carrier has heard a variety of comments ondifferent aspects of the company's performance delivered throughthis feature. "[Customers] see [the feature] as an opportunity tospeak to us," he says. "We're listening to our customers to hearwhat they have to say. We're hoping the next stage [of theinteraction] will be to engage and respond to our users, but fornow, at least, it's really just listening."

The carrier is aware of the phenomenon of social networking, butHittel believes it's more a question of what New York Lifeintelligently can do with such an interactive feature. "Initiallywe know what we can do with it is enable people to voice theirconcerns and opinions, and we can listen to that," he says.

The carrier has had a Web presence since 1996, and in that time,the Web site has built up a lot of competencies within the company,notes Hittel. "We've socialized those competencies throughout thecompany so the business people are very aware of the capabilitieswe have and are interested in utilizing those capabilities," hesays.

Hittel and his staff realize the constant challenges they faceto keep the site fresh. "You can become stale in a day or a week ora month," he says. "So, we're always looking out for newthings."