Speed and efficiency have been words effective businesses have lived by for years, but they have come into greater focus in the last decade as the Internet has changed the way the world does business. Nothing is faster or more efficient today than the Internet, but to achieve the greatest benefits, companies need to rethink how they are going to use this tool. Thats a major reason the opening session of TechDEC will discuss the future of Internet technology in insurance.
Where Do We Go From Here? will feature Dennis Chookaszian, the retired chairman and CEO of CNA Insurance, who will serve as moderator. The rest of the panel includes Cathy Ellwood, director of corporate strategy for Nationwide Insurance; Judy Johnson, vice president of insurance information strategies with the research and consulting firm META Group; and Jeff Chookaszian, engagement manager with the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
Dennis Chookaszian, who will also deliver the keynote address at TechDEC, believes the Internet will have two major effects on the insurance industry in the coming yearscost efficiencies and broader distribution. These efficiencies will come as insurers experience a greater availability of data collected over the Internet and the transfer of business processes from manual-related or computer-related systems to newer communication-related systems. Such Internet-style technology will reduce costs, it will reduce the level of effort, and it will improve accessibility to large-scale data, says Chookaszian. Data accumulation becomes much easier under the Internet approach, so that will affect costs and the value aspects of insurance.
The Internet brings insurers to a whole new audience and allows them to sample new markets that would have been too expensive to enter just a few years ago. He believes making information available to potential customers and the ability to market products to the new audience will have a tremendous impact.
He hopes that technology leaders dont repeat the mistakes of the past. Back in the old IBM 360 days, what they tended to do is automate a manual process. All they did was take the manual process and duplicate it on the computer rather than rethinking it and saying, Now that Ive got the computer, I dont need to do it the way I always did. Well, the Internet is doing the same thing. What some people tend to do is take an old computer system and slap it on the Internet, and thats not what they should be doing. They should be rethinking their objectives and saying, What does this new communication medium really do for me. By rethinking the process they would likely implement things in a different fashion, he says.
After delivering his keynote address, Chookaszian will ask the other three panelists to make some short remarks and then open the discussion between the panel and the audience. Ive always found that the best feedback comes from sessions where people are able to get an interactive dialogue going, he says.
Would you like to know more?
Where Do We Go From Here?
A TechDEC Session
Friday, September 13
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