Insure Think

Developing a common communications approach is a critical part of the CIO function. This checklist is a place to start for board meetings, presentations and for an IT leader’s communications with their board members.

Despite many rational and logical reasons to modernize core system technology, companies often put these decisions off for years or even decades, and impediments to change can come from unexpected directions.

While I've tried to articulate how some organizations get big data "right," it's frequently more compelling to explain how others seem to be getting it terribly "wrong."

While capital remains the primary tool that IAIS plans to use to ensure global insurer solvency, the IAIS demonstrated an apparent new openness to listening to those who had decried its rush to new standards, and its unwillingness to consider the equivalency of current local regimes.

As insurance companies increasingly digitize their operations, reach out to customers via apps and online services, and employ big data analytics for everything from telematics to fraud prevention, any hiccups in software delivery may mean delays and losses.

What we learn about securing data and communications from the Department of Defense.

Success in the future will depend on the capabilities we put in place to present an accurate map of what information resides where, and describes the actual quality level of that information.

The joining of two more global technology firms creates another global technology services giant in the financial services space. But why so many? And what does this mean to us in insurance?

In the week since the release of the Celent report “Machine Intelligence in Insurance: Designing the Aware Machine,” I have been involved in several fascinating discussions around a new level of personalization in insurance.

Security vulnerabilities exist in a number of areas; data sent from a wearable device to a nearby smartphone, for example, may be exposed during transfer via Bluetooth or WiFi connections.

For an IT strategy to be successful, control areas, such as strategic planning, legal, regulatory and finance, and operational areas, including underwriting, claims, actuarial, product development and marketing, need to help. If that were not challenging enough, IT leaders must be able to create a strategy that works in the context of multiple divisions, entities and possibly countries.

Security researchers demonstrated that they could hack Metromile's UBI dongle; insurance carrier issued patch in June.

Over the next few years, technology will play a vital role for commercial lines insurers as prices firm and new insurers enter the marketplace.

Many insurers are looking to redesigning systems to better support analytics, but it may be better to develop them as separate sideline to be tested and merged into the organization when ready.

Leader of insurers’ drone program will discuss her parallel journeys in insurance and flight at 2015 Women in Insurance Leadership Forum.

Many insurers find that legacy billing technology limits efficiency for internal operations, effectiveness of customer service, the speed to market for new or modified billing features, and can be an obstacle in delivering capability to agents and policyholders.

The NAIC’s recent and startlingly rapid moves towards a cyber regulatory doctrine are evidence of the importance and vulnerability of cyberspace.

Insurance companies are major consumers of IT outsourcing services, but there are hints that carrier CIOs are rethinking their outsourcing strategies.

Since its introduction to the market in 2010, telematics has come to be recognized as a maturing rather than emerging technology and often gets incorporated into connected car initiatives.

The insurance industry is focused on products. But for consumers, when it comes to complex products, it's all about the customer experience.

Ever since personal data was first discussed as having the potential for emerging as a new asset class at the World Economic Forum in 2011, capturing and incorporating personal data into the proposition design has been seen as a potential gold mine.

Combining the operations of two insurance giants likely would require months of research, as well as an increase in headcount and IT expenditures, at least in the short term.

Beyond encouraging a strong personal relationship with an underwriter, what can carriers do to build stronger connections with agents and grow their book? Celent surveyed a group of agents to understand those areas most likely to make a carrier the agents’ top choice.