Archive

For November, 2010

Nov 30

Major Challenges to BI – Redux

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditorNo Comments

A few days ago, we posted on a Novarica report which provided insight on Major Challenges to Business Intelligence.  The largest inhibitors for insurers seemed to be systems/data related (core systems inflexibility, poor data quality,  lack of standards for data).  Now a major study by the IBM Institute for Business Value in collaboration with MIT Sloan Management review – Analytics:  The new path to value)  suggests that for a wider audience – 3,000 executives from many different industries and countries – only one in five respondents cited concerns with data quality or data governance.  The bigger obstacles were lack of understanding on how to leverage analytics for value combined with a culture which did not encourage data sharing.

This is probably less of a contradiction than it seems.  The survey respondents from insurers were primarily from IT (who tend to focus – rightly – on data), whereas the IBM study covered senior managers in multiple line and staff areas.

There are significant commonalities between the reports.  Reinforcing the IBM Study’s point, the Novaric survey concludes:  “Participants were also generally conservative about the recent impact that their business intelligence capabilities had had on their operations.”

There may be danger in this.  IBM’s work contains empirical evidence that sophistication in analytics correlates highly with organizations that regard themselves as ‘top performers’ and suggests that there is a learning curve to get to that level of sophistication.

It is clear that BI and analytics are both challenging and potentially profitable.  Certainly something to watch.  The 2011 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference will have several sessions focusing on business intelligence and analytics  for insurance business and technology professionals.  We’ll have more from the IBM study in subsequent posts.

Nov 27

Being ‘Social’ Just Isn’t Enough

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditor1 Comment

 

There are lots of success stories around social media these days.  It is important to remember that just being ‘social’ doesn’t guarantee success.

IT World Canada recently did a look back on 7 Social Technologies that died in 2010.  All come from well known technology companies.

In case you don’t recognize the logo here, it comes from a leading organization that produced two of the seven casualties on the list.  You might be surprised at who it is!   (Hint: rhymes with ‘bugle’).

Nov 25

Major Challenges of Business Intelligence

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditorNo Comments

According to a recent Novarica study, Business Intelligence in Insurance: Current State, Challenges, and Expectations, some of the major challenges facing insurers in implementing Business Intelligence solutions come from data access and data quality.

Solving this requires addressing questions such as: How do I consolidate duplicate information and ensure accuracy? How do I deal with disparate data formats? How do I place the right results in the hands of key employees at the right time?

Strategies and tactics for resolving such issues will be the focus of a presentation by Navin Sharma, Director of Global Product Strategy, Data Quality for PBBI at the 2011 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference. Navin has over a decade of experience dealing directly with such questions.

Navin joins an experienced faculty focusing on “Business Results Through Informed Action on February 28, 2011 at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto. We hope to see you there.

In the meantime, we’re interested in what you think. What has been your experience implementing BI? Are data issues the most challenging, or are there others? Leave a comment.

Nov 23

But It Followed Me to Work

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditor1 Comment

A hot topic among IT and HR managers is the trend for workers to bring their own personal technology to work, and expect to incorporate it seamlessly into their tool kit. Although the jury is very much out, it seems that a number of organizations are accepting this trend as inevitable, and looking to make the best out of it. Some new research from Info-Tech Research Group suggests that 83% of organizations they recently surveyed were allowing employees to bring personal technology to work.

Source:Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech counsels that this trend is unstoppable and suggests that organizations be proactive in dealing with risks, and looking for benefits.

What about you? Are you or your colleagues bringing your technology to work? Is your organizations establishing policies around this? Any tips to others?

Nov 15

CIOs: Death in the Clouds?

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditorNo Comments

Predictions are that Cloud Computing might be the roadmap to the future, but a recent posting on the Celent blog suggests that it might be a dead end street for some professions.

Many of us have heard rumours of the demise of the technical CIO in insurance organizations for years. The argument goes that given the rapid change in technology insurance organizations would do better to look to acquire technical skills and capabilities through out-sourcing and technical partnering than to have these in house. And yet, the authority and scope of CIOs and CTOs seem to be rising in many organization.

Celent’s Catherine Stagg-Macey suggests that Cloud Computing may be the tipping point, citing two case studies, one involving the UK Royal Mail which moved from an internal email system for 37,000 users, to an external cloud. The second, which touches closer to the insurance home, is a UK insurer which is testing a cloud-based policy administration system.

There are many hurdles to face, with security, and reliability, but there does seem to be a path towards commoditization of technology functionality generally, and insurance applications specifically.

The 2011 Insurance-Canada.ca Technology Conference will have several sessions on Cloud Computing. And for those nerovous types, it is also a great networking opportunity.

Nov 14

The Social Media ‘Branch’

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditorNo Comments

When discussing resources required to support social media, a colleague of mine came up with a neat concept. She said that the social media initiative of an insurer or broker should be thought of as the organization’s next ‘branch’. The amount of resources assigned should relate to the type of functions performed in the ‘branch’ and to the amount of revenue anticipated from the ‘branch’.

For example, if an organization only expected to support existing customers and not drive any new revenue, there should be ample ‘CSR’ and claims resources to support the normal service levels (e.g., responses expected within X hours/days).

However, if the social media initiative is expected to generate new sales and new customers, the resources must include ‘producers’ supported by marketing.

Regardless, the social media branch needs a senior member of the organization’s leadership team to be the ‘branch manager’, who will have authority and responsibility commensurate with size of the branch.

It goes without saying that all of the members of the branch staff need to know the community (be literate with social media) and be prepared to relate to the community as employees as well as ‘citizens’.

This approach seems to make sense. Do you have any experiences out there on this approach, or any others in how to organize a social media approach for an insurer or broker?

Nov 12

Are You Having Too Much Success Exhibiting @ Trade Shows?

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditorNo Comments

If you seem to be having too much success when you exhibit at trade shows (getting too many leads, having too many people come directly to your booth, etc.), you should read:

11 ways to ensure you have a results-free trade show at the InfoExecutive Web Site.

It is a whimsical list of suggestions to prevent conference attendees from stopping at your booth (or noticing your presence at all). Example:

3. Ignore people who approach your booth

They hesitated, likely because they’re afraid of you giving them a big sales pitch. So don’t give them one.

When two of you are in the booth with one attendee in front of you, ignore any other attendee who walks up to you and obviously wants to talk.

Focus on the conversation already going on. The new person might learn something.

Chances are the new arrival only wants a free pen or toy. She’d never want to interview you for free editorial publicity to her 100,000 magazine readers… let alone buy your product or service.

Nov 05

Strategy and Measurement are Keys to Navigating the New Insurance Normal

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditorNo Comments

Opening the ACORD Implementation Forum in Fort Lauderdale this week, a panel of senior insurance technology executives, moderated by Celent’s Donald Light, reviewed the ‘New Normal’ for insurance organizations and agreed that the future needs to be navigated carefully, guided by increasingly precise measurement of actions and impacts.

Light, in his opening comments, said that continued volatility for insurers through 2020 was a highly likely scenario. Success in this environment could be realized through strategic growth or shrinkage, but was contingent on “getting smarter” through the use of sophisticated analytics. A second key element was strengthening risk management at the enterprise level.

John DiBuduo of Partner Reinsurance reinforced the need for proper underwriting and risk management at the front end, measuring the impact of each risk on the complete portfolio. This is a major shift for many reinsurance organizations which normally rely on their primary insurer customers to perform this function.

MetLife’s Joan Falcetta indicated that her IT organization was focusing significant effort on strategic consolidation of IT services, guided by carefully selected metrics aligned with corporate objectives. This provided focus for governance on a small number of projects that were transformational in nature. Falcetta summarized her view of the required strategy for the New Normal as “Continuous Improvement to maximize effectiveness.”

Tim Conway of The Hartford concurred with the need to rationalize projects and added that the organization’s objective of growth could be achieved, but only through the application of business intelligence at the operational and strategic levels.

All panel participants concurred that use of ACORD standards was critical not simply to reduce friction costs, but to ensure the timely availability of data at fine levels of granularity.

Nov 02

Modern Technology and the Apple

By Insurance-Canada.ca BlogEditorNo Comments

Most everyone has heard about the great success of the iPad with consumers. Lesser known is the penetration within the business community. And Insurance is no exception.

Geico has taken to expanding a popular customer application, Glovebox, to a variety of devices, including the iPad. Watch this to be the norm for any insurance applications. (Big issue: Apple is still resisting support for Flash.)

More significantly, insurers are seeing the value of this device for knowledge workers. Lloyds has started a pilot project to use the devices in the underwriting process.

Sue Langley, Lloyd’s Director, Market Operations, said it was a next step in applying technology in the market: “This is a small, simple pilot – literally an iPad ‘out of the box’. By simply replacing the paper with something easier to carry, but which allows amendments and links to other services, we continue to support the underwriting and face-to-face negotiation that makes Lloyd’s unique.”

Vendors are picking up on this. Keal technology recently announced its support for the iPad platrorm.

What do you think? Is this new technology coming to your office? Should it?

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