Underwriting Workstation for Profitable Growth at a P&C Carrier

Underwriting workstations have added a level of business value for insurance carriers which was not achieved before. While a lot of carriers need to focus on data management issues and change management issues as it pertains to their legacy systems, the initiative to replace core processing and record keeping systems do not add value to the topline as much.

Bottom line savings and data management are important issues, but there are ways to get the topline growth which all carriers require, without the extensive surgery which comes with the changes to core systems. An interesting development with the advent of the underwriting workstation option is the availability of tools which the business can use to guide their internal processes to achieve more.

Without trying to describe the value in detail, which I will add on in a future blog, it will be useful to go through the webinar below, which could provide with the interested reader with a lot of information first person from a panel of speakers including a market analyst (P&C - Novarica), vendor (ValueMomentum) and a client who has gained substantial value by such an approach (CIG - California regional carrier)

Next Generation Underwriting Workstation for Profitable Growth at a P&C Carrier

Gaming for serious business

With the pervasisve reach of gaming accentuated by the WII, it is now possible to use computer gaming for almost everything .. exercise, relaxation, dance, socializing, etc. What is now new is fun at the corporate and geared towards the ecomonic times we face.

Ever wondered how to cut costs - make a game out of it! That is exactly what IBM with innov8 is doing. The business simulation "game" allows you to "play" a business scenario and "improve" it as you go... another chore converted to fun.

It is definitely at its infancy, however it is in keeping with the trend of the inccreasing virtual world we live in. If you have not yet tried second life - do so now. Innov8 and others like it are predicted (on my blog) as the way to do business for the Y generation going forward ...

Risks for CIOs in 2009

In a recent question on LinkedIn as regards risks posed in 2009 for CIOs and CEOs, an answer I provided was

"The reduced budgets available to companies with the ever present demand to remain visible will mean greater investment in non traditional advertising routes like social networking. Companies who will enjoy a viral following of their brand, through advertising in this space, will enjoy an advantage over others.

Cloud computing and SAAS will pick up more steam and laggards in this space will find it difficult to play catch up.

Longer sales cycles / budget cuts will mean a greater need for individuals to "multi task" in a reducing pool of resources. The needs for training will be felt and companies who do not set aside such a budget to make the transition smooth, will risk distracting themselves from their core business. "

This set me thinking ... there are a lot of people out there getting into a shell. This is not the time for it. This is a time for positive action. The world we knew has changed and the downturn is a natural restructuring we are undergoing. The corporate landscape will change. We better be prepared for it - individually and collectively.

As families we need to connect. As businesses we need to connect. We have to pool together more than ever before. Redundant waste in terms of reinventing the wheel on processes, projects and products - cannot be afforded anymore. Major companies who are going bankrupt - it is a sign of the times. The world can only afford a few of the mega corporations of before. The Netflixes of the world along with Ebay, Amazon, Salesforce, OpenAir and others have taught the world a new way to work.

So - what is the new landscape - exactly what we are now heading towards within business and family in technological terms - share the network - Cloud Computing, SAAS and Social Networking are the new ways we need to engage. Do not shun away from investments in this area ... embrace the new way and you will emerge stronger for it.

Cloud Computing & Hypervisor

The Hypervisor predictions are becoming reality pretty soon with MS and Novell having partnered on the Hyper V and provding SUSE Linux as the first enligtened guest operating system on this platform.

Hyper V now comes with the MS Windows Server 2008 as an additional option.

However what will be more interesting is to watch the consolidation attempts of data centers in this period of economic flux. My prediction is that even with the advent of Hyper V and the existing VMWare solutions available etc. the CIOs and Data Center managers are going to look closely at cloud computing to go green and economically lean at the same time.

More applications are going to get written to be ready for cloud computing than ever before in 2009. Also in 2009, a lot of server consolidation is naturally going to happen using VMs however the future truly is the cloud. The natural problems these initiatives bring are the hares versus the turtles. The turtles will closely watch the hares and see where the pitfalls lie in this new embrace of virtualization.

One thing is certain, the economic necessities of the times are going to favor those who start embracing the concepts of a virtual world earlier than later.

The art of being positive

The maturing of the IT industry is finally near us. I see that the IT governance practice, componentization of solutions to be assembly line processes and SOA based architecture along with associated concepts like SAAS (Software as a service) have taken us to to a stage where the act of management is the key to a thriving IT shop.

Generally speaking, the hit and miss days of IT are over now (or should be - those who are still in the dark ages need to evolve soon)

What does this mean for the projects and management of those projects. The management will entail taking a very positive attitude towards IT solutioning. This means past failures and "sunk" money should not deter an organization from investing or innovating. It is important since the costs to innovate are low enough currently and the benefits are high. A mashup or a set of services can be brought to bear upon a business problem in a matter of days and the worst case scenario is that one of the services will have to be replaced with another which provides the same facility.

The need of the hour is to make certain that the managers stay focussed on the arameters of success in the new world - long term efficiency and scalability instead of short term deadlines and stability. The evolution process of software has to be more pilot - test - prime and deploy rather than build - test - fix - test - deploy which is the traditional cycle.

The difference is in the service layer. If the service layer has to be developed in house, then the processes and management of the development of those pieces may still need the old rigor, but the consumers of these services should be able to continue in a more assembly line, quick to market and multi channel deployment path as a result.

Time to Predict your future

Information Technology is slowly and surely moving into main stream. It refuses to be limited to the boardrooms and the corporates of the world.

Now more than ever, the choice is to stay with the trend or buck the trend and do something original - the haves and have nots are split between geeks and non geeks. I am over exaggerating a little bit here. But is it not the way the world is beginning to look like?

Look at the continuous integration of software within every industry. Name one where business as usual does not include IT? Name a day care center, a school, a studio, a hair cutting salon without a computer. Yes - I know you found one example of teh hair cutting salon ... but do you think that particular business is on it's way in or way out?

So that is the point I am making, decision making has now been married to IT more than ever before and it has touched our every day lives whether we like it or not.

If you choose to buck the trend - be a rock star - do not mind that your career manager, your accountant and others will continue using the desktop, but then at least you will only use the computer chips in the electronic guitar which synchronize the sound correctly!!

Mobile and Social Networking

The world is shrinking ... into the mobile set. We are seeing an explosion of WiFi devices and palm sets which are now hooked on to the internet all the time.

Does this call for Web 3.0? Social networks are now becoming the next mode of delivery of content. Everyone is hooked on to either Facebook, MySpace, Linked In or Orkut. These are now becoming the modus operandi of the communication network.

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Like it or not, with the advent of APIs for these - currently spearheaded by Facebook and Google. Check out Google's opensocial API for these, we should soon see a merginig of the twain - mobile and social networking.

It is not surprising that Google is also interested in the mobile space therefore and now leads a consortium of mobile device manufacturers to rally around the operating system Android for such devices. Could this be the next wave?

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Watch out Apple and Microsoft - if the battle was earlier for the internet, today it is for the mobile device and social networking.