U.K Continues to Outpace the Continent in BPO, according to Celent
Insurers Have Begun Outsourcing Core Functions, according to Celent
Advisen Predicts End of Soft Market in Commercial Insurance Premiums Followed by a Gradual and Prolonged Hard Market
Innovation Group Sued by Allstate of Canada for C$75M
HCL Opens New Software Center to Focus on Insurance and Other Financial Services (Similar to move by Polaris)
ProspX raises $6.5 million in venture capital
Solera Completes Acquisition of HPI from Aviva for $177M
Agents Embracing Technology in Their Sales Culture According to Celent
Recent Commentary on IT Spending in Insurance, in Light of Dismal Broader Economic Climate
Polaris and Microsoft Collaborate to Build Insurance Concept Lab in Chennai, India
Unnamed Large Insurer Demands $100M Upfront Payment for Outsourcing Contract
Nominate an independent, multi-line agency you know making the most innovative use of technology for the
second annual Agency Technology Achievement Award (granted by the National Underwriter in partnership with the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum).
14 Auto Insurers to Offer PAYD (pay-as-you-drive) policies in 2009
Friends Provident Signs 10-year, £200 Million Contract with IBM
CSC Acquires Object Builder Software of Bulgaria to Bolster Its Insurance Offerings in Europe
Predictive Analytics for Claims and Other Areas Will Remain a Top Focus for Carriers even in the Downturn according to TowerGroup
Top Ten Insurance Technology Vendors By Revenue (as compiled by Financial Insights and published by the American Banker; Top three are Tata, ChoicePoint, and Computer Associates)
Report on Insurance Company Outsourcing of Investment Management
National P&C Agency Association Release "2008 Agency Universe Study" (total number of independent agencies remains constant at 37,500)
Participate in Survey of Technology Vendors by Celent and Insurance Networking News (If you feel deja vu, you may be recalling the recently open Financial Insights and TechDecisions survey which is now closed; the results of both surveys will be announced at the ACORD/LOMA conference in May)
Web 2.0/Social Networking Makes More Inroads into Insurance:CSC P&C Announces More Than 3,000 Users Have Joined Its Wiki Since Mid-September and InsuranceBroadcasting Launches Insurance Campus.org and Gets More Than 100 Users Its First Day
Indian Outsoucing Firms Have Cut Back Hiring Compared to Last Year (Infosys hired 32k last year; will be 25k this year. Satyam hired 14-15k last year; will be 8-10k this year)
IDC Releases Detailed Research on Top 100 Outsourcing Deals in 2007, Showing Softening of Megadeals and Decline Across Geographies
UnitedHealth Creates a New Product: An Option to Buy Insurance
Auto Insurance Company Charges...by the Mile: Milemeter: Buy Your Insurance By the Mile
UnitedHealth Rolls Out Health Management Website for Consumers per Wall Street Journal (Click here for the site itself)
Long Term Care Group, Inc.(LTCG) Acquired by Genstar Capital from Advent International and CCP Equity Partners -Insurance & Technology Coverage
LTCG transaction is part of a broader play called UniVita Health involving Ben and Hugh Lytle -Press release -National Underwriter coverage -MarketWatch coverage
ZC Sterling Acquired by QBE -Bloomberg coverage -RTT News coverage
QBE Pays $575M Upfront with 2-year $325M Earnout for total of $900M
Electronic Health Records May Lower Malpractice Settlements according to Harvard study
FTC Moves to Block Merger of CCC and MitchellInsurance Journal coverage -FTC press release -Claims Journal coverage
CCC/Mitchell Will "Vigorously Challenge" the FTC in CourtChicago Tribune coverage -San Diego Business Journal coverage -MarketWatch coverage
Offshoring to India of Insurance and Other Financial Services Takes A Hit from the Global Downturn According to Dun & Brad Report also shows that BPO declined year over year, and that Chennai is the preferred location (Bangalore was second and Mumbai third)
Majesco Mastek Exits the BPO business (update at The Bad News About That Insurance BPO Wasn’t All Bad adn more news on the Vector product here)
Ebix Acquires ConfirmNet -ConfirmNet Deal Closes
Salesforce.com launches online Insurance User Group
New Outsourcing Resource for Insurers' Asset and Investment Management Activities
Majestic Insurance Selects Fiserv Insurance Solutions
Indian-based Polaris Software Lab (Chennai) Completes Acquisition of U.S.-based (Pittsburgh, PA) SEEC for $8M
AQS Acquires AscendentOne Assets from ISO
Eagle Eye Analytics Divests Advanced Field Services (AFS) to The CIS Group
Court Renders Judgments on Accenture and Guidewire Lawsuits ... But Issue Not Completely Settled - The basis of the suit:Accenture's patent for "Component based interface to handle tasks during claims processing" which is No. 7,013,284 on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Fiserv Divests CareGain to Canopy Financial
October Innovation Summit will create a vision of the Best Insurance Agency 2015
Top Ten BPO Companies in India(If you guessed Genpact was number 1, you'd be right.)
Growth in IT spend for P&C Carriers in US next year to be about 2% according to Gartner and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI). Claims magazine coverage
Xchanging to acquire 75% of Cambridge resulting in $1.2B in combined annual revenues for international BPO.Business Insurance coverage - Reuters coverage - VCCircle coverage - Xchanging press release
Software firm EagleEye Analytics announces a strategic alliance with consultancy Milliman.Press release
Oracle steps up its commitment to Insurance with a focused brand and architecture.National Underwriter coverage -MarketWatch coverage -Insurance Journal coverage
Lehman Brothers collapse jeopardizes Misys' deal to spin off its Healthcare division to Allscripts.Finextra coverage
SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) has signed an agreement with major insurance industry players to develop a central platform for electronic transmission between insurers, brokers, and reinsurers.ACORD is involved. Such efforts have been pursued in the past within national borders (e.g. IVANS in the US), but this effort is international and European-centric (SWIFT is based in Belgium and serves financial institutions in over 200 countries). Finextra coverage
2008 Black Book Top Insurance Outsourcing Vendors is published online by the Brown-Wilson Group, authors of The Black Book of Outsourcing: How to Manage the Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities.The report and news coverage must be read carefully, however, because while "outsourcing" and "offshoring" are different terms with different meanings, the distinction in the coverage and report is not always clear.Insurance Newscast coverage - The Brown-Wilson Report
Celent publishes IT Overview on France, the world fourth largest insurance market.National Underwriter coverage
HCSC, which operates Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in IL, NM, OK, and TX) acquired MEDecision, a health information technology company headed by Tim Wallace who now moves on to become CEO of iPipeline and Coss Development which it recently acquired.TechDecisions coverage
Ebix acquires Acclamation Systems. This effectively extends the publicly-owned Atlanta-based company into health benefits and claims processing.Ebix press release
Norwich Union outsources administration of wealth management products and Bravura Solutions is the beneficiary. The UK insurer is cutting 500 jobs and the Australian outsourcer is picking up licensing, maintenance, and hosting revenue through its relationship with Scottish Friendly. The Sydney-based firm picked up some of its wealth management capability through an acquisition of some of the assets of CSC's Austrailian operation. Finextra coverage