Here are some projections on what will be shaping enterprise data management over the coming year.

INN editors present the business and technology trends that have the potential to impact insurers' operational environments in 2012 and beyond.

Consumer behavior and expectations, along with pressures to conduct business more efficiently, are making the shift toward mobile platforms more than just a fad.

Some people out there understand insurers' actions, but carriers need to do a better job of communicating the impact of fraud to the general public and honest policyholders in particular.

Here's how using consumer data will affect the way health insurers make decisions on what products to sell.

The act of aggregating data for the sake of making better decisions is as old as the insurance industry itself. Another constant is that the tools used to gather and analyze this data have continually evolved. Now, insurance and other industries that rely heavily on data to augment and in some cases supplant human decision making are entering an era in which many feel evolutionary changes are about to give way to revolutionary ones.

What are Automated Underwriting Systems (AUSs) and why should carriers be investigating them? Learn the general requirements for AUS including rules engines, workflow, and case management along with interfaces to e-applications and requirements ordering. Hear from a carrier with an AUS system to learn how they calculated their CBA and ROI results and what they've discovered since implementation.

When we think of predictive analytics in insurance, perhaps it calls to mind weather risks, earthquake exposures or other types of disasters, but newly-reported research indicates that a form of predictive analytics will be of great use to health insurers, who should be able to geographically localize the spread of diseases, and in turn, better assess health risks.

These are the slides presented by Brad Gabel of American General Life at the 2011 Wisconsin Association of Health and Life Underwriters Spring Seminar.

How deeply should underwriting tasks be automated? As new technologies and standards emerge that make it possible to process underwriting decisions in a more automated fashion—with fewer touches by live human underwriters—debate is heating up across the industry as to whether increased automation may result in missed opportunities for insurance companies. Ultimately, it appears the answer may depend on the degree of complexity and the type of insurance being offered.

Few would argue that the last three years have been easy on life insurance companies as the financial crisis devastated their balance sheet and the soft economy dampened demand for their products.

A new report from Boston-based Celent, "Trends in Life Insurance New Business and Underwriting Systems Usage," examines how insurers are reinvesting in technology to counter these economic headwinds and ready themselves for a more competitive marketplace.

Emerging technologies could spark product innovations that change the way the industry serves customers. But insurers must match technologies with strategic goals.

This article appeared in the first 2011 issue of Underwriter e-ALERT. This superb bimonthly e-newsletter is written by the three gifted consultants who are Select X in the United Kingdom, and then published by John Krinik. In this article, the authors explore social media trends within the insurance industry.

The author had a very interesting discussion with a claims investigatorat Celent’s industry networking event in London (How Digital and Social Innovation Challenge the Insurer Business Model—read a summary of the event here). He went into some detail about how they were using social media in their claims work.

For insurers who seek business opportunities in the social media sphere, we may easily have the spectacle of a customer who wants his personal information kept private by the insurer on one hand, while the same individual is spewing forth such data indiscriminately elsewhere. If the customer is “exposing” his own information, does that take the insurer off the hook if something bad happens related to that information? These are the kinds of questions that judges and juries will increasingly have to decide as exhibitionism battles privacy in the world of commerce and in the daily lives of many.

NetProspex, an online business contact service, just released its Fall 2010 Social Business Report, which analyzed its database of 2 million participants to assess company affiliations, industry affiliations, professions and regions.

The good news is that the insurance industry made the top 50 list in terms of social networking-savvy industries. The bad news is that it was ranked number 42 on the list, behind restaurants and sports teams, and just ahead of debt collection and hair salons. For what should be a highly social industry, the insurance industry has some work to do in raising its profile among social networks.

Top companies in our survey grind down costs by consolidating IT and rationalizing processes. They’re growing faster as well.

New report says estate tax confusion and legacy systems are major challenges for the industry in the year ahead.

More IT spending will shift its strategic use to better understand customers and markets, boost sales opportunities, survey says.

Is your company considering implementing an automated system for underwriting life insurance? Don't miss the recently completed study sponsored by the Marketing and Distribution, Product Development and Reinsurance Sections, along with the Committee on Life Insurance Research, examining the role of automated underwriting systems in a number of companies.

The report, authored by Deloitte Consulting, addresses: How and why companies are using automation to make underwriting decisions; the impact of utilizing these systems on operational efficiency, sales and retention; the quality of risk selection produced by automated systems; cultural acceptance of increased automation in systems; and challenges insurers overcome to implement and maintain these systems.

If you do not have time to read the report, you can sign-up for the Nov. 3 webcast,in which research results will be presented.

Advancements in health care analytics could mean big changes for insurers.

Linking key performance indicators to business objectives is just the first step, according to a new Aberdeen Group study.

The health reform bill and changing demographics are helping drive carriers' offerings and strategies.

A new study of IT spending trends seems to indicate that the departure of these bad times is not yet imminent.

According to the “IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks 2010/2011” study just released by Computer Economics, there has been no recovery yet in terms of IT operational spending. The study is based on a survey of more than 200 IT executives conducted in the first quarter of 2010, and includes individual chapters for 16 commercial and government sectors, including insurance.

The Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA) today announced that it has expanded its efforts to provide compliant social media guidance and resources within the annuity, life insurance and long term care insurance arenas with today’s release of the IMSA Social Media Policy Template.

This issue of Deloitte's Forward Focus, “Building social media into the game plan,” discusses how insurers might leverage new social media technologies and networking tools while avoiding the inherent risks of implementation.

Business intelligence (BI) is all the rage these days, with vendors touting solutions to gather and analyze information about our companies and our customers to help us make better decisions. In this continually flaccid economy, it seems obvious that this should be a priority for insurers, but a recent survey indicates carriers just aren’t getting the job done when it comes to BI.

Life insurers looking to reach the elusive middle market must limit costs and deliver products efficiently. Generations X and Y will demand access to insurance on their own schedule, and won't tolerate the slow, invasive underwriting process of yesterday. Or so the advocates of automated underwriting would tell you. In fact, for these and other reasons, many life insurance companies continuously seek to streamline the underwriting process while preserving its protective value. Automated underwriting systems are often touted as the solution. Although these systems have been around for some time, not much is known about the industry's experience with them. (Article from the SOA's Marketing and Distribution Section January 2010 newsletter.

The world of social networks and social media move swiftly, and these last two weeks have been no exception with Twitter’s conference announcing promoted tweets, and Facebook’s F8 conference announcing all manner of changes to their Web site. Here are a few things to watch out for that may already be affecting you.

Insurers will increasingly use public shared data to inform pricing decisions and aid in fraud detection, predict researchers from Celent. What's more, says Mike Fitzgerald, a senior analyst in the Chicago office of Celent, insurers could use information gleaned from social networking websites, including Facebook, when deciding whether and how to underwrite applicants for life insurance.

A new study on social networking has just been released that shows the insurance industry leads in the use of Twitter.

New life underwriting technologies have gained ground during the last decade. Recent surveys sponsored by the Society of Actuaries and other industry groups show strong inroads and increased confidence in these new tools. More significantly, the focus of underwriting technology is moving beyond speed, ease of case submission and sales support to strategic business benefits, including product design, pricing and capital considerations. As we enter a new decade, the goal will be to take advantage of what’s available to improve efficiencies without losing sight of the big picture – risk management – and the analysis and understanding that is required to manage risk.

Property/casualty insurers outshine their health and life counterparts when it comes to customer satisfaction, a new study finds.

The insurance industry is trailing behind other industries in keeping customers informed electronically, a recent research study concludes.

Commissioned by U.S.-based NewRiver, a company that provides technology solutions to financial services firms, the study found variable annuity (VA) and variable universal life (VUL) policyholders had a strong inclination towards receiving prospectus and related compliance documents electronically.

Who runs one of the world’s largest personal health records businesses? Today the life insurance industry spends over $1 billion annually on the routine chore of creating and compiling the exams, lab tests, and attending physician statements (APSs) required to underwrite the 10 million plus life insurance applications submitted in the United States. Unlike most health records, these documents and files tend to be imaged or otherwise organized into digital formats to drive down the cost of the underwriting process.
What if this routine expense could be transformed into a value added service that customers appreciate and look forward to receiving? And what if the value of this service shifted the customer’s perspective to the point that they didn’t really mind the wait for their policy to be underwritten?

Celent provides a detailed look at 18 policy administration systems for life, health, and annuities.

In a new report, North American Policy Administration Systems 2010: Life, Health, and Annuities ABCD Vendor View, Celent looks at policy administration systems available to insurers in North America. The report is part of a series on policy administration systems (PAS) in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

The Marketing and Distribution and Product Development Sections along with the Committee on Life Insurance Research, are pleased to make the following report available. Authored by a Mike Batty and Alice Kroll of Deloitte Consulting, the report summarizes the results of a company survey on the utilization of life insurance automated underwriting systems.

More and more, it seems, “Welcome to the new normal” is becoming the mantra of the day when it comes to the pace of our business enterprises. We hear it everywhere from the hip technology gurus (ahem) and the purveyors of new technology. But what exactly are we talking about here?

A new blood test could improve cancer-screening compliance.

The latest issue looks at:

• Underwriting the Elderly - Findings From a U.S. Survey
• Beyond Containment but Well Into the Guessing Game - The Novel A/H1N1 Influenza Pandemic
• Evidence-based Underwriting - Rheumatoid Arthritis

While life insurers continue to reflect mortality improvements in their pricing, it is uncertain how much of the improvements can be attributed to better underwriting information and processes and how much to general mortality improvements in the insured population. Dave Dorans, Vice President of Mortality Solutions, discusses life insurance underwriting with Tia Goss Sawhney, owner of TSStrategic Consulting, LLC.

Despite what Rush Limbaugh would have us believe, the movement toward electronic medical records is not about some Orwellian plot. Hospitals' Electronic Wasteland looks at stimulus funds aiming to change a system largely devoid of in-depth electronic record keeping.

Managing the risks, liabilities and solutions associated with electronic processes and interactions related to conducting business over the Internet is a challenge for every insurance company today. The exposure to online risks is pervasive, potentially affecting most aspects of an insurance organization, including assets, operations, finances, legal, regulatory compliance and even reputation. Exactly how serious is the threat of cyber attacks on insurance operations, and what currently are the most dangerous cyber threats to carriers' systems?

When used with data mining tools and street investigations, predictive analytics can be among the biggest electronic enemies of the fraud rings that cost insurers tens of billions of dollars annually.

Building a bona fide mortality management solution is not easy, but the value-creating potential is too big to ignore. In the short run, a mortality management solution improves operational efficiencies and mortality results. In the long run, it captures data that provide essential insights for building competitive products and meeting evolving regulatory demands, according to Joanne Collins, Lead Consultant, Product Consulting & Development.