John P. Joly
Chief Operating Officer, ISO-ITS
ISO Strategic Solutions, Inc.

John, welcome. What were some of last year’s stumbling blocks?

The decision to adapt or replace legacy systems with new technology is a learning process. One of the stumbling blocks for carriers has been underestimating the project scope and trying to tackle it on their own. The best time to engage vendors experienced with the integration of large systems is early in the process.

Key steps this year?

Carriers should take the time to learn not only from their successes but also from their challenges. Most problems are caused by poor communications and failure to allocate enough time to perform all aspects of the software development life cycle. Providing a mechanism to share information and making sure that all steps are taken can help ensure success. This discipline needs to be encouraged across the various participating entities, including the carrier, integration, and system vendors.

John, describe a good data integration strategy.

At the core of a good data integration strategy is a good team. The team must include experts from all disciplines, from business analysts to developers to quality-assurance engineers. Another critical element is establishing performance objectives and constantly measuring those objectives throughout the process. It’s much easier to identify and correct performance problems early in a project than near the end. Making sure the team is trained and that a mentoring process is in place is also critical.

Providing straight-through processing?

Systems designed with STP allow their users to focus on the exceptions, instead of having to manage each transaction. While carriers have made considerable efforts to adapt their legacy systems, these systems weren’t designed contemplating STP and, consequently, can’t reap the full benefits. Trying to build it into these systems after the fact is difficult and costly, as is delaying a replacement project. Insurers looking for expertise should select vendors who design systems with STP in mind, rather than adding it after the fact.

David Lintz
Financial Services Director
ImageNow by Perceptive Software, Inc.

It is a pleasure to have you here, David. What were the stumbling blocks for 2006?

Many insurance organizations struggled with identifying solutions that effectively address their immediate content management business challenges and also provide a long-term enterprise scalable solution. They continue to do so. Before jumping into purchasing, it’s important for organizations to clearly define their current business needs and what they will likely need down the road. This ensures the solution they choose has the rich functionality to meet those needs without superfluous bells and whistles that can mean added costs and maintenance.

And the key steps this year?

As I mentioned previously, it is imperative to identify the content management needs of the business today and those challenges that will continue to emerge over time. For example, while management of e-mail archives may be a minor issue in an organization today, it is sure to grow into a major content management issue over time – even for small- to mid-size businesses. It’s important that companies evaluate content management solutions both on the ability to meet current business needs as well as future needs.

David, what does a good data integration strategy look like?

From our own research and development, and the feedback from our customers, we’ve learned that a good integration strategy is one that leverages an organization’s existing architecture and business applications. This helps shorten the learning curve for IT staff and end users alike and often results in a much faster and greater return on investment for the customer.

Straight-through processing?

Straight-through processing is going to involve the interoperability of multiple disparate business applications. The idea of replacing all disparate applications enterprise-wide with one comprehensive solution is cost-prohibitive for many organizations. Insurers must look for content management solutions that can easily and affordably integrate with multiple existing insurance software applications, adding greater value and context to the technology and knowledgebase they already have.