Wipfli: Blog: INSide Thoughts

Are Your Product Owners MVPs in the Insurance Game?

Wed, 24 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Six Risks That Can Sabotage Your Enterprise Technology Investment [INFOGRAPHIC]

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

When It Comes to Policy Admin Systems, Plan in the Large and Agile in the Small

Tue, 02 Feb 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Taking Agile Beyond Software Development to Large Enterprise Project Management

Wed, 06 Jan 2016 00:00:00 GMT

Move it Left! Achieving the Highest Quality in PAS Software Delivery

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Insurance Customer Engagement: Can Robots Be Intimate?

Mon, 23 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

The Devil is in the Details

Wed, 04 Nov 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Policy Admin Replacement Is Scaaaaaaary Business!

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Insurance And Manufacturing: Lessons In Software, Systems, And Supply Chains

Wed, 21 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

If You Build It They Will Come: The People Side of Last Product/Last State

Wed, 14 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Last Product/Last State and Legacy Reporting

Tue, 06 Oct 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Last Product/Last State and Insurance Product Changes

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Gaining Speed to Get to Last Product/Last State While Managing Risk

Mon, 24 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

It's Not First Product/First State...It's Last Product/Last State

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Six Things To Know To Be a Better Core Systems Buyer

Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Change Management - It Goes Way Beyond Training

Fri, 10 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Insurance Core System Success – It’s about the People (He Said to Himself)

Fri, 03 Apr 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Preparing for a Core System Replacement Project - Part 3: Additional Advice for the Business People

Fri, 27 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Preparing for a Core System Replacement Project - Part 2: Additional Advice for the IT Team

Mon, 23 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Preparing for a Core System Replacement Project - Part One

Fri, 13 Mar 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Big Data and the Insurance Agent

Fri, 06 Feb 2015 00:00:00 GMT

The IT/Business Intelligence Professionals Hippocratic Oath

Tue, 20 Jan 2015 00:00:00 GMT

What To Focus On When Implementing Predictive Analytics

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 GMT

To Define The Right Insurance Metrics, You Need To Begin With the End In Mind

Fri, 21 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

A [Data] Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

Wed, 05 Nov 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Insurance Business Intelligence Requires Logical Thought, Not Hip-shooting

Mon, 22 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMT

You Can't Afford to Do Nothing: Why You Need Insurance Analytics Now

Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Three Questions to Ask when Evaluating Core System Replacement

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Why Are You Doing This? Core System Replacements are Hard…and Scary

Wed, 23 Jul 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Musings from the 2014 IASA: How Insurance PAS Are Changing

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 00:00:00 GMT

This year's IASA 2014 in Indianapolis was filled with discussions around Policy Admin Systems (PAS). Here's a summary of what we learned on how PAS is changing.

How Can Implementation Lessons Inform the Software Selection Process?

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Learn the 6 risk areas of Policy Admin Systems (PAS) software projects, and how to use this knowledge to inform the software selection process.

Who Goes There? Caring for Customers and Their Data

Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Roads Less Traveled: Mapping Our Customers’ Journeys

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT

We may be aware that our customers’ experience of our company and the services it offers is not as good as it should be. The challenge for us arises when we try to do something about it.

Customer Segmentation in Today's World

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Spoiler alert - all customers are not created equal! Insurance companies have been forever segmenting customers. Such as, Marine Insurance in Italy as early as the 14^th century based on what trade routes they were sailing, the 7-class plan in auto (dating myself with the 7-class plan, not 1300s marine insurance), and today with hardcore analytics.

Defining Customer Lifetime Value in the Insurance Industry

Thu, 27 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Most of you are probably familiar with the term Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV). What exactly does it mean for Insurance and is it useful? Like a lot of models, there is value in understanding what it does and doesn’t mean.

Walking a Mile in our Customers’ Shoes

Fri, 21 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

We pay a lot of attention to the bottom line and that is a good thing. We like it when we can complete the last step of the sales process and convert all of our work into cash. We have a business because of our customers!

Your customers and social media

Fri, 14 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Sincerity and credibility are key components of a social engagement approach. At the end of the day you will need a social strategy to implement and enthusiastic executive and employee support to drive it forward.

360 Degree Customer View....Oh it is way more than that!

Wed, 05 Feb 2014 00:00:00 GMT

If you are a P&C Insurance carrier, Does improved retention sound good to you? What would you think about decreased claim expense? More referrals from existing clients? One key to accomplishing one or all of the above simply might be pleasing clients.

4 Guiding User Experience Principles for P&C Insurance Carriers

Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT

The proliferation of smartphones (what, you don’t own an iPhone or an Android phone?) has done more than provide a platform for potential insurance company-policyholder interactions.  It has raised the bar on user expectations. The consumer friendly UI, and its resultant positive User Experience, will continue to make its way deep into the business world of apps.

Close Customer Encounters – Do We Treat Our Customers as Aliens?

Tue, 21 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT

Customers are not as rare as aliens – if they are the company has bigger problems – but the nature of their interaction with a company can also be classified using a scale depending on the relative intimacy of the experience.

Moving Beyond the Transactional Relationship

Tue, 14 Jan 2014 00:00:00 GMT

The Consumer Risk App

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I have had very few breakthrough ideas…well actually I have had none to date as evidenced by my working status…but there has got to be a better way to “consumer-ize” insurance. Here goes.

Competing For…and Winning…the Next Generation of Insurance Leaders

Mon, 14 Oct 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Thoughts from the 2013 National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies Annual Conference

Wed, 25 Sep 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Predictive Analytics: Is it Good for the Customer?

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Predictive analytics. A cold phrase, is it not? Cold. Imposing. Formidable. Big Brother. Minority Report. (Remember the Tom Cruise movie?) A practice that’s good for the insurance company, but bad for everyone else. But is it really?

Company Impairment, yes it’s a complex issue, but . . .

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Of the 18 L&H and P&C company impairments for 2012, only one is being directly attributed to catastrophic losses, according to a study published by A.M. Best’s. The others are a combination of deficient loss reserves and inadequate pricing. Wow! That implies to me that 17 are in companies’ hands, not nature’s.

It’s an interesting business

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Thank goodness for investment income . . . still.

I get the economics of the P&C insurance business, but it still fascinates me. I was just reading an article that talked about the 2012 first nine month results. For every $100 the U.S. P&C business took in, it paid out $100.10. As the old watermelon joke goes, maybe we can make it up in volume.

What is the “Big” Deal - Haven’t we always had “Big Data”?

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

I find this terminology fascinating, and boy is it everywhere these days. Seems like every newsletter I receive has something about Big Data in it. I can’t figure out if people are trying to explain something or scare people. Maybe it’s a euphemism for “lots and lots of complex data.” Insurance has always had lots and lots of data. Big Data sounds like font size to an insurance industry veteran like me.

The All-Important User Experience

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

User Experience, a/k/a UX, is a big thing now. We know this because all the various think tanks (Gartner, Forrester, et al.) are writing fancy whitepapers about it while vendors harp on how their new products and software enhance and support it. But what is it exactly?

The Insurance Executive’s Guide to Project Sponsorship

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The Standish Group’s research into the reasons why IT projects fail, and conversely what contributes to success, identified several critical factors. One is executive management support.

Data Visualization: Gray Matters

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT

There is at least a touch of irony in typing text for a blog on data visualization (irony accepted without hesitation). Yet visualization and how the brain receives information are issues well worth pondering, since they are central to business intelligence (BI) success.

Business Intelligence for the Team

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Recently I was working with a very smart client regarding Business Intelligence (BI) needs analysis and implementation. When I read about BI, almost everything is about using BI to analyze the business, but this client’s desires centered on managing their team and their work flow. Brilliant!

The Devil is in the Detail - Part 2

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The Mars Climate Orbiter was lost over the planet Mars in 1999 due to a failure to align measurements in two software programs. Responsibility for this error was owned publicly by Lockheed Martin Astronautics whose representative stated simply that the need for alignment was “overlooked.”

The Devil is in the Detail - Part 1

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 GMT

What can we learn from a real space mission catastrophe, for instance the loss of the 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO)?

IT and Iced Tea

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Today I walked into one of those immensely popular coffee shops; you know the one that’s practically on every corner?

How an Agile approach might just save your life in an alien world.

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It might seem a bit of a stretch to compare the building of a policy administration system (PAS) for an insurance company to flying across space in order to investigate the origins of life on an alien planet, but bear with me.

Agile BI Part II

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A continuation of our discussion of “Is Agile BI an Oxymoron?"

Musings from IASA: Peters, Stein & Branson

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Just back from IASA 2012 with these thoughts...

Musings From ACORD 2012…When the First Derivative Changed Signs

Thu, 24 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Just back from ACORD 2012 with these three thoughts...

Not Your Father's CRM

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 GMT

When I mention CRM systems, do some of you cringe? I understand the feeling. I am experienced (old) enough to remember the first attempt at CRM systems in the P&C industry.

Is Agile BI an Oxymoron?

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It’s been roughly 10 years since those world-famous programming gurus came out of the Wasatch mountains of Utah preaching revolution with something called the “agile manifesto.”

Overcoming Newton’s Laws (of Business)

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

We humans aren’t always up for change as evidenced by Newton’s laws.

Supply Chain: The Kinks in Your Links

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 GMT

In this three-part blog series, I’m comparing insurance to manufacturing.

From Muddled to Modeled

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

In my previous blog, I compared insurance to manufacturing (to a degree) and talked about the key breakthrough in insurance software—the separation of product from policy. But what is an insurance product, at least in respect to systems automation?

Predictive Analytics: A Modeling Tool Without Talent is Just a Tool

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

What industry do you know that is primarily a business of decision making? This business doesn’t build products … it doesn’t ship hard goods … it doesn’t provide a service that is consumed by its clients.

Insurance is not Manufacturing but…

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Vendor software packages have really improved their architecture over the last several years.

Will Your BI Initiative Be Classic Fashion or Fad?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

You can’t swing an optical mouse nowadays without hitting an article about business intelligence (BI). It’s all the rage and rightly so.

Have We Fallen Out of Orbit?

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I recently read that this year’s storms, together with the earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand have caused $55 billion in insured losses.

Fiercely Focused on…the Insurance Industry

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Recently, Wipfli formalized its consulting practices to include a focus on serving the insurance industry.