9:45 am - 10:30 am
Insurance Information Providers on the Internet: A Publisher's Perspective
Moderator: Dick Hall, Sr. Vice President, A.M. Best Company


Insurers Need Strategy for Information Management
Companies must develop an information strategy to meet the challenges created by a growing barrage of information, Michael Sullivan of Reuters Insurance Briefing told participants at the A.M. Best Co. 10th annual Insurance Information Services Conference Monday.

Companies need to develop a strategy for dealing with all the information coming into the firm and then should conduct an information audit to determine what is available, whether it is too much and who needs to see it, Sullivan said.

An information overload study conducted by Reuters Insurance Briefing indicates that access to too much information is causing businesses to delay important decisions while they interpret all the available information.

Half of those surveyed said they are unable to handle the information they receive now and 44% expect information overload to increase over the next two years, primarily because of the Internet.

Among the new technologies available to better manage information is push technology, an approach that can be used to personalize and manage information gathering on personal computers for individual employees, said Brian MacDonell, vice president, integrator sales, at PointCast Inc.

A new way to teach employees new skills is being beta tested by PointCast, a provider of push technology. The CoffeeBreak Courseware divides the material into 10-minute lessons that they can study at their desks.