Enterprise Decision Management - a Weblog

BEA on Event Driven Architecture Sounds a lot like EDM

Yesterday BEA Systems released a white paper summarizing their findings of a customer study regarding Business Process Management (BPM). The paper is titled “The State of the BPM Market – Business and IT: Solving Process Problems Together.” BEA also culled through numerous analyst and other industry expert insights to narrow in on the key trends driving adoption of BPM related technologies. There were two especially notable items in the report that show an Enterprise Decision Management (EDM) approach to operational decision automation, connection and improvement is becoming an increasingly mainstream concept – even if the term EDM isn’t the label.

EDM Helps Minimize Trade Offs Between Application Maintenance and Strategic Initiatives – So Says Forrester Research

While Enterprise Decision Management (EDM) is not called out specifically in Forrester Research’s January 28 report, “The State Of Enterprise Software Adoption: 2007 To 2008,” it describes issues top of mind among technology executives addressable with EDM technologies, such as Business Rules Management Systems (BRMSs). The report is based on results of a survey of 1,017 IT decision-makers in North American- and European-based enterprises.

Vaguely Shameless Commerce: Sign Up for InterACT - The Smarter Decisions Conference

If it seems as though your world is spinning faster, you’re not alone. Credit managers and insurers throughout Europe and around the globe face rising levels of uncertainty, increasing regulations and higher levels of demand from consumers. The risks are...

Gartner’s 2008 Predictions Include Bright Future for Enterprise Decision Management

Gartner recently issued two “Predicts: 2008” reports highlighting their expectations for Enterprise Architecture and the Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) Market. Both recognize noteworthy and highly complementary trends reflecting the value of Enterprise Decision Management (EDM), particularly Business Rules Management Systems (BRMSs) supporting EDM principles.

Progressive Financial Services Firms Demonstrate the Value of Predictive Analytics; Decision Services Offer a Path for Others to Follow

Yesterday an article I wrote about Decision Services appeared in the online edition of DM Review’s December 2007 issue ("Decision Services: Pragmatic Real-Time Analytics"). In it, I describe how Decision Services, by providing a framework for managing both business rules and analytics, can pave the way toward adopting predictive analytics.

While Forrester Envisions Consolidation for the 3 "Bs", it's Happening for Apps and BI Vendors

Cognos and Microstrategy are the two remaining independent Business Intelligence (BI) software giants following today’s news that SAP was purchasing Business Objects. Speculation was building online last week that a deal was in the works and in fact for much of this year since Oracle purchased Hyperion, such rumors have been the case.

Insightful Hindsight on Forrester's 3 “Bs” Points to Need for EDM

While reading recent news in the Process Management section of Intelligent Enterprise today, I noticed a September 27, 2007 post by Sandy Kemsley titled “Forrester: Why BI, BPM and Rules Technologies Will Converge.” Sandy was part of a panel discussion at Forrester Research’s Technology Leadership Forum (Sept. 24-27) focused, in part, on the contents of a Forrester report issued to coincide with the event. I previously blogged about that report, titled “The Dynamic Business Applications Imperative,” by John Rymer and Connie Moore.

Decision Management at the Heart of Future Enterprise Applications, so Says Forrester Research

Respected technology prognosticators John Rymer and Connie Moore of Forrester Research just published a new paper titled, “The Dynamic Business Application Imperative” (September 24, 2007, For CIOs). Rymer and Moore envision a new generation of enterprise application that some IT organizations today are cobbling together in order to meet ever changing business, technical and marketplace requirements.

The Three Dimensions of Intelligent Business Processes

Today I read a September 21 Gartner Research note by Gareth Herschel titled, “The Role of Analytics in Adding Value to Business Processes.” As someone expert in analytics more so than Business Process Management (BPM) and Business Rules Management (BRMS), Gareth raises some important points to remember when discussing the role of analytics in business processes.

Using decision management to transform claims

Karen Pauli of Tower Group recently wrote Technology Direction in US P&C Insurance Claims Operations: Transforming a People Business (subscription required). This is a great paper and highly recommended for those of you thinking about how to improve your claims...

Technology and the changing face of insurance

Ian sent me this link - Safeco Launches Teensurance Tech Product - and I thought this was interesting as it shows how technology can impact insurance. The particular article is about a service offered whereby teenaged drivers' behavior can be...

EDM-Enabled Web Self Service Better be Top of Mind for Financial Services Firms

On June 25 (2007), I saw this news posting on DM Review’s website – “IBM and KANA Study Shows Untapped Potential for US Financial Services Web Sites to Better Serve Clients,” and was intrigued to see to what extent Enterprise Decision Management (EDM) concepts were mentioned. It’s been a long time now that web-based customer service capabilities have been promoted as a timelier, lower cost method of maintaining and growing customer relationships than other options, but what is interesting is that the study, titled "Service Done Right: Why Great Online Customer Service Matters More than Ever," shows cultural and generational factors driving many financial institutions to take web based customer service much more seriously.

Shameless Commerce: Calling the Sub-Continent

EDM software market is estimated to be about $ 20 billion worldwide and growing at 10-12 percent annually.

Shameless commerce: Smart (Enough) Systems

As some of you know by now I have been working, with Neil Raden, on a new book. As the files shipped to the printers yesterday, I thought I would take the opportunity to shamelessly plug the book here on...

Metrics, metrics, metrics

Akash recently posted a comment and asked me a question - what metrics to consider to see how the use of business process management systems (BPMS) and business rules management systems (BRMS) can help the insurance industry compared to non-BPMS/BRMS....

Live from InterACT: How to Calculate Your Decision Yield

(Posted by Guest Blogger, Ian Turvill. Given that I have so far posted nothing, and James has been posting like a madman, he pointed out to me last night that I was lagging dramatically behind. So here's a small step...

Live from InterACT: Cutting-Edge Analytics to Predict Risky Driving (DriveCam)

I am attending InterACT San Francisco 2007 this week and blogging live (or nearly live) from the sessions. This session is "Cutting-Edge Analytics to Predict Risky Driving (DriveCam)". DriveCam is privately held and focused on how to help solve some...

Live from InterACT: Putting Enterprise Decision Management to Work in Insurance

I am attending InterACT San Francisco 2007 this week and blogging live (or nearly live) from the sessions. This session is "Putting Enterprise Decision Management to Work in Insurance" and I am presenting with my colleague Scott Horwitz. I can't...

The Rules of Automated Underwriting

Adding to what I posted yesterday, the BPM Institute has just posted a presentation given by Mike Koscielny on rules in underwriting. Enjoy. Technorati Tags: business rules, insurance, underwriting

Using EDM to achieve Straight Through Processing in Insurance

A colleague passed me this link - Straight Shooter on National Underwriter. Robert Regis Hyle does a nice job discussing the idea of having policies pass through the underwriting process untouched by human hands - Straight Through Processing. He talks...

InterACT: "The Smarter Decisions Conference" - Special Discount Code for Insurers

(Posted by Guest Blogger, and InterACT Booster, Ian Turvill.) InterACT, the Smarter Decisions Conference, will be taking place next month at the wonderful Palace Hotel, in San Francisco. If you work at an insurer (and only at an insurer), you...

Interesting use for predictive analytics in insurance

I heard about a fascinating use of predictive analytics recently. The company concerned is DriveCam, who focus on improving risky driving behavior by predicting and preventing crashes. They provide an exception-based video event recorder that captures sights and sounds inside...

39 Insurers Recognized as "Model Carriers": Congratulations to Unitrin Kemper Auto & Home

Enterprise Decision Management helped Unitrin Kemper Auto & Home lower its combined ratio by eight points.

What you need to know about Decision Services

A key tenet of Enterprise Decision Management is the automation of the operational decisions that drive your business. You need to identify operational decisions and automate them; you also need to separate them out from the rest of your applications...

"Blogging Live" from InterACT Lisbon: "How EDM Really Works"

"How EDM Really Works" at InterACT introduces the concepts of decision automation and predictive analytics.

EDM Could Be a Fix for the Aging Insurer Population

Thanks to George Grieve of the P&C Technology Blog for his shout out on my recent article about the need to capture the expertise of insurance underwriters (and presumably, too, managers and executives in other insurance functions). I just want...

Two more podcasts

Ian has been recording podcasts with some of the folks speaking at InterACT next month and two more have been posted. The first and explores how banks can share and deepen customer insight, and how Fair Isaac's evolving products for...

Insurers: Capture The Expertise Now

(Posted by Guest Blogger and Friend of Underwriters Everywhere, Ian Turvill.) The results of a survey conducted by the CPCU Society (the society for P&C insurance underwriters), in which its 26,000 members were asked for their views on the industry's...

Insurance Technology Blog Started

(Posted by Guest Blogger, and Explorer in the Blogosphere, Ian Turvill.) I see that CastleBay Consulting Corp., a consulting services firm to the P&C insurance market, has launched and will facilitate a new "P&C technology" blog to offer the industry...

The Importance of EDM for Actuarial Operations

(Posted by Guest Blogger, and James's Own "Mini-Me", Ian Turvill.) I ran across an article today which reminded me of the importance of having analytical tools that can do much more than simply developing robust statistical models. Insurance Networking News...

Credit, risk and insurance

A colleague passed this link on to me today - Insurers use credit scores for premiums, but is it fair? It's a nice well-balanced article on the use of credit data in insurance risk assessment. There is a fair amount...

Some predictions for 2007

Towards the end of last year I asked various people to make some predictions for 2007. Here, in no particular order, is what they said. Interestingly pricing and customer-centricity both came up more than once. Bruce Richardson, Chief Research Officer...

It's Christmas: Time to Talk about Wars

(Posted by Guest Blogger, and James's little helper elf, Ian Turvill.) I posted earlier this year about a keynote speech delivered at the ISOTECH conference. In it, I relayed how Frank Coyne, Chairman and CEO of ISO stated: "...breakthroughs in...

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest insurance technology vendor of them all? Well now you can vote and tell the editors of Insurance Networking News along with the research directors at Financial Insights, an IDC Company. They...

Where has all the risk gone?

A couple of the blogs I read mentioned this LA Times article today - Insurers learn to pinpoint risks -- and avoid them. In particular RiskProf and Workers Comp Insider covered the article. RiskProf felt that the article missed the...

New Podcast with Donald Light of Celent

Insurance is an industry that is adopting Enterprise Decision Management (EDM) very rapidly. In the latest edition of Decisions, Fair Isaac's podcast on all matters relating decision automation, Donald Light of Celent Communications address a number of questions relating to...

Don’t Sell Insurance Like Dollar Meals: CEO

The National Underwriter News Service yesterday reported statements made by Boston-based Liberty Mutual at 18th Annual Executive Conference for the Property-Casualty Industry: Insurers to be competitive need to focus on service and underwriting rather than price, the head of the...

Insurers Focus On Attracting And Retaining Customers

(Posted by Guest Blogger, Ian Turvill.) An article in today's Insurance Networking News focuses on the outcomes of a conference this week that has been exploring "approaches to attracting and retaining customers in various market segments". There were several points...

Insurers Not Using "State-of-the-Art" Analytics Face 'Grim Prognosis'

(Posted by Guest Blogger, and Craig's List Devotee, Ian Turvill.) This week in Florida, Frank J. Coyne, chairman, president and chief executive officer of ISO (formerly, the Insurance Services Office) gave a keynote presentation at ISOTECH, his organization's annual technology...

Insurance companies need to face an era of relentless change

A couple of recent articles came my way with an insurance focus - Insurer says fierce competition is cutting rates (Houston Chronicle) and Progressive CEO WIll Push Insurance Pricing Harder (Marketing Daily). These articles basically summarize the comments of the...