Technology in the insurance industry always has been cutting-edge. I can think of no other business in which integration of applications from different systems on different platforms from different generations is so critical.

Whether it be SEMCI or STP or composite applications (which is one of our latest buzzwords and nothing more than applications created by combining multiple services from multiple applications, some of which typically are legacy applications, such as mainframes) built on SOA, the insurance industry continually has led the way for others.

Complex integrations, collaboration software, and advanced productivity software are tools we provide our employees to perform their jobs. Many employees are on the road or telecommute. They have laptops and need to use VPN to log on remotely to corporate networks and applications. They communicate using BlackBerries or PDAs or cell phone/PDAs. We place an incredibly complex and complete toolbox in the hands of our employees. And what do we do when an employee is unable to use one of the tools in that toolbox? Is your help-desk system adequate to the task? Is it cost-effective? Does it add to productivity, or does it hinder productivity?