The focus of this case study is on selected topics involving information assurance and information management in the insurance industry. In particular, it discusses:
1. Holdovers in processes and/or attitudes in the early days of insurance computing.
2. Progress in moving beyond the fundamental problems.
3. Independent information processing in the industry.
4. Significant information management issues.
Holdovers in processes and/or attitudes in the early days of insurance computing
This section will briefly discuss legacy systems and software, as well as the researchers experience with legacy systems and software.
Currently, insurance companies have system structures that have been around for many years, referred to as legacy systems. Legacy systems include but not limited to system hardware, support and applications software, processes, and application data (An Insurance Executive’s, n.d.). Over all, these applications have been written for particular manufacturers' operating systems. Insurance companies are migrating their applications to new programming languages and operating systems that follow open or standard programming interfaces. The intent is to make it easier in the future to update programs without having to rewrite them entirely and ultimately to allow any enterprise to use its applications on any operating system (Rouse, 2011). Not all the legacy systems were developed for in-house use; but through mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations. At the time when the legacy systems were developed, the systems were not designed to meet today’s compliance standards of internal audits, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the regulations related to compliance. T...
... middle of paper ...
...x?rc=197707
Rouse, M. (2011). legacy platform (legacy operating system). What is ?. Retrieved from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/legacy-platform-legacy-operating-system
Sommerville, I. (2000). Legacy Systems. Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 26. Retrieved from http://csis.pace.edu/~marchese/CS616/Legacy_sys.ppt
Top Insurance Industry Issues in 2013. (n.d.). PwC. Retrieved from http://www.pwc.com/us/en/insurance/publications/top-insurance-industry-issues-2013.jhtml
What is Windows XP end of support?. (n.d.). windows.microsoft.com. Retrieved from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-support-help
Wolpe, T. (2013, April 9). OK, so stick with Windows XP: But how big a risk do you run?. TechRepublic. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/ok-so-stick-with-windows-xp-but-how-big-a-risk-do-you-run/
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems. Special Publication 800-30, 2002.
The ITGC regularly handle program changes, development, and access as well as basic computer operations. A poorly designed IT framework and accessibility protocols increase the company’s susceptibility to internal and external attacks, which result in the loss valuable financial information or its utilization to commit and conceal fraud. In asset misappropriation for example, an individual with access to the company’s accounting software has the opportunity to commit and conceal fraud. For example, Wayland Manufacturing Company’s accounting department oversees the maintenance of the Accounts Payable and Purchases general ledgers. Therefore, Newbaker is responsible for recording invoices and cash disbursements. Therefore, he has the accessibility to modify the company’s vendor list to include fictitious vendors that increase the likelihood of payment for fictitious invoices (Fraud Risk Assessment n.d.) (Eikel 2008) (Arens, Elder, & Borsum
Introduction Allstate must consider a loss control strategy because of the unforeseen impact that can affect their bottom line. Understanding the most common and costly claim payouts such as wind, burglary, fire, water, and physical damage can direct Allstate toward a more streamlined approach in addressing controllable claims, which will reduce payouts and increase profits (Allstate.com, 2011). This assignment will further provide alternatives that can be used as a strategy so that Allstate can achieve additional growth that complements their strategic vision of reinventing protection and retirement for consumers. In addition, provide clarity as to why differentiation is the best generic strategy, customer intimacy is the best value discipline, and market development is the best grand strategy. Keep in mind, the selected strategies are more in alignment with Allstate and best because it presents additional opportunities that Allstate can explore to drive growth and their ratings.
Security helps the organization meet its business objectives or mission by protecting its physical and financial resources, reputation, legal position, employees, and other tangible and intangible assets through the selection and application of appropriate safeguards. Businesses should establish roles and responsibilities of all personnel and staff members. However, a Chief Information Officer should be appointed to direct an organization’s day to day management of information assets. Supporting roles are performed by the service providers and include systems operations, whose personnel design and operate the computer systems. Each team member must be held accountable in ensuring all of the rules and policies are being followed, as well as, understanding their roles, responsibilities and functions. Organizations information processing systems are vulnerable to many threats that can inflict various types of damage that can result in significant losses (Harris, 2014). Losses can come from actions from trusted employees that defraud the system, outside hackers, or from careless data entry. The major threat to information protection is error and omissions that data entry personnel, users, system operators and programmers make. To better protect business information resources, organizations should conduct a risk analysis to see what
One of the important components of software engineering is the platforms. There are many various types of computing platforms. A few of these include AmigaOS, Linux, Windows, Solaris. These examples are just a few of many different computing platforms. The types of computing platforms can be differentiated into three different categories, which include operating-system examples, software frame work examples, and also hardware examples. Each of the different platforms has slightly different requirements and means of maintenance. Even the required standards for the platforms differentiate depending on which platform being used. Platforms are a vital part of systems and for applications, and are available in many various forms. The basis of this paper is mainly to observe the differences and similarities of four of these platforms. The particular platforms being compared and contrasted with each other include: Linux, Microsoft Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh. The purpose is to look at the purpose of each of these platforms and also to perceive the advantages and disadvantages of each.
By January 1994 the legacy system surpassed its standard modification requirements and encountered a malfunction that resulted in corrupting the database. The company was almost completely shut down for two days. It became clear that the legacy system would not continue much longer and a solution was required. The question that demanded attention within this case pertained to how the legacy system should be replaced.
What is the worst that could happen to a large insurance and financial corporation with facilities in several states? Exploring the seven domains of a typical IT infrastructure leads to several possibilities. One possible scenario for each of the seven domains, user, workstation, LAN, LAN-to-WAN, remote access, WAN, and system/application will be explored in depth and taken to the furthest worst-case scenario.
Hardware, software, support and maintenance costs grow each year with multiple systems in each local region running different types of software and hardware. The application and hardware support teams are larger than could be possible with one integrated solution.
Allstate insurance is the second largest property and casualty insurance company by premiums in the United States. Allstate insurance handles about 12% of the U.S home and auto insurance market. (Allstate, 2014). Many of Allstate’s customers fall under what one could refer to as a traditional selection of insurance for automobiles. Recently, Allstate has noticed a major shortcoming in lifestyle insurance, which includes coverage for motorcycles, boats, and other recreational vehicles, in comparison to its competitors. The motorcycle insurance sector is a 10.4 billion dollar industry and growing (PRWEB, 2012). The U.S. Department of Transportation website reports some astounding figures, including that 5,370,035 motorcycles were registered three years before the article, 7,138,476 motorcycles registered at the time of the article, and grew to 9,477,243 registered motorcycles at the end of 2012 (NHTSA, 2013). It is obvious as to why Allstate would identify motorcycle insurance as a worthy lifestyle product to devote marketing research dollars into in order to develop new strategies for cornering a share of the market.
1.0 IntroductionIn this report I will be concentrating on the failure of software systems. To understand why software systems fail we need to understand what are software systems. Software systems are a type of information system. This is because a software system is basically a means for hardware to process information. Flynn’s definition of an information system is:"An information system provides procedures to record and make available information, concerning part of an organization, to assist organization-related activities."Humans have been processing information manually for thousands of years, but with the vast increase of demand for knowledge this century has meant that a new method of information processing has been needed. Software systems have provided a new means that is much faster and efficient.
on the road is 8 years old, compared to 5.8 years in 1970, the signal to the
There are numerous problematic concerns of nature pertaining to health care that are unforeseen and all may possibly not be addressed by government, privatization or through subsidies. The nature of the issue is that countless individuals in society are deficient or without any accessibility to health care and insurance coverage. Since the expenses of health care are encumbering patients’ capabilities to afford medical treatment and management. Asymmetric information affects the health care and insurance market because those with superior facts have an economical benefit. Routine transactions frequently consist of improper/imperfect information individuals are acquainted and well-informed about his or her individual wellbeing than prospective insurance companies and health care managers or providers. Consumers (patients) have a history of non-communicable maladies e.g. diabetes, hypertension, congenital heart disease, smoker, alcoholism and the like to cover-up health complications in an effort to obtain lower insurance premium to keep insurance organization from charging higher insurance premium.
AtekPC had developed a vast array of IT applications primarily focused on for the use of business functions like accounting, manufacturing, sales and distribution. There was very little integration between these systems. Most projects were medium sized and were managed informally by the development team (Lead Analysts). Any new development or maintenance projects were undertaken using an informal approach and this led to quick response time and also fewer conflicts. Also the Lead Analysts had long tenures and developed a deep understanding of the business requirements. Changing business needs required complex projects that involved multiple functional and technological areas. The demands of t...
Turning to the issues related to information handling, the definition of the information management should be mentioned. According to Hinton’s perspective (2006, p.57) the information management is “the conscious process of gathering information”. A brief overview of the presumable information sources in a high-technology company can help to outline the situation. T...
The healthcare industry is the fastest growing industry in the U.S. economy. Guaranteed success in this industry stems from the many positions developed by U.S. government agencies. Healthcare power is shared among federal and state governments to allow proper distribution of regulation throughout the United States. The need for healthcare will only become greater so it is important for everyone to be educated on who, and what, keep America’s health industry well run.