The total 2018 expense budget for the California Earthquake Authority is approximately $487 million, and the budget for information technology services makes up just under $17.8 million of that total. The CEA is not an agency or department of the state government, explains Chief Insurance and Technology Officer Todd Coombes.
“We are an instrumentality of the state of California, created by legislative action to accomplish certain things for the state but not as the state,” he explained in an interview with Techwire.
The CEA is privately funded, operates on a not-for-profit basis, and is focused on the mission of insuring as many California homes as possible against damaging earthquakes.
In IT, the CEA has an internal software development capability that it leverages heavily within the organization to provide ongoing maintenance and enhancements of existing technology products, and in the development of new technology to support its mission.
“When CEA IT engages with vendors, it usually involves support for the core components of the technology stack, staff augmentation when additional capacity or expertise are needed, and support for licensed software used by CEA and our stakeholders,” Coombes said.
One such vendor engagement over the last five years, he said, has been with Kaboodle, and specifically with its software company Insuresoft, in the licensing and implementation of its Diamond property and casualty insurance administration and claim system. The CEA licensed Diamond as part of a larger Centralized Policy Processing initiative to provide an insurance-policy processing system to the 20-plus participating insurance companies that sell and service CEA’s earthquake insurance policies.
Other IT successes in the recent past have included a new look and feel for the CEA’s primary website, EarthquakeAuthority.com; the creation of a mobile Web application for inspectors to conduct seismic-vulnerability assessments of houses; and the integration of the CEA IT, Insurance Operations, and Insurance Education and Sales Support teams, to take advantage of synergies across teams and between insurance and technology.
“During CEA’s most recent annual research forum, one of the major topics of discussion was the technology that is either currently available or is planned to be available for sensors and networks that could be used, in part, for an earthquake early warning system,” Coombes said.
Coombes also spoke about the entity's cybersecurity plans, saying that CEA has both a hybrid cloud and on-premise infrastructure, and has cybersecurity protocols that affect both environments.
“We are working closely with our vendors to implement industry standards and best practices that appropriately address cybersecurity. We use more than one continuous monitoring tool, stay current on security patches and make it a point to constantly remind our stakeholders to be alert and diligent regarding cybersecurity,” he said.
CEA is changing its earthquake insurance policies to support updated seismic science, and will use the data to align with their premium rates, both of which are requirements in the law, Coombes added.
“These changes need to be reflected in most of the systems CEA supports and maintains and will be a major focus over the next six months. In addition, CEA will be conducting a competitive procurement for an ERM system and the corresponding integration work,” he said. “Another major effort over the next several months will be the development and implementation of an online sales tool for insurance agents and other licensed sellers of CEA’s earthquake policies.”
See the companion interview here.
