Straight-Through Processing: Using Workflow To Push Information Through The Communications Labyrinth At Break-Neck Speed By Laurel B. Sanders, Optical Image Technology, Inc.

Insurance companies today continue to aspire to reach many of the same goals as they did one hundred years ago, but the opportunities for achieving them are greater than ever before. Quick access to reliable data is still a requirement, enabling the right decisions to be made the first time and helping insurers to avoid costly penalties and lawsuits. Serving customers promptly with accurate information and timely decisions is still vital, and helps to build customer loyalty. Detailed, efficient record keeping is a prerequisite to ensure smooth operations and comply with audits and regulations. What has changed considerably is the ability to tap into technologies that communicate seamlessly and help all of this to happen at break-neck speed.

Any reader can identify with two separate scenarios that demonstrate the diverse ways information travels. In the first situation, data is pushed forward relentlessly to its intended destination, as swiftly as possible and with no barriers, like water gushing toward its destiny through a narrow canyon after a storm. In the second scene, a mouse races through a maze, searching frantically for each treat along the way and racing toward the big piece of cheese at the end. He pauses occasionally to reassess his direction, or to correct a wrong turn. His goal is to make sure that none of the treats are missed, and he expends considerable energy with each mistake. While the mouse may not overlook many turns, he still has to search, and there are unwanted delays. Both the water and the mouse reach their goals, but one more efficiently than the other.

Holding a Master of Arts Administration degree from the University of Cincinnati along with a Bachelor's Degree in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College and Ithaca London Center, Laurel has served as the Marketing Director of the four-person marketing team of OIT since August 2004. Regarding OIT, Laurel emphasizes that "she continues to be impressed by OIT's determination to deliver top-quality products and customer services, as well as the management's strong ethical approach to business."