To some in our industy, the answer would be, "Your worst nightmare," yet the Guru has many redeeming qualities. Read on....
Ara C. Trembly, Senior Editor, Technology, National Underwriter, has been a writer, marketing professional and public speaker on technology for business since 1982. He has written for a wide range of business and technology publications, including Computer Decisions, Beyond Computing, PC Today, Office Systems and many more. He has spoken before the IBM Global Insurance Conference, ISOTech, Business Technology Association, ASCnet, the AMS User Group, ACORD and the Insurance Accounting and Systems Association, among others. He has also given keynote addresses at the Fiserv Client Conference, the ImageRight Client Conference and at the Wisconsin IASA Annual Meeting. He is currently the technology editor and a regular columnist for both the Property/Casualty and Life/Health Editions of National Underwriter, and for Tech Decisions magazine.
But Really, Who is this Guy?
Sure, Ara is a journalist and speaker of some renown, but like any real guru, he is a many-faceted individual. He is a devoted dad of four, a devoted fan of the best baseball team in New York (hint: the one with a mascot who sports a baseball for a head), a practicing counselor/therapist, and a particularly average blues guitar player. He is also a man of unique persuasive talents, having inveigled a beautiful, brainy Princeton graduate into becoming his wife, despite the obvious drawbacks that awaited her.
He began his publishing career at age 12 with the creation and production of "Blood 'n Guts," a groundbreaking magazine devoted to horror movie fanatics such as himself. His early influences: Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Ray Harryhausen, Lon Chaney (Sr. and Jr.), Vincent Price, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, Rod Serling, Ward Cleaver, Jim Anderson, Billy Graham, Ian Fleming, Cousin Brucie, Alfred Hitchcock, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Gil Hodges, Tom Seaver, Cleon Jones, Eric Burden, Jimi Hendrix, Arnold Ziffel, Jed Clampett, Agur son of Jakeh, Miss Crabtree, Paladin, and James Tiberius Kirk. Later influences are too disturbing to mention.
Given that motley list of heroes, it is a small wonder that Ara has made a career of ruffling feathers in the insurance technology arena with his politically-incorrect meanderings and inappropriate questions. This mini-biography of the Guru is not an excuse for such writings, but is merely the most plausible explanation.
Comments (3)
I am in need of a crm product that will help me to efficiently service and market products to a group of some 3000 policyholders. Is there any software that you would recommend whereby i can scan basic customer info(name,dob,ss#,sex,address,policy #) from a one page policy holder record card directly into a data base AND THEN(this is key)recall groups of policy holders by specific fields such as age,state oe zip code. My main objective is to input to the data base by scanning rather than manually entering specific info by field to the data base. Thanks for your help.
Posted by daniel mcdaid | March 2, 2007 10:39 AM
Posted on March 2, 2007 10:39
Ira, I did a search of your blog and was unable to find any references to Agile software development. I would think (hope?) that a tech guru who challenges the industry's status quo would have a healthy and dynamic discussion going on this topic.
Could you please post your thoughts and opinions on this to initiate the discussion. Thanks very much.
Posted by Joel Collamer | April 30, 2007 6:58 AM
Posted on April 30, 2007 06:58
I don't normally answer people who refer to me as Ira, but then again, we can't have a thin skin in the world of blogging...lol.
In reference to Joel's comment, I would refer NU readers to one of the several articles we have done on the topic of agile systems. My comment at this point is that this seems to be more vendor driven than market driven, but what do you readers think?
Posted by Ara Trembly | April 30, 2007 9:41 AM
Posted on April 30, 2007 09:41