Analytics

Donegal Mutual Insurance Co. has reaped many benefits from its system integration efforts over the years. Executives with the Marietta, Pa.-based provider of personal, farm and commercial insurance admit that their strategy of implementing component-based technology would not be successful without a strong emphasis on systems integration.For example, Donegal's systems integration efforts helped immensely when the provider went scouting for a document imaging and workflow system in 2001.

The Consumer Federation of California (CFC), a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, has awarded Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. an A- for its privacy policy, the highest grade assigned to any property and casualty insurer doing business in California.Novato, Calif.-based Fireman's Fund, a provider of homeowner's insurance in the state and commercial insurance to middle market businesses, was among only eight companies to receive an A- or better. Following a survey of 55 financial institutions, the CFC gave two thirds of the companies low or failing grades, including many major property and casualty companies.

Worcester, MA--Kemper Auto and Home's Syracuse office and Blue Cod Technologies, Inc. of Worcester, MA announce the signing of a contract under which Blue Cod will be responsible for providing outsourced application and technical support for Kemper's New York Assigned Risk Automobile business. Blue Cod will host Allenbrook's Phoenix policy processing solution and provide it to Kemper Auto and Home over the Internet. Blue Cod will also build and maintain a number of interfaces to various external applications.

DALLAS--Docucorp International, a leading provider of enterprise information solutions, announced today the availability of Image Resource, an affordable content management and workflow solution, for the managing general agent (MGA) market.

INDIANAPOLIS--Anthem Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Anthem Inc.'s program designed to help companies maintain an emotionally healthy workforce, has made available a new Web site that provides instant access to various online resources and interactive tools to help employees better manage their work and home lives in an effort to improve or maintain their well-being. "An organization's success is dependent upon a physically and emotionally healthy workforce," said Marty Dubin, Psy.D., vice president, Anthem EAP. "The Anthem EAP Web site is completely confidential and provides streamlined access to a wealth of content and self-service capabilities to help provide guidance when facing life's stressful challenges."

SOLCORP, a subsidiary of EDS, and Universal Conversion Technologies (UCT), Addison, Texas, will jointly host a Webinar on data migration best practices . This interactive Web-based presentation, "Policy Administration System Consolidation: Overcoming the challenges of data migration" will be presented live over the Web on March 11, 2004 at 2 p.m. EST.Reduction of operating costs is a top priority for life insurance carriers, and many are investigating consolidation of back-office systems, or migration to a new policy administration platform to address this business imperative. With either of these options, however, CIOs face a data migration project that brings with it a host of challenges. In this interactive presentation, experts from SOLCORP and UCT will present a strategy for minimizing the risks and maximizing the benefits, one that's based on a realistic understanding of the degree of complexity involved in data transformation. The presentation will include a step-by-step migration playbook--from calculating return on investment on the front end to improving data quality on the back-end.

Newark, Calif.--Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's leading provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, has announced that it is providing funding for the first visiting research fellowship to be established at the new International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. The Centre is based at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and was officially inaugurated on February 20 by Wong Kan Seng, Minister of Home Affairs in Singapore.

Conshohocken, PA--eMoney Advisor, a leading provider of holistic wealth planning solutions, today announced the availability of AdvisorPlatform Version 3.5. The new version offers significant upgrades to Version 3.0, which was released in January 2003, including streamlined data entry through the Fact Finder, simulated sales of an asset, "what if" scenarios versus base facts, and additions to the Client Financial Home Page. In addition, the new version includes an updated user interface for greater ease of use.

ATLANTA--Ebix Inc., a leading international supplier of software and e-commerce solutions to the insurance industry, announced that it has completed its acquisition of LifeLink Corp. Inc., adding hundreds of brokers and approximately 35 life insurance companies as customers.

Salt Lake City, Utah--Castle Data Services has signed an agreement with Allied Insurance Company, a member of Nationwide, to provide them with replacement cost data through the use of Castle's online replacement cost estimator.