Customer experience

Midwest Insurance Co. is an INNovators Award Winner runner-up, chosen for its strategy to replace an aging legacy policy administration system with one that now delivers real-time data to all end users.Just seven years old in 2005, Midwest Insurance Co. had already outgrown its policy administration system. "It was old client-server technology," recalls Rick Vogl, the company's vice president-IT. "The legacy system couldn't handle the volume of quotes we have coming through our system, and the amount of premiums we push through it.

Whether it's underwriting, billing or customer systems, legacy mainframe applications persist among even the most technologically advanced insurance companies. Enterprises are being forced to introduce new products and services faster than ever, and the implementation of cost-cutting strategies means that they have to do more with fewer resources.Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an effective and pragmatic approach that enables greater system agility, including the legacy mainframe solutions that house enormous amounts of policy data. New legacy-SOA integration strategies must tap into mainframe performance, security and programming resources, as well as valuable data. When they do, good things can happen. Insurers taking this more comprehensive approach and making the mainframe an active participant in SOA initiatives are experiencing success.

London - Risk Management Solutions Inc. (RMS), a Newark , Calif. , provider of products and services for catastrophe risk management, launched a new initiative among six of Lloyd's largest managing agents this week designed to change the way exposure data is used in the London Market. The RMS London Market Data Community gives members access to data that has been standardized for use among the members. Data is prepared once by the RMS Data Cleansing Team, and then made available to the community, saving subscribers the time and money involved in preparing the information individually.

Boston - Electronic application submissions have grown dramatically since 2004 but still account for less than half of all new life/health business, according to a new report from Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm.

Southern California — Two major insurers are going the extra mile to help their policyholders affected by wildfires by deploying mobile response vehicles to the disaster area. Los Angeles–based Farmers Insurance Group of Cos. is helping thousands of its customers as they file claims and begin returning to their normal lives. Farmers is trying to make it as easy as possible to file a claim by continuing to offer mobile command centers and its Mobile Catastrophe Claims Bus to serve the most customers before they are allowed to return home.

Orlando, Fla., and El Segundo, Calif. - Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet) and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) each awarded customers at their respective conferences.Chambersburg, Pa.'s Strickler Agency Inc. received the inaugural "Interface Agency of the Year Award" presented by ASCnet, the user group for Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based Applied Systems agency technology. The award was presented at the 22nd Annual Technology, Education & Networking Conference.

Wakefield, Mass. and Jersey City, N.J.– P&C policy and rating solutions provider ISO Insurance Technology Solutions (ISO-ITS) and consulting firm Edgewater Technology Inc. have entered into a strategic alliance.

Chicago–A new survey demonstrates that increased IT spending results in lower claims processing costs for P&C insurers.

Reston, Va.–Insurance regulators in eight states have granted written recognition to the straight-through processing (STP) standards initiative of NAVA, the Association for Insured Retirement Solutions.

Mayfield Village, Ohio — The Progressive Group of Insurance Cos. yesterday introduced Paperless Policies, a feature that will allow customers who buy a policy directly from the company, or through one of its independent insurance agencies, the ability to reduce the amount of policy-related paper documents they receive. Having policy documents delivered electronically saves trees, expedites delivery of the documents and reduces the opportunity for misplaced documents, says the insurer.