Digital Platforms

Washington — The heads of two insurance industry associations have issued a joint letter urging the National Governor's Association to drop their opposition to the National Insurance Act.

Washington — The need to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) is only having a minimal effect on enterprise risk management (ERM), new research has found.

Fremont, Calif. — Tricom Document Management Inc., a company specializing in outsourcing services, has been awarded a Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal "Fast 50" Private Companies listing for 2007. The award designating Tricom as the 12th fastest growing private company in Silicon Valley was announced in the Journal's special publication, The 50 Fastest Growing Private Companies in Silicon Valley for 2007.

Westlake, Ohio — Wilton, Conn.-based Wilton Re has signed a multi-million dollar administrative services agreement with Westlake, Ohio-based Antares Management Solutions and U.K.-based GeniSys Group.

Houston — Stewart Information Services Corp. plans to merge its two related technology subsidiaries, Stewart Transaction Solutions and PropertyInfo Corp. Stewart expects the merger to be completed by Jan. 1, 2008.

Toronto — Camilion Solutions Inc., a Markham, Ontario-based provider of product development solutions and next-generation policy administration systems to the insurance industry, announced that accelerated business growth has necessitated a relocation of their corporate headquarters to a facility twice the size of their previous location.

Los Angeles - The Automobile Club of Southern California (Auto Club), the largest AAA affiliate in the nation, has selected the ClaimCenter product from Guidewire, San Mateo, Calif. ClaimCenter will consolidate and ultimately replace the company’s existing legacy claims systems, performing end-to-end claims handling functionality for all Auto Club lines of business.

Miami - To deliver on the commitment to promote ecosystem-based innovation and collaboration, Walldorf, Germany-based SAP AG announced that the industry value network (IVN) for insurance will join 13 existing industry-focused IVNs hosted by SAP. The IVN for insurance will bring together independent software vendors, system integrators and SAP to co-innovate with insurers to help them improve profits, customer relationships and their competitive position through effective applications and a flexible IT environment. Members of the IVN for insurance will initially focus on issues facing property/casualty insurers in the North American market in the areas of claims, customer service, sales and distribution, and underwriting and policy processing.Plans for the IVN for insurance currently include key innovative partners in the insurance industry: Adobe, CGI, IBM, MSG, Opentext, Planetsoft and Skywire. The partners and SAP will initially collaborate to bring together industry expertise, knowledge and capabilities in a multi-vendor ecosystem to address the high-value business needs of customers. Customers will be invited to participate in the second phase of the IVN.

Baltimore, Md. — Metastorm, a provider of business process management (BPM) software for organizational agility, innovation and governance, announced the acquisition of Proforma Corp., the leading provider of enterprise modeling solutions for enterprise architecture (EA) and business process analysis (BPA). Metastorm says the combined company will deliver an integrated enterprise software platform that unifies business strategy and architecture, process analysis and optimization, and managed human- and system-centric process execution.

Salt Lake City - To help benefit administrators improve payment accuracy and prevent unnecessary losses associated with fraudulent claims, Sandy, Utah-based HealthCare Insight LLC (HCI) formed a strategic alliance with EZ-CAP, the flagship product of Longwood, Fla.-based MZI HealthCare LLC (MZIHC), a provider of health plan administration software.

Austin, Texas — Lombardi Software Inc., an Austin, Texas-based business process management software provider, has been named a finalist for customer service excellence in the 2007 Greater Austin Business Awards. Lombardi is named as a finalist in the large company award category.

Denver - Colorado Casualty's appointed agents in Arizona and New Mexico are the first in the Liberty Mutual Group member's six-state territory to be equipped with Commercial IQ, the company's, Web-based technology for commercial lines quoting, binding and policy issuance.Commercial IQ is designed to deliver an automated underwriting process with expanded, yet simplified, eligibility criteria, and a sophisticated pricing system with multiple price points, which results in fewer referrals, less intervention, the best price up front and quicker policy issuance. Commercial IQ's "Quick Quote" feature enables agents instant access to a faster online quote with minimal entry of information, according to Liberty Mutual Group. Agents also can select the most appropriate product for a commercial risk using Commercial IQ's SmartNav, the pre-qualification tool that requires only a business class code and responses to a few basic eligibility questions to best meet customers' needs.

Boston — Karen Clark, former president and CEO of AIR Worldwide formed an independent firm—Karen Clark & Co.—to help companies better use catastrophe models as sophisticated tools for making important risk management decisions.

Dublin, Ireland - FINEOS Corp., a global provider of enterprise software solutions for insurance, bancassurance and social insurance, has extended its relationship with IBM to enable the FINEOS Claims solution to now run on IBM System z. The IBM System z enablement will allow insurers that rely on mainframes at the heart of their enterprise infrastructure to run FINEOS solutions on their preferred platform, says FINEOS.

State College, Pa. — Optical Image Technology Inc. (OIT), creator of DocFinity workflow and document management software, announced a strategic business partnership with Bethlehem, Pennsylvania-based DBSi. This alliance is expected to benefit customers and prospects of both companies through expansion of offerings in workflow and document management for DBSi and high-availability disaster recovery and managed hosting for OIT. Both OIT and DBSi support mission-critical enterprise environments within healthcare, financial services, technology and other market segments; the focus is on their clients being "always on" since disruption of services or inability to access information can have a notable impact on their clients.

Louisville, Ky. — SHPS Inc., a Louisville, Ky.-based health advocacy and health benefits solutions provider, expanded its partnership with Delta Health Systems, a Stockton, Calif.-based independent third-party administrator (TPA), to offer SHPS' integrated care management solution. The solution is designed to enable TPAs to integrate utilization management, case management, disease management and wellness programs into a seamless medical management experience.

San Angelo, Texas - Fletch Data LLC, a San Angelo, Texas-based electronic directory assistance and telephone appending provider signed an agreement to partner with Simi Valley, Calif.-based CDS Software to offer CollectOne customers access to Fletch Data's batch processing telephone database. Customers will be able to access Fletch's database through CDS' CollectOne software suite.

Armonk, N.Y. and Ottawa - IBM and Cognos have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Cognos, a publicly held company based in Ottawa, in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately $5 billion or $58 per share, with a net transaction value of $4.9 billion. The acquisition is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008.The acquisition of Cognos supports IBM's Information on Demand strategy, a cross-company initiative announced on Feb. 16, 2006 that combines IBM's strength in information integration, content and data management and business consulting services to unlock the business value of information, according to IBM. Integrating Cognos, the 23rd IBM acquisition in support of its Information on Demand strategy, will enable new business insights to be delivered to a broader set of people across an organization, beyond the traditional users of business intelligence.

Schaumburg, Ill. – News reports of poison toothpaste and lead-laced toys have not just caught the attention of consumers. The nation’s importers, and the commercial lines writers who serve them, are keenly aware of the dire implications of unsafe products.

Des Plaines, Ill. — The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through information analysis, investigations, training and public awareness, is launching a free service to help protect the nation's consumers.

Novato, Calif. - AT&T Inc. reports that Allianz of America (AZOA), parent company of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. and Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America, has signed a new four-year managed network services agreement with AT&T.

Naperville, Ill. - INSTEC, a Naperville, Ill. , provider of rating and policy administration software for the insurance industry, struck a deal with Conshohocken, Pa.-based NSM insurance Group for implementation of INSTEC’s QuickSolver Workers Compensation rating and policy administration solution.

Needham, Mass. – New research from Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup Inc. finds that in today’s global business model, electronic commerce is no longer a “nice-to-have” capability, but a necessity, yet the insurance industry continues to hold onto the traditional paper-based, wet-signature contract execution model.

Los Angeles – In the 1980s, Ronald Katz secured approximately 50 patents related to what would otherwise be considered a rather simple solution: technology that links a telephone to a computer. And if you operate a call center that uses telephony integration or interactive voice applications patented by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing L.P., you are probably familiar with the power of his technology—and the might of the licensing behind it.

Westlake, Ohio - UK-based Wilton Re signed a multi-million dollar administrative services agreement recently with Westlake, Ohio-based BPO provider Antares Management Solutions and GeniSys.

New York - With location-specific terrorism risk exposure data, TerrorRisk is a unique risk assessment model that provides the insurance industry with targeted and actionable terrorism risk forecasts to help maximize opportunities and mitigate risk. Developed by New York-based Pitney Bowes MapInfo and Exclusive Analysis, TerrorRisk utilizes fact-based, location-specific metrics to score the propensity and likely severity of violent and political risks on more than 3,700 global points of interest to help insurers and risk managers make more insightful underwriting, rating, coverage and risk selection decisions.

Bolivar, Mo. - Surrey, England-based Duck Creek Technologies Europe, backed by New York-based Pequot Ventures and Duck Creek Technologies Inc., Bolivar, Mo.,announced its intention to bring to market software applications that enable insurers to rapidly define, develop, deploy and manage their insurance products and services.

Warren, N.J. - To address the complex and unique risks that information and network technology companies face serving the federal government, the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, Warren, N.J. , assembled a group of underwriters, loss control engineers and claim specialists to offer specialized products and services for federal contractors in close collaboration with outside legal counsel.

Chicago — Risk management provider Aon Corp. and Arup, a London-based global multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm, today announced a strategic alliance that brings to the marketplace an unprecedented pre- and post-loss consulting service that offers clients an independent, global catastrophic risk management solution.

Washington — The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA), a national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, released its annual Best Practices Study, which includes the new Rule of 20 statistic, which provides a quick means of calculating whether or not an agency creates value for its shareholders.

Boston — Karen Clark, previously of Applied Insurance Research, is now providing comprehensive reviews of company internal catastrophe risk assessment and management processes. The independent reviews, provided by Boston-based Karen Clark & Co., her newest company, are designed to help companies ensure they have in place holistic risk management processes that comply with best practices. Holistic risk management practices incorporate independent benchmarks and metrics to assess the quality of catastrophe model input and output.

Austin, Texas - Customer Operations Performance Center Inc. (COPC), announced the relocation of its international corporate headquarters from New York to Austin, Texas. COPC Inc. provides consulting, training and certification services to buyers and providers of customer service, customer contact center and business process outsourcing operations.

Mayfield Village, Ohio — The Progressive Group of Insurance Cos., who introduced the first incarnation of its Web site in 1995, has unveiled its new Web 2.0 site, which they tout as the industry’s first.

New York — New York Life Insurance Co. announced today that Senior VP Eileen Slevin has been elected CIO. She reports to Executive VP and Chief Administrative Officer Frank Boccio.

Glenmont , N.Y. — Data collected by a group of professional insurance agents that ranks insurance carrier performance is now available online.The Professional Insurance Agents (PIA) of Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York, a Glenmont, N.Y.-based voluntary, membership-based trade association representing professional, independent property/casualty insurance agents, published its company performance survey database, the result of a five-year collaborative project in which PIA members ranked the performance of more than 80 insurance companies.

Brookfield, Wis. — Fiserv Inc. is selling substantially all of its health businesses to Minneapolis-based UnitedHealthcare, a business of United Health Group, one of America’s largest health care companies, for $775 million in cash, the company reports.The Brookfield, Wis., provider of information technology services to the financial and insurance industries worldwide, said that the transaction is anticipated to close by the end of 2007 or in the first quarter of 2008, subject to required regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

JACKSON LAUNCHES BENEFITS CENTERThe Living Benefits Selection Center (LBSC) from Jackson National Life Insurance Co., Lansing, Mich., is designed to enable registered representatives to get instant, client-approved output based on a client's profile information after answering a handful of qualifying questions. The tool also features multimedia presentations, fact sheets and side-by-side comparisons of Jackson's optional living benefits.

XSELL RELEASES INSURANCE FRAMEWORX PLATFORMXSell LLC, a Jacksonville, Fla., provider of on-demand marketing solutions, released XSell's Insurance FrameworX, a version of its Web-based Customer Interaction Marketing platform.

ANPAC ENHANCES ENTERPRISE DATA WAREHOUSE OFFERINGSpringfield, Mo.-based American National Property and Casualty Co. (ANPAC) selected Evolutionary Technologies International Inc.'s (ETI), ETI Solution and ETI Data Profiler as their enterprisewide data integration platform. The products from ETI, an Austin, Texas, global provider of data integration solutions, are designed to provide real-time data to strategic and operational decision-makers.

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.

Chicago – Citing increased competition and falling rates, insurance brokerage Aon Corp., said yesterday that it will cut 2,700 jobs, or approximately 6% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring plan.The broker made the announcement as part of its release of its 3rd quarter financial results.

David Sampson, the newly appointed president and chief executive officer of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), a Des Plaines, Ill., group comprising more than 1,000 insurance company members, outlined his vision for the association at the organization’s annual meeting this week. More than 1,600 CEOs and senior executives from PCI member companies and global reinsurers participated in the 2007 meeting in Boston, setting records for attendance at the event.

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.

New Orleans — Carriers using advanced analytics in their underwriting, claims and marketing efforts will have a better chance of surviving the current and future state of a softening insurance market, Frank Coyne, chairman, president and CEO of ISO told the 800 attendees in attendance this week at the company’s ISOTech 2007 Connect Conference in New Orleans, La.

Armonk, N.Y. – In the past three years, 62% of enterprises with more than $5 billion in revenue encountered a major risk event, and 42% of these enterprises were not well prepared for the event, according to a study of more than 1,200 chief financial officers (CFOs) and senior finance executives from 79 countries worldwide. The study, from IBM, concludes that a surprising number of enterprises are not well prepared to handle the impact of a major risk event to their organization.

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.

New York - New York Life Insurance Co. announced today that Frank Boccio has been elected executive vice president and chief administrative officer, reporting to Ted Mathas, president and chief operating officer. Boccio has responsibility for individual policy services, corporate information, corporate services, corporate Internet and business resiliency."Frank is a superb administrator and his leadership has enabled us to improve customer service and agent service in many ways," says Ted Mathas. "Frank's new role will allow him to work even more strategically across several key areas so that New York Life continues to offer world-class service, systems and operational capabilities."

New York - Guy Carpenter & Co. LLC, a global risk and reinsurance specialist and a part of the Marsh & McLennan Cos., expanded its award-winning, Web-enabled i-aXs data management platform to include both workers' compensation and accident and health lines.

Simsbury, Conn. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., appointed Brian O’Connell, a 25-year industry veteran, to vice president and chief information officer (CIO) for its expanding Hartford Life operations. O’Connell replaces Terry Walker, who has moved into the role of chief administrative officer for Hartford Life Japan.

Bethesda, MD–Life insurance standards organization the Insurance Marketplace Standards Association (IMSA) has renewed the membership of five life insurers.

Washington — A vote in the Senate, coupled with signs of capitulation by the Bush Administration, has paved the way for an extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA).