Toronto-based DWL Inc. will be a participant on IBM's 'Web Services on WebSphere' Advisory Council, a partner-focused initiative to drive customer adoption of Web services technology. White Plains, N.Y.-based IBM Corp. established the advisory council as a forum for thought leadership and best practices for deploying Web services on IBM's Websphere platform. Current members of the council include Siebel Systems Inc. and J.D Edwards.INSpire Insurance Solutions Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, and CGI Group Inc., Toronto, have signed a non-binding letter of intent under which CGI would purchase INSpire's operating assets. These business operations would be integrated within CGI and continue to offer policy and claims administration outsourcing, IT outsourcing, and software services. INSpire, currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has filed certain motions with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas to begin the sales process.
IBM Corp., White Plains, N.Y., and Chordiant Software Inc. will jointly market and support Chordiant 5 for IBM hardware, including the eServer pSeries and xSeries, DB2 database software, the WebSphere infrastructure software platform and Websphere Application Server. The alliance will give Chordiant greater traction in the financial services industry, one of the vendor's key verticals, according to Paul Burrin, senior vice president, worldwide marketing.
Simsbury, Conn.-based idNET, Inc. and its partner Afni Inc., a Bloomington, Ill.-based customer care provider, have combined their products and services into a single business brand, Afni Insurance Services. "This alignment of the two businesses enables Afni to deliver a more complete line of services and a consistent message to the marketplace. It also plays an integral role in Afni's continued expansion into the insurance industry," states Bruce F. Griffin, chairman and CEO of Afni.
Fort Wright, Kent.-based Car-Part.com and CCC Information Services Inc., Chicago, have formed a strategic alliance. Car-Part.com-which helps auto recyclers sell parts on the Internet via searchable inventory-will provide recycled parts data to CCC. CCC's Pathways collision estimating product will deliver the data-including condition, location, availability, brand and price of the recycled product-to end users through its integrated Recycled Parts Services (RPS) feature.
To date, 20 insurance carriers have licensed the Transformation Station data exchange platform from Old Greenwich, Conn.-based IVANS Inc. They include: Cincinnati Equitable Insurance Co. , Donegal Mutual Insurance Co. , EMC, Encompass Insurance, FCCI, First Insurance Company of Hawaii, Frankenmuth Mutual Insurance Co. , The Hartford, Kemper Insurance, National Grange Mutual, Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., OneBeacon Insurance Co., One Beacon NNE, Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty, Providence Washington, Safeco Insurance Co. of America, Safety Insurance, The St. Paul Cos., Travelers, and Utica Mutual Insurance.
eAutoclaims Inc., Oldsmar, Fla., a company that provides online claims management solutions, and Cybersettle Inc., a Mount Kisco, N.Y.-based online claim settlement company, have formed a strategic alliance. The alliance will enable insurers to choose a seamless claims management solution that combines eAutoclaims' online claims management solution for automobile physical damage claims with Cybersettle's patented online blind-bidding system for resolving bodily injury claims.
MapInfo Corp., Troy, N.Y. has joined ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), Pearl River, N.Y. MapInfo joined ACORD to ensure that MapInfo's location-based intelligence solutions, used by insurance carriers for enhanced risk assessment, sales force automation and call center support, will comply with all the industry's current and future technology standards.
