DELOITTE CONSULTING ACQUIRES BENCHMARKING FIRM TCINew York-based Deloitte Consulting LLP has purchased certain assets of Technology Consultants Inc. (TCi), a Cresskill, N.J.-based provider of benchmarking and advisory services to the insurance industry that has operated under the TCi Consulting & Research banner. TCi's core people and assets have joined Deloitte Consulting's Insurance Practice.
FAIR ISAAC PURCHASES RULESPOWER TECHNOLOGY
Fair Isaac Corp., a Minneapolis-based provider of analytics and decision management technology, has acquired certain assets of RulesPower Inc., a provider of high-performance business rules management systems based in Burlington, Mass. The addition of RulesPower's technology is intended to complement and advance the capabilities and user benefits of Fair Isaac's industry-leading Blaze Advisor rules management system. At the core of RulesPower's advanced business rules execution capabilities is a Business Logic Server driven by the company's proprietary RETE III execution engine, developed by Charles Forgy, Ph.D., co-founder of RulesPower.
CASTLE INSPECTION SERVICE AND MS/B FORM STRATEGIC ALLIANCE
Castle Inspection Service, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles-based Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MS/B), have formed a strategic alliance designed to enable Castle to refocus its resources on its core strategy-inspection services-rather than on its online replacement cost estimator. Castle now offers MS/B residential estimating solutions through its field inspection services. Castle and MS/B will be leveraging technology to integrate each other's business processes. This system-to-system integration is designed to enable the two companies to deliver a higher level of service to their joint customers.
JACADA SIGNS DISTRIBUTOR AGREEMENT WITH AVAYA
Jacada Ltd., an Atlanta-based provider of contact center productivity solutions, has signed a distributor agreement with Avaya GlobalConnect, the largest provider of contact center solutions in India. Under the agreement, Avaya GlobalConnect will sell, service and support Jacada Fusion solutions to the contact center market in India. Jacada Fusion is an agent productivity solution designed to simplify the agent's interaction with business applications on their desktop without rewriting or replacing any of the existing systems. Avaya GlobalConnect maintains alliances with key partners including Nice Systems, IEX, and SYMON, to address the performance optimization needs of contact centers.
ILOG JRULES RECEIVES ACORD LIFE XML CERTIFICATION
ILOG JRules, a key offering in Mountain View, Calif.-based ILOG's Business Rule Management System (BRMS) product line, has earned certification from the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD), Pearl River, N.Y., for meeting ACORD's XML for Life standards. This certification confirms that ILOG JRules fully supports ACORD XML-based messages. ACORD maintains a common XML vocabulary of data and transaction types, enabling insurers to reduce the difficulty and expense of data interchange and system interoperability, and to cut system integration costs.
SAPIENS AND PARAMEDS.COM PARTNER TO DELIVER UNDERWRITING SERVICES
Sapiens International Corp., Research Triangle Park, N.C., and Parameds.com, Kew Gardens, N.Y., have forged a partnership to provide MediRisk, an automated expert underwriting solution, to the North American life and health insurance market. MediRisk, part of the Sapiens INSIGHT suite of insurance solutions, is software that uses Sapiens' eMerge business-rules technology to integrate insurer underwriting rules with constantly updated medical, pharmacological, and disease databases to produce a decision or risk assessment "score" for individual health status for applications for life, health or disability insurance.
INFOGIX ANNOUNCES NEW ADVANTAGE PARTNER PROGRAM
Infogix Inc., a Naperville, Ill.-based provider of automated information control solutions, has launched the Infogix Advantage Partner Program-geared at building alliances and relationships with third-party vendors to leverage the competitive power of shared technologies. The Infogix Advantage Partner Program will include partners in three categories: Business Advantage Partners that provide solutions that can interface with-or expand the use of Infogix products; Service Advantage Partners that provide expertise for one or more Infogix products; and Technology Advantage Partners that provide hardware, infrastructure, and platforms. Infogix was formerly Unitech Systems Inc.
DUCK CREEK CONNECTS WITH IIX FOR CLAIMS HISTORY REPORTS
Duck Creek Technologies Inc., a Bolivar, Mo.-based provider of rating and policy administration software, has completed an integration to provide insurers with Insurance Information Exchange's A-PLUS Claims History Reports through the Duck Creek EXAMPLE Platform. Duck Creek client, Farmers Mutual Protective Association of Texas (known as RVOS), is the first insurer to use the new integrated capabilities. Prior to the integration, Temple, Texas-based RVOS had been using iiX's ExpressNet online solution to retrieve the A-PLUS Claims History Reports. When RVOS selected Duck Creek's EXAMPLE Platform earlier this year for the development of a Web-based quoting and submission system, the company wanted the systems integrated to support a fully-automated underwriting process. iiX is a business of ISO Properties Inc. (ISO) Jersey City, N.J.
SIEBEL SYSTEMS AND FIRSTLOGIC SIGN OEM AGREEMENT
Firstlogic Inc., a LaCrosse, Wis.-based enterprise data quality solutions firm, and Siebel Systems Inc., El Segundo, Calif., will provide Siebel Data Quality with embedded IQ8 technology from Firstlogic in early 2006 on the Siebel 7.8 platform. The integration of Firstlogic's IQ8 products into Siebel's customer relationship management (CRM) solutions is designed to ensure the availability of high-quality customer data to support enterprise business processes.
EXSTREAM EXPANDS PARTICIPATION WITH IBM
Exstream Software Inc., a Lexington, Ky.-based provider of personalization software, has achieved the industry-optimized level for both banking and insurance in IBM's PartnerWorld Industry Networks. This improves Exstream's ability to use IBM's sales, marketing and technical expertise to develop and deliver on-demand solutions in the banking and insurance industries. Exstream's Dialogue product runs on all IBM hardware and operating systems platforms spanning zSeries, iSeries, pSeries and xSeries. Dialogue is also integrates with IBM WebSphere, IBM DB2 Universal Database and IBM Content Management.
ISO AND INJURY SCIENCES TEAM TO OFFER EDR INFORMATION
Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO and Injury Sciences LLC, San Antonio, have formed an alliance to provide insurers with information about automobile accidents retrieved from vehicles' electronic data recorders (EDR) via ISO ClaimSearch, ISO's all-claims database platform. Through the new joint service, insurers' claims personnel will be able to identify quickly which vehicles have "harvestable" EDR information and what type of information is available in specific vehicles. In addition, customers will be able to order and receive Injury Sciences' EDR Analysis Reports through the ISO ClaimSearch claims information portal-Decision Net. The new service is expected to be launched and available to ISO ClaimSearch system participants in early 2006.
CHOICEPOINT, THE HARTFORD INVEST IN XDIMENSIONAL
ChoicePoint Inc., Alpharetta., Ga., and The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., Hartford, Conn., have co-led a $20 million strategic investment in XDimensional Technologies Inc., Brea, Calif., that funds the company's expansion in the independent insurance agency market. XDimensional's flagship product, Nexsure, is an agency management Internet service for the insurance industry. Recently, XDimensional and the Hartford completed Nexsure XML integration with The Hartford ExpressWay to provide seamless data-sharing between The Hartford's personal lines quotation system and Nexsure.
VERTAFORE, COMPUTERS BY DESIGN SIGN DEAL
Two Tampa, Fla.-based agency technology firms-Vertafore Benefits and Computers by Design Inc.-have formed an alliance to deliver document management and storage solutions to employee benefits agencies. Vertafore Benefits will integrate Computer by Design's suite of document management products with AgencyCenter, its agency workflow management system.
