Updated Agency Portal
STEP Solutions LLC, a Chicago-based provider of software to insurance companies, has unveiled its new agency portal.
STEP Agency Portal is an integrated agency management solution for independent broker general agencies and captive agencies. Originally developed by Milliman Inc. and acquired by STEP in 2008, the product has undergone extensive modernization. The updated platform can provide a straight-through processing solution for the origination, issue, underwriting, policy administration and claim processing of life, annuity and health insurance products, the company says.
The modern STEP platform provides a modern Web-based portal application infrastructure that delivers flexibility, functionality and control for agencies, carriers or third-party administrators. The transformation also has enabled the core business logic, developed by Milliman to be delivered either as a service, a hosted solution or as an installed platform.
Unified Workstation
GenTech LLC, a Centennial, Colo.-based technology provider for the broker/dealer industry, has unveiled the NEXUS Workstation. The entitlements-based workstation supplies broker/dealers and their advisers with an integrated front, middle and back office. The NEXUS platform wraps core broker/dealer processes and existing solutions and unites customer data with financial systems. NEXUS delivers advantages to improve visibility across the enterprise, maximize customer relationships, meet regulatory requirements and leverage broker dealers existing technology investments, GenTech says.
This latest release marks a leap forward by GenTech in enabling broker dealers to meet industry challenges through access to critical information, which bridges the needs of their front, middle, and back offices, the company says.
Insurance-specific CRM
Avanade, a Seattle-based business technology services provider, has released its new CRM for Insurance Industry offering. The product consolidates information from multiple systems into Microsoft Outlook or a Web browser, and provides companies with a holistic view of each customer, including their household members, policies, claims history and underwriting criteria.
By improving data sharing between the insurance carrier and the field agent, the offering aims to provide a universal view of the client and lead to a faster sales process and greater client satisfaction.
The company says the product can improve performance by standardizing an organization's sales processes and helping identify trends that enable the carrier to create profitable products that fit client demand. It also personalizes customer interactions and proactively anticipate customer inquiries to build customer loyalty.
Avanade CRM for Insurance Industry is available both on-premises or as a cloud-based solution. By leveraging Avanade Online Services, Avanade is able to provide a complete SaaS platform optimized for the delivery of Microsoft-based business applications.
Claims Correspondence
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. released a product that automates customer communications for claims processing.
The HP Exstream solution extends its back-office communication platform to support front-office business process. The solution aims to replace free-form editing with role-based control over areas of templates to help reduce brand and regulatory compliance risks.
The offering also integrates critical data and content from other systems, and helps to decrease error-prone, inefficient re-keying and cutting and pasting of content that can result in leakage or undo litigation, the company says.
