Solutions

WHITEHILL SOFTWARE HELPS CREATE POLICIESWhitehill Technologies, Moncton, New Brunswick, has shipped a new release of the InSystems product line, which helps create insurance policies. IStream Publisher 3.2 simplifies production of insurance documents by managing the process from the first draft of the contract language through the issuing of the policy. The software also supports service-oriented architecture (SOA), which increases IT agility, and includes predefined services for retrieval, assembly, rendering, delivery and storage.

AMS SERVICES UPDATES SOFTWARE

Bothell, Wash.-based AMS Services has released AMS Sagitta 7.0, an agency management system for larger agencies, bank-owned agencies and nation brokers. The new version offers better security, more flexibility and opportunities for customization-features designed to help agencies comply with regulations and protect customers' data. The system features role-based security, tighter control of system access, detailed login tracking, broader password options and limited menu access.

BETTER VISIBILITY FOR McCAMISH APP

PMACS from McCamish Systems, Atlanta, manages producers in multiple relationships with separate contracts. The software also handles complex compensation and dynamic processing rules. The system rewrite builds upon the original, while offering greater ease of access and adaptability. Earlier versions provided a holistic view of each producer across distribution channels, product lines or compensation structures, the company says, but the upgrade allows for better visibility into those functions.

GRID COMPUTING FOR LIFE

A new grid computing offering to help life insurance clients decrease the time needed to run complex insurance model scenarios is now available from IBM Corp., which is headquartered in Armonk, N.Y. The IBM Grid and Grow for Actuarial Analysis is a packaged set of hardware, software and services that combine IBM and IBM business partner and ISV technologies to help insurance companies improve faster time to market and financial risk and capital management. At the heart of the offering is IBM's BladeCenter systems to power the grid, which helps actuaries run more calculations and tune their models to improve accuracy, thereby receiving results faster.

OUTSOURCE COMPLIANCE MONITORING

InSight Security Manager is an audit, monitoring and reporting solution that automatically enables organizations to continuously and non-intrusively assure that their outsourcers and other trusted users are managing systems and data in accordance with company and regulatory policy. Developed by Consul, which has dual headquarters in Washington and the Netherlands, InSight is designed to support improved transparency and service-level agreement metrics. InSight's correlation and reporting engine also tracks individual user behavior against defined change management procedures and acceptable use security policies.

SOA WEB SEMINARS

XAware Inc., a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based enterprise software company specializing in service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions, released a CD with video extracted from its webinar series of four separate webinars. The CD, titled "Making Connections: Harnessing the Business Potential of Service-Oriented Architectures," features John Hagel III, author of "Out of the Box-Strategies for Achieving Profits Today and Growth Tomorrow through Web Services." Hagel illustrates how and why SOA can work. XAware's first presentation, "ACORD Business Services for SOA," illustrated XAware's approach to ACORD standards and compliance. The three remaining presentations feature Hagel and are entitled "Service Oriented Architecture Introduction," "Service Oriented Architecture-Business Cases and Challenges," and "Successful Approaches for Service Oriented Architectures."

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE FOR LIFE AND HEALTH

AuthenticWeb for Contract Provisions desktop module from Minneapolis-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services is designed to enable life and health insurers to focus on business objectives and improve speed-to-market without expending resources to perform compliance monitoring, tools maintenance and contract revisions to meet state approval requirements. AuthenticWeb for Contract Provisions is part of the AuthenticWeb family of products. The family consists of more than 30 desktop modules designed to help companies proactively establish compliance in workflow processes, reduce research costs and improve compliance communication. Modules can be purchased individually or in various packages.

SECURITY, REGULATORY ENHANCEMENTS TO SAGITTA

AMS Services, a Bothell, Wash., launched AMS Sagitta 7.0, an agency management system for larger agencies, bank-owned agencies and national brokers. This release delivers security enhancements as well as additional flexibility and customization options to help agencies respond to increasing regulatory and security pressures. Version 7.0 includes custom field and page creation, simplified data extraction for reporting, configurable quick-entry fields and defined vehicle pages to minimize system scrolling and seamless integration to specific, updated ACORD forms. Role-based security provides the option for users to have controlled access to specific system functions, such as invoicing, memo deletion and renewal management. Also included is tighter control of system access, detailed login tracking, broader password options and menu access limitations.

MODEM ROUTERS ENABLE WIRELESS OPTIMIZATION

Three new ADSL2+ Barricade Modem Routers from SMC Networks Inc., Irvine, Calif., are designed to deliver support for the new ADSL2+ technology, and incorporate leading-edge performance and quality of service features. The three new routers include the SMC7901BRA2, with one Ethernet and one USB port; the SMC7904BRA2 with four Ethernet ports; and the SMC7904WBRA2 with four Ethernet ports and 802.11g wireless capability. For end users, the addition of new quality of service features such as Wi-Fi Multimedia (WMM) in the wireless version of the product and support for Diffserv (differentiated services) for IP enable the unit to automatically optimize and prioritize real-time applications, such as voice and video.

UNIFIED VIEWS OF MULTIPLE NETWORKS

Insightix, Framingham, Mass., released its Insightix Management Center, designed to enable an enterprise with multiple networks across geographically distributed locations to achieve a unified view of its IT inventory and enforce a unified network access control policy across its IT infrastructure within hours. Management Center aggregates real-time network information obtained by multiple applications of Insightix's Enterprise Collector and Lite Collector performing network discovery, monitoring and network access controls on individual networks. Management Center also includes a Web-based user interface to manage the configuration and operation of individual Enterprise Collectors and Lite Collectors across the multiple networks of an enterprise.

MOBILITY SECURITY ACROSS THE ENTERPRISE

Centennial Software Ltd., UK-based developer of IT security and asset management solutions, released DeviceWall 4.5, endpoint security software designed to help organizations manage the business risks associated with portable storage devices on the network. File access auditing automatically logs all data being moved between portable devices and the corporate network and ensures that system administrators have a historical record of these file movements. Additional enhancements include user interface and usability improvements, simplified administration and support for the Apache Web Server.

INFORMATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT AUTOMATION

EMC Infoscape software from Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC Corp. automates and orchestrates information lifecycle management (ILM) services such as information protection, data placement on tiers of storage, regulatory compliance and information security based on the information's value to the business. This class of software is designed to enable customers to intelligently manage digital information in all its forms-by automatically discovering information, assessing its importance, and executing pre-defined ILM policies.

REGULATORY COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE

Imprivata OneSign Physical/Logical, a new capability of the OneSign platform from Lexington, Mass.-based Imprivata Inc., enables organizations to achieve location-based authentication by linking an employee's physical access authentication event to network and application access. Integrating these two security activities in a non-intrusive fashion enables companies to create a single security policy for each employee, from physical building, zone or room access to networks and applications. Imprivata OneSign Physical/Logical maps user credentials from disparate network, remote access, application and physical access accounts, and enables a single point for administrators to lock-out user access across physical and logical assets. It can enable organizations to better demonstrate compliance with various regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II.

MONITORING AND ENFORCING SECURITY SOFTWARE

Intellitactics Security Manager Summer 2006 from Intellitactics Inc, headquartered in Reston, Va. is designed to simplify the implementation and administration of security information and event management (SIEM), enabling organizations to accelerate their time to value while improving security operations and optimizing workforce resources. Security Manager Summer 2006 introduces advanced control monitoring and reporting to enforce security policies to strengthen the protection of enterprise information and delivers an improved workflow to detect insider threats and resolve security incidents. It also provides an advanced reporting system to accelerate the creation of reports for decision support and compliance audits.

COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

The Project InVision Governance, Risk and Compliance suite provides visibility across an enterprise to monitor risk, unify compliance efforts and increase corporate accountability. The suite was launched by Project InVision International, a provider of business performance solutions headquartered in Novato, Calif., and is available on-demand (software-as-a-service).

MONITORING AND MANAGING CLAIMS

Version 5.4 of Expense and Performance Management Suite is the second new version released by Wilton, Conn.-based Allegient Systems in 2006. The system includes the addition of Self-Insured Retention (SIR) functionality, enhanced rate navigation and filter settings, and an improved firm submission queue. The SIR is designed to enable an insurer to proactively monitor the litigation costs on claims with SIR by allowing the insurer to:

* review invoices against billing guidelines to quickly identify invoices below or exceeding the self-insured retention;
* review all invoices for compliance;
* monitor litigation costs on claims with SIR;
* provide recommendations to insureds on payment of invoices below the retention;
* track and reference all activity for invoices subject to SIR; and
* make payments for only their portion of the defense costs.

WEB-BASED NETWORK FOR SUBROGATION WORKFLOW

E-Subro Hub System, an intelligent Web-based paperless network from Tampa, Fla.-based Arbitration Forums Inc., acts as an electronic clearinghouse for subrogation workflow between insurance carriers and other parties involved in subrogation. The technology is expected to enable users to send and receive subrogation demands electronically, attach supporting documents (estimates, bills, photos, police reports, etc.), automatically route demands to file handlers, negotiate online and view and download online reports. The E-Subro Hub is Web-based, requiring no software to purchase or download. It also is scalable to a company's current level of automation.

END-TO-END POLICY ADMINISTRATION

SunGard iWORKS FrontTier 6.5, an end-to-end P&C policy administration solution from Wayne, Pa.-based SunGard Data Systems Inc., builds on a set of features and functionality to provide a greater degree of interoperability through a Web services architecture and offer more rapid implementation capabilities, helping improve speed to market. A new WYSIWYG front-end layout is designed to eliminate the need for a team of developers to design and code custom front-end screens. Combined with user level APIs for accessing business rules, business analysts are now able to rapidly develop Web portals for their business needs. FrontTier's rapid development model is expected to provide users with shortened development cycles.

ADDRESSING SECURITY WITH BI

Cognos 8 Business Intelligence is designed to offer enterprise customers a comprehensive foundation to address BI security concerns, including the areas of authentication, access control, data-level security, application firewall and encryption. Symantec Corp. conducted an independent and detailed security evaluation of the product from Ottawa-based Cognos Inc. According to the report, the overall design of Cognos 8 BI employs a robust architecture for secure reporting and analysis. Symantec also assessed a secure architecture and framework for reporting and analysis applications and concluded that, at the time of the assessment, "none of the capabilities assessed contained high-risk instances of common Web application vulnerabilities."

MOBILE CLAIMS SYSTEM

Symbility Solutions Inc., headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, created a mobile claims system to improve the speed and accuracy of property claims processing, while keeping all parties involved in the claim in-sync. The solution is designed to enable claims adjusters to collect data electronically, directly at loss sites using a pen-based Tablet PC or Pocket PC, and complete claims in just one visit. Authorized users can then access the adjuster-collected claim information through a secure Web interface.

CREATING COMPLIANT DOCUMENTS AND POLICIES

IStream Writer 1.2, a new release in the InSystems line of software from Moncton, New Brunswick-based Whitehill Technologies Inc., is designed to enable insurers to create documents and policies that comply with the multitude of regulations enforced by state filing agencies. IStream Writer 1.2 users can create a master document that can be tailored to fit state regulations, lines of business and specific products. When the master document is modified, changes are automatically applied to all the appropriate documents, eliminating multiple updates and reducing compliance risk.

SPEEDY CLAIMS PROCESSING

In an effort to help motor insurance claims handlers to process claims up to three times faster and more accurately than before, UK-based Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), launched an electronic performance support system (EPSS). In trials of the EPSS, Tata reports, motor insurance claims handlers who used to take 21 months to handle a typical "whiplash" claim took just three months to settle a similar claim after having constant access to case law through the EPSS. EPSS for motor insurance claims handlers contains some 150 animations relating to case law. TIS expects these to help the claims handlers to quickly understand both the accident scenario that each claimant presents and the most efficient way in which to process the claim.

NATIONAL FIRE STATION MAPPING

RiskMeter Online's Distance to Fire Station mapping report from Boston-based CDS Business Mapping LLC now provides national coverage. Users can retrieve driving distance to responding fire stations, names of the stations and staffing for any location in the United States. The distance between a property and the primary fire station can affect an insurers' loss ratio, and according to CDS, regardless of the training, personnel or equipment at a station, if an insured location is greater than five miles from a station, the chance of a large loss is inevitable. RiskMeter Online is an Internet application used to automate property risk reports. By typing in an address, users can get back natural hazard information for a given policy location. The RiskMeter can perform more than 30 different lookups, including distance to coast, rating territory, flood zone, windpool eligibility, proximity to brush and EQ hazards.

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Core systems Workforce management Policy adminstration Claims Compliance Customer experience Data and information management Data security Analytics Security risk
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