Solutions

ANALYZE ALL TYPES OF CUSTOMER FEEDBACKAttensity Corp., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based business intelligence software provider, has released Attensity Voice of the Customer (VoC), a software solution designed to enable enterprises to analyze and act on all types of feedback from customers.

Attensity VoC employs the company's patented exhaustive extraction technology to automatically identify facts, opinions, requests, trends and trouble spots from the unstructured text of survey responses, service notes, e-mail messages, Web site forums, blog entries, news articles and other customer communications.

"We developed Attensity VoC to transform freeform customer feedback into structured, actionable data so companies can cut costs, boost revenues, retain customers and seize opportunities their competitors may never hear coming," says Craig Norris, CEO of Attensity.

COMP CLAIMS DEBIT CARD

MedRisk Inc., a claims services and medical management company headquartered in King of Prussia, Pa., has introduced a Visa-branded debit card for workers' compensation claims.

Dubbed the MPower Card, it is offered as a stand-alone product, or as part of MedRisk's CLAIMExpert suite of services. Claims payers electronically send payment files to MedRisk, which then coordinates with the bank to issue a card to each new claimant and deposit funds onto it. Subsequent claims payments are made by electronically transferring funds to existing cards.

Injured employees can use the card at ATMs, banks and wherever Visa is accepted. Claimants do not need to have a bank account, nor do they incur check-cashing fees when using the MPower Card, says the company.

DATAXCHANGE ADDS CARRIERS

E-Z Data Inc., a front-office systems provider headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., has added additional carriers to its community of DataXchange Online subscribers.

DataXchange Online is a data aggregation solution for the insurance brokerage industry, and is designed to electronically provide new business status, policy and commission information to the independent distribution channels of carriers.

Among the carriers joining are San Francisco-based West Coast Life Insurance Co. and Toronto-based Sun Life Financial Inc. DataXchange Online is compatible with ACORD and NAILBA data standards and requires no proprietary software in the carrier's data center.

CONNECT PEOPLE USING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY

San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc. has introduced Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite (ES), a family of software for automating processes that help businesses and governments engage with customers, citizens, partners and suppliers.

LiveCycle ES integrates the capabilities of Adobe Flex and PDF technologies, while leveraging the reach of Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Reader to enable a new class of "customer engagement" applications designed to easily connect people inside and outside organizations to internal information and processes.

Adobe will make LiveCycle ES available in two editions, LiveCycle ES Business Transformation Edition and LiveCycle ES Data Capture Edition. This will give customers the option of purchasing a base system to which they can add solution components, or purchasing several of the solution components in one package with a single price.

SECURITY APPLIANCES FOR LARGE COMPANIES

Fortinet, a Sunnyvale, Calif. provider of unified threat management (UTM) solutions, is expanding its lineup of multi-threat security appliances. The new FortiGate systems are scalable and deliver up to 26 Gbps of firewall performance, an approximate 300% improvement over competitive offerings, claims the company.

The FortiGate-3810A and FortiGate-3016B appliances are suited for network core and data center deployments, and address the requirements of service providers seeking to build service offerings based on the FortiGate platform.

With the rise in prevalence of cyber criminals' blended threat attacks as well as the adoption of bandwidth-hungry applications such as next generation Web 2.0, VoIP and IPTV applications, enterprises and service providers require significantly higher performance security products that can scale to meet current and future demands. With few security vendors rising to this challenge, some customers are being forced to choose between the security and performance of their next-generation networks.

Built on the performance of the FortiGate-3600A, the FortiGate-3810A and FortiGate-3016B platforms achieve performance through a combination of Fortinet's existing FortiASIC-CP6 content processor and its new FortiASIC-NP2 network processor, which enable firewall throughput of up to 26 Gbps from a single device. Hardware-accelerated gigabit Ethernet interfaces are available for all FortiGate-3000 Series platforms to enable wire speed firewall and near wire speed VPN performance to ensure time-sensitive applications like VoIP or IPTV do not suffer from network latency or jitter.

The new FortiGate systems also accommodate the option of modular Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) expansion, which provides hardware accelerated ten gigabit XFP interfaces as well as gigabit SFP interfaces and hard drive storage options. The AMC specification, also known as AdvancedMC, is an open standard developed by the PICMG consortium to meet next generation needs of carrier class hardware.

SECURITY RESPONSE NOTIFICATION

First Advantage Membership Services' Security Incident Response Notification (SIRN) service assists organizations in preparing for the series of events and activities that will transpire in the instance of a consumer data security breach. The wholly owned subsidiary of First Advantage Corp., Poway, Calif., launched SIRN to deliver rapid consumer notification and assistance to minimize the repercussions of a security breach.

If a consumer data breach occurs, First Advantage Membership Services prints and sends the organization's customized notification letters to consumers within 48 hours. Through SIRN, the affected business can choose to offer any of a variety of credit reporting and monitoring packages to help consumers detect fraudulent activities attributable to identity theft. First Advantage's team of Fair-Credit-Reporting-Act-trained representatives are scripted and ready to answer questions pertaining to the breach based on the information provided by the client, credit reports, monitoring reports, fraud and identity theft via a toll-free telephone number dedicated to the client company. First Advantage Membership Services enrolls consumers in the selected credit reporting and monitoring services and supports these services throughout the chosen enrollment period.

Additional services offered as part of SIRN to help businesses address a data security breach include a consumer address location service, a Web site hub for each hosted business and customized secured Web sites for consumers to acquire further information on a specific data security breach based on the information provided by the organization.

WEB SITE TOOLSET

Truwex 2.0 Web site accessibility, quality and compliance software is a server application with a Web interface that is dedicated to Web development teams and to corporate compliance managers.

Deployed on an individual computer, or server, or rented as a hosted solution, it uses a real instance of Internet Explorer to scan every page of a Web site automatically, validating it on privacy, accessibility, search and quality standards, then delivering the results in a visual report format published online.

"On screen" visualization increases Web developer productivity, a key success factor in Web site development and maintenance projects.

Developed by Moscow-based Erigami, the software now includes enhanced information on key pages, linked domains, Web site redesign workload estimate, work prioritization and Web site redirect reporting. Also new is search engine information, such as indexed and un-indexed pages, duplicated pages, external links and more. A 30-day trial license is available at www.weigami.com.

HOST INTRUSION DETECTION/PREVENTION SYSTEM

Third Brigade Inc., Ottawa, is integrating its host intrusion and protection line with Reston, Va.-based Intellitactics Inc.'s Security Manager, a comprehensive security information and event management (SIEM) solution.

The Intellitactics Security Manager (ISM) automatically correlates host intrusion detection and intrusion prevention system (IDS/IPS) events with other security events to provide a broader context on threats. Using a nine-factor risk-scoring model helps eliminate false positives.

Security Manager focuses the security analyst on alerts with the greatest impact on the business, and enables compliance with regulatory standards. ISM automates analysis and reporting of event data from any number of security devices, such as host IDS/IPS, operating systems, databases and applications.

Also, through role-specific user interfaces, Security Manager provides real-time access to events, alerts and incidents to mitigate information security risk.

KAPLAN LAUNCHES UPDATED VERSION OF E-PAL SERVICE

Chicago-based Kaplan Financial has launched an updated version of its e-PAL online regulatory reference service. e-PAL is a single-source electronic reference service for insurance licensing and securities registrations. e-PAL translates insurance and securities licensing and compliance requirements into easy-to-understand language and provides required regulatory forms.

Due to the changing state and federal regulations, forms and fees, e-PAL provides users with state and national regulatory changes before they happen.

e-PAL subscribers receive regulatory updates regarding filing procedures, forms and fees for new and ongoing maintenance of licensing processes.

e-PAL services include: life; health and variable products; property/casualty; credit; agency licensing; provider; requirements for pre-licensing, and/or continuing education, bank, limited lines, securities, adjuster, surplus lines and all-lines, which gives access to all services.

VEHICLE SERVICE DATABASE

To assist insurers and other organizations to detect vehicle theft and prevent fraud, Toronto-based CGI Group Inc., and Tinley Park, Ill.-based Locator Technologies LLC and National Vehicle Service, announced the development of a shared database of automobile information for cars in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

The service will identify potentially stolen or unsafe vehicles that were transported over international borders.

Additional information includes:

* Lien verification

* Online vehicle auction information

* Impounded U.S. and Canadian vehicle identification

* Vehicles exported from the U.S.

* Canadian insurance claims

* U.S. total vehicle loss

* U.S., Canadian and Mexican theft verification.

The database will be augmented with verifications provided by the organizations and is slated to be available by the end of 2007.

OPTICAL TRANSPORT POSSIBLE WITH NETWORK SOLUTION

XKL LLC, Redmond, Wash., a provider of network equipment, announced the official launch and availability of the DXM optical transport system. DXM allows IT departments to bypass expensive external telecom carrier services by deploying and managing their own metro optical networks.

XKL claims the DXM system integrates flexible connectivity, DWDM multiplexing and carrier-class resiliency in a space- and power-efficient package.

The system's architecture provides optical transport with a router-like management structure. This includes well-known standards such as a familiar command line interface and an independent TCP/IP management network.

REMOTE MONITORING DEVICE BYPASSES ROUTERS

Anyplace Control Software is a Windows-based tool designed to enable administrators to securely control remote computer and transfer files via the Internet or a Local Area Network. Developed by Ukraine-based Anyplace Control, the tool displays the remote computer's desktop on the administrator's screen, giving the admin off-site control.

The tool can be used to transfer files between computers, and can connect to multiple computers simultaneously.

Anyplace Control 4.0 does not require the computer to have an external static IP address, and automatically bypasses routers and firewalls between the remote computer and the user's machine.

ERM SOLUTION ENHANCES PARTNERSHIPS

Boston-based LogicManager developed a new enterprise risk management partner program designed for companies that broker or wholesale financial services to business customers.

LogicERM software manages the full lifecycle of risk, from capturing data from internal risk assessments, using activity-specific templates to streamlining controls and ensuring corporate goals are achieved.

LogicManager enables organizations to provide clients an easy-to-use system to help mitigate non-transferable risks, including non-compliance of financial reporting, business continuity, readiness for rating agency ERM reviews and IT security, the company says.

At the heart of LogicManager's solution is enterprise risk management taxonomy technology that provides a configurable, process-based system for naming and organizing elements into groups that share similar characteristics.

'GREEN' DATA WAREHOUSING

Teradata, Dayton, Ohio, a division of NCR Corp., released its Teradata 5500 Server, which uses approximately 75% less energy for the same capability data warehouse as compared to Teradata servers of three to five years ago, the company says. The new servers can coexist with multiple generations of Teradata servers, and supports the Teradata Warehouse 8.2 suite.

Teradata's 5500 Server combines the Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 5100 technology with Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T). The server also leverages the EM64T functionality of the Intel Xeon processor to support both 32-bit- and 64-bit-based data warehouse solutions.

Customers can choose from the 64-bit Linux or Windows Server 2003 or the 32-bit UNIX operating systems.

RATING & POLICY ADMIN REPORT MANAGER

INSTEC, Naperville, Ill., released QuickSolver Reports Manager, an ad-hoc reporting tool for the QuickSolver rating and policy administration software. The product is designed to enable users to view and export policy data in real time without requiring technical expertise. It includes 30 reports, each of which can be modified by the client, filtered and grouped to meet unique reporting requirements. Parameters are easy to set and can be saved for future use.

Reports can also be exported to Microsoft Excel for further analysis, as well as to PDFs for archiving and distribution. Some reports include full-plan bureau statistical coding data, detailed policy data (e.g. premiums by coverage, class code, limit, territory), policy forms, form groups and form order; rating data (e.g. LCMs, revisions, deviations).

ADVANCED MAPPING TOOLS FOR CAT RISK MANAGEMENT

Global management consulting firm Towers Perrin, Stamford, Conn., launched CATography, a catastrophe exposure management tool designed to help insurers manage exposure to risk with greater precision and evaluate how new risks will impact existing portfolios.

The CATography suite offers three applications that utilize a common platform to provide customized solutions for each part of the organization: catastrophe risk management, underwriting and claims.

CATography Risk Manager generates maps that display aggregate totals by region for a variety of data, including insured value, premium and loss. Users can filter out certain information or zoom in and review specific data for a single address. CATography Underwriter provides access to model output, demographic data and high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery. Business rules can be developed to automatically evaluate various underwriting guidelines such as modeled loss estimates, distance to coast, flood risk, soil type and crime demographics. CATography Claims provides access to real-time disaster information in map form for integration with exposure data.

TRANSFORM LEGACY CODE

Corticon Technologies, Redwood City, Calif., a provider of model-driven business rules management systems, introduced its Legacy Application Modernization solution, a repeatable, tools-driven process designed to provide immediate transparency into any legacy code. The tool set is designed to discover, extract embedded business logic from legacy code, and transform the business logic into reliable business rules models.

The tool set includes characterization, which works with more than 100 languages to analyze the application as it exists today; knowledge mining and modeling, which reverse-engineers the legacy code to generate a detailed view of the application, including process maps, flowcharts, data models and embedded business rules, and modernization, which represents a range of uses of the rules models.

BPM BOOSTED WITH NEW ENCRYPTION-BASED SECURITY

Pegasystems Inc., a Cambridge, Mass. business process management (BPM) technology provider, says that its latest version of SmartBPM Suite includes more than 40 new advances.

SmartBPM Suite version 5.3 includes new localization capabilities and encryption-based security to help multi-national organizations succeed globally, says the company.

The product's rules-driven research, fine-grained versioning, automated testing and rapid deployment enhancements are designed to enable users to capitalize on opportunities in real-time.

Agile service-oriented architecture, a browser-based user environment and features, such as a new library of process flow notation stencils, are also included.

AUTOMATED UNDERWRITING FOR POINT OF SALE USE

Honolulu-based Decision Research Corp. (DRC) introduced DecisionMaker Assistant (DM Assistant), the latest addition to DRC's DecisionMaker solution suite, designed to enable real-time automated underwriting at the point of sale.

With DM Assistant, P&C insurance companies can offer distribution channels "once and done" real-time service for quoting, underwriting rules and point-of-sale policy fulfillment, according to DRC. Unlike traditional environments where rule changes require time, programming and additional sales training, DM Assistant business users cam promote new rules, forms and output throughout distribution channels.

With DM Assistant much of the sales process is automated with any inadequate or conflicting information quickly identified, resulting in the notification to the point of sale to allow for correction and resubmission.

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