MEDAVIE BLUE CROSS SIGNS WITH THUNDERHEAD
Medavie Blue Cross has selected Thunderhead's Thunderhead NOW platform to revamp its customer communications and improve overall customer care.
Thunderhead NOW will provide Moncton, New Brunswick-based Medavie Blue Cross with the ability to integrate multiple databases and enterprise content management (ECM) solutions without being locked into one system, the company says.
The business user-centric design of Thunderhead NOW also provides Medavie Blue Cross with increased agility to respond to changes in market conditions and reduce IT dependency. According to the vendor, using a browser-based interface, Thunderhead NOW enables employees at every departmental level to create and deliver correspondence in a timely and relevant manner. In addition, Thunderhead NOW supports Medavie Blue Cross' bilingual requirements, including output in French as well as English.
Looking to the future, Medavie Blue Cross hopes to take advantage of Thunderhead's multi-channel capabilities to reduce print costs in its customer communications.
HUMANA, FORMFIRE TEAM TO OFFER PAPERLESS QUOTING AND ENROLLMENT
A collaborative relationship between Louisville, Ky.-based Humana Inc. and Cleveland-based online technology group FormFire LLC is designed to significantly streamline the cumbersome enrollment and quoting process in health benefits plans.
The first of several proposed joint initiatives between the two companies, the collaboration is designed to create an environment in which Humana's quoting, underwriting and enrollment systems are digitally connected to employers with two to 99 employees throughout Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, and their independent insurance brokers.
Humana is the first health plan in the region to deploy a fully digital quoting and enrollment approach, reports the company. FormFire's digital system allows employee health information to be securely collected and stored online. The same information can be presented as required to any insurance carrier, in formats and workflow systems that interface with a carrier's internal process systems.
RLI USES VOLTAGE TO SECURE PII DATA
RLI, a specialty insurance company based in Peoria, Ill., will use security technology from Voltage Security Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif., provider of encryption technology, to protect critical customer information that is received from its business partners and stores at RLI.
"Our goal is to meet and exceed the expectations of our customers and business partners when it comes to securing data stored within our databases," says Bruce Peifer, information security analyst at RLI. We needed a solution that protects information securely, and can be deployed rapidly, with as little impact as possible to the existing environment," he says. "We started talking to Voltage, did a competitive evaluation and were up and running within six weeks."
UNITRIN DIRECT ADDS DRC'S POLICY ADMIN SOLUTION
Chicago-based Unitrin Direct has expanded its production use of the DecisionMaker Policy Administration Suite from Honolulu-based rating and policy software provider Decision Research Corp. (DRC) to include its homeowners' line of business. The company, which went live in three states with its implementation within seven months of signing the contract, currently supports homeowners business in 10 states.
"With the flexibility and speed to market of the system, we can add new lines of business, such as direct-to-consumer homeowners, condo-owners and renters products in a reasonable timeframe and without disrupting the ongoing operation and service," says Michael Stahl, director of product management at Unitrin Direct.
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