Who's Buying What

AON CONSULTING TO SUPPORT ING DIRECT

Chicago-based Aon Consulting has won a competitive tender to support ING Direct's flexible benefits scheme, Pick & Mix, for an initial 12-month period, the companies report. Aon Consulting will provide consultancy, benefit broking and communication services to U.K.-based ING Direct for the Pick & Mix scheme, which will continue to be hosted on the Vebnet technology platform.

ING Direct has long invested in its flexible benefits program and, as an established scheme, Aon Consulting has been tasked to deliver innovative benefit design to ensure that the benefit offering remains relevant and appealing to employees.

"Aon Consulting impressed us with their proven ability to effectively communicate the value of a flexible benefits program to employees," says Lorna Benton, head of compensation and benefits, ING Direct. "The health and well being of our staff is an extremely high priority for us, so the innovation in this field Aon Consulting was able to demonstrate was extremely impressive. As well, all too often flexible benefits are seen as a 'soft' staff and retention tool, but Aon's real-world approach to measuring a benefits program was a large part in this appointment."

ZURICH IN NORTH AMERICA, ALPHASTAFF RENEW WORKERS' COMPENSATION PARTNERSHIP

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Zurich in North America and AlphaStaff Group Inc. renewed its professional employer organization (PEO) partnership, the companies report. AlphaStaff, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based human resource outsourcing company, will continue to provide 50-state workers' compensation coverage at the same rates as last year.

Zurich's workers' compensation product delivery includes servicing global corporate business needs to the middle and small business sectors. AlphaStaff offers a flexible suite of services that focuses on human resources, including HR administration and consulting, benefits administration, workers' comp and safety, payroll and integrated technology solutions, and tax administration, among others.

"We're thrilled to extend our highly successful partnership with AlphaStaff for another year so that we may have the opportunity to serve AlphaStaff's 50,000 worksite employees in a variety of sectors with diverse needs," says Julie Wood, SVP for Zurich's southeast region. "We are confident Zurich's capabilities and experience providing tailored solutions allows us to properly serve AlphaStaff's clients."

KEENAN SELECTS BENEFIT CLAIMS ADMIN SYSTEM

Keenan, a Torrance, Calif.-based privately held insurance brokerage and consulting firm, announced it will implement a conversion to the El Dorado Computing Inc.'s Javelina Benefit Claims Administration system by June 30, 2010.

The system is a browser-based, open-platform, health care claims and benefit administration application. The El Dorado implementation is designed to help Keenan control operating costs while offering best of breed administrative services and enhanced information warehousing analytics and reporting for clients.

Keenan selected Phoenix-based El Dorado, which designs and develops automated software and business processing administration for health care payers, as the new claims administration system vendor for its benefit claims third-party administrator. El Dorado is a division of MphasiS, an EDS/Hewlett-Packard company.

TOKIO MARINE SELECTS PRIMA IBCS AND REPOSITORY

In a trend that points toward the further use of Open Source models, Prima Solutions, a Canoga Park, Calif.-based provider of a buy-and-build insurance software framework, says Tokyo-based Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. Ltd. has chosen Prima IBCS, an insurance reference model now adopted by ACORD.

The agreement also calls for the insurer to use Prima Repository, the insurance-ready, all-in-one SOA platform, to jumpstart a strategic new application development initiative that targets its large commercial products.

The Prima software framework is being used in a two-stage approach. The first stage, which was completed at the end of June 2009, consisted of developing a pilot application. The second stage will see the company rolling over the technology for the development of the larger program. Prima Solutions is a member of ACORD and OMG.

(c) 2009 Insurance Networking News and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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