Who's Buying What

WEALTH RISK MANAGEMENTThe Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., Warren, N.J., has selected New York-based Risk Control Strategies to support its new Signature Suite offering of luxury personal risk management services. Signature Suite is designed to help identify potential threats and help affluent individuals protect their families and wealth. Risk Control Strategies will provide Chubb's high-net-worth and family office customers with a complimentary personal risk assessment. Risk Control Strategies will also offer Chubb's clients an array of services including cyber crime investigations, identity theft prevention and response, and premise security strategy and implementation.

FORMS LIBRARY

Wellington Specialty Insurance Co., Scottsdale, Ariz., has purchased Library Xpress software from Dallas-based customer communication management provider Docucorp International. Wellington will use Library Xpress to provide its network of managing general agents (MGAs) with a comprehensive forms library that includes both company-specific forms, as well as ISO forms for its property line of business.

CLAIMS TECHNOLOGY

Achmea, a Holland-based financial services provider, has selected PredictiveClaims from Chicago-based SPSS Inc., a provider of predictive analytics technology and services. Achmea will use the software to determine in real time -at the claim-notification stage-low risk claims that qualify for immediate approval and those that are suspicious and need to be further investigated.

POLICY ADMINISTRATION

GuideOne Insurance has the policy administration system for commercial and personal lines from Hartford, Conn.-based Insurity Inc. The Insurity system will handle underwriting, rate/quote, workflow and policy-issuance functions, replacing several of the West Des Moines, Iowa-based carrier's older legacy core systems.

OUTSOURCING DEAL

New York-based commercial multi-peril insurer Dryden Mutual Insurance Co., has contracted with information technology services provider 3i Infotech, Mumbai, India, to use its PREMIA insurance management solutions suite, which is designed to manage its business operations. The PREMIA solutions will support rating and quoting, policy administration, claims, reinsurance and accounting on a single platform.

RONALD KATZ LICENSE

Guardian Life Insurance Co., New York, has entered a license under the patent portfolio held by Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing LP through its affiliate, A2D LP, Los Angeles. The 52 United States patents held by Ronald A. Katz Technology cover a wide range of interactive technology including automated forms of customer service, as well as functions involved in securing information from databases by telephone, interactive cable transactions, and various other uses of toll-free and local numbers.

ELECTRONIC BILLING

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C., has selected Benefitfocus.com Inc., Mount Pleasant, S.C., to provide electronic billing services to its administrative service accounts, adding to its suite of Benefitfocus enrollment and data exchange services. Benefitfocus eBilling is designed to deliver electronic invoices, the capability to run reports from the invoice data and the ability to export invoice data to spreadsheet programs.

AGENT AND BROKER TECHNOLOGY

Coventry First, a Philadelphia-based life settlement company, has contracted with iPipeline, a broker technology provider based in Exton, Pa., to syndicate secondary market content directly onto general agents' Web sites. Using iPipeline's content repository, Coventry First intends to make it easier for its general agents to submit policies for a non-binding appraisal of their clients' life insurance policies and to obtain marketing and training materials.

ENTERPRISE INCENTIVE MANAGEMENT

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida has deployed TrueComp enterprise incentive management software from Callidus Software Inc., San Jose, Calif. With TrueComp, BCBSF processes more than 60,000 transactions per month and the software provides the Jacksonville, Fla.-based health insurer's compensation managers with a new licensing and appointment system. The software was implemented by BCBSF staff with support from Callidus strategic partner Accenture, the Bermuda-based management consulting, technology services and outsourcing.

POLICY ADMINISTRATION

The Innovation Group, Hartford, Conn., and the Auto Club Insurance Association, an affiliate of the Dearbron, Mich.-based Auto Club Group, have extended their technology support relationship. The two companies began working together in 2000 and The Innovation Group has played a key role in developing the software program that supports ACIA's information technology platform for policy administration.

NETWORK SECURITY SERVICES

Amica Mutual Insurance Co., a Lincoln, R.I.-based automobile insurer, has selected the Managed DNS Service from UltraDNS Corp., Brisbane, Calif. By deploying on the UltraDNS platform, Amica intends to improve the reliability and capacity of its online claim-reporting and insurance-quoting services. Amica is migrating many business applications to the Internet and UltraDNS' managed services are designed to protect the carrier's customers from Internet security vulnerabilities, including pharming and network threats that could present financial dangers. Backed by a network uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA), Amica Insurance is leveraging UltraDNS' fault-tolerant, global directory infrastructure to provide critical layers of network security, reliability and management.

PERSONAL PENSION SUITE

Friends Provident Plc, a U.K-based financial services group, is relaunching the Individual Personal Pensions (IPP) suite of products from Wipro Technologies, a division of India-based Wipro Ltd., with significant enhancements. Wipro was awarded the $3-million project to make the technology backbone more robust and included integration of five locations. A team of consultants from Wipro worked with the Friends Provident team to complete the project in 16 months.

HOME VALUATION TOOL

The Seibels Bruce Group Inc., Columbia, S.C., has implemented ISO HomeValue, a Web-based residential replacement cost estimator, at Catawba Insurance Co., a regional carrier that writes homeowners policies in South Carolina. This was Seibels Bruce Groups' first implementation of ISO HomeValue. ISO HomeValue is designed to enable underwriters and independent agents to estimate the replacement value for houses ranging from a two-bedroom bungalow to a 12-bedroom estate.

POLICY AND CLAIMS ADMINISTRATION

Fort Worth, Texas-based Hallmark Financial Services Inc. has signed a licensing agreement for PREMIA, an integrated policy and claims administration system from 3i Infotech, location. The technology will be deployed to manage the commercial P&C business that is currently underwritten by Hallmark in six states. Hallmark chose PREMIA because it's a single integrated solution that includes automated workflow, imaging, agent integration, and a built-in product Configurator.

APPLICATION DATA INTEGRATION

The PriorityRate.com Internet-based comparative rating system from Priority Data Systems, Omaha, Neb., will now accommodate personal auto and home quotes and application submissions directly into The Main Street America Group's processing system. This will eliminate the need for Main Street agents to re-enter quote and application data. Main Street America will use the submitted information to complete policy issuance. Based in Jacksonville, Fla., The Main Street America Group operates four property and casualty insurance carriers: NGM Insurance Co., Old Dominion Insurance Co., Main Street America Assurance Co. and MSA Insurance Co.

NPI SOLUTION

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has selected the Portico NPI (national provider identifier) Solution from Philadelphia-based Portico Systems to accelerate the health plan's NPI implementation. Eagan-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota selected Portico Systems because the system minimizes the changes the insurer has to make to its current business processes and technology infrastructure. Portico NPI Solution is designed to holistically address NPI compliance, including the collection of NPIs from providers and adapting the plan's transaction processing to use NPI.

CLAIMS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Aon Consulting Inc., a Chicago-based risk management and group benefit consulting firm, selected the Urix Analytic Platform to help Aon clients better understand their healthcare claims data and take corrective actions. Urix developed UAP as an integrated, Web-based analytic tool that is scalable for implementation on a national level. The Urix Analytic Platform combines three key components: USTART for mapping, cleansing and normalizing claims data from diverse sources; eCLARE for ad hoc online claims analysis; and PRESS for customized employer group report publishing "on the fly." Urix is a healthcare business intelligence firm based in Cheshire, Conn.

BASEL II COMPLIANCE

The Securitisation team at London-based Lloyds TSB has selected the Reveleus Basel II Solution to meet the capital adequacy requirements as prescribed in the Basel II Accord. Lloyds TSB is implementing the solution, from Reveleus, an Edison, N.J.-based provider of analytical applications for the financial services industry, to bring policies and methodologies in compliance with the standards outlined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Reveleus' calculation engine is designed to ease the complexity of adopting the Internal Ratings Based Approach for Credit Risk. The solution will integrate multi-jurisdictional data from the Securitisation team and apply capital adequacy calculations, which will roll up into Lloyds TSB's corporate Basel II framework. The solution will also support the requirements of supervisory reporting and disclosure.

CLAIMS PROCESSING SYSTEM

Recognizing the limitations of its existing legacy claims technology, The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Co., Toronto, has selected ClaimCenter from Guidewire Software Inc., San Mateo, Calif. The Dominion embarked on an extensive search for a replacement system and chose Guidewire's system to support the end-to-end claims handling process for all lines of business. Legacy system replacement will be completed in a phased approach over the next several years.

POLICY PROCESSING PLATFORM

Chicago-based Specialty Underwriters Insurance Company (SUA), has chosen Duck Creek's EXAMPLE Platform to provide a Web-enabled, end-to-end policy administration system. The implementation is currently underway and on track for production for all commercial lines in all states in which SUA operates. SUA selected the technology from Bolivar, Mo.-based Duck Creek Technologies to provide Internet-based processing to its partners. Additionally, Duck Creek's EXAMPLE Platform offers integration to SUA's back-end systems and easy access to the company's data.

LOCATION INTELLIGENCE

TAPCO Underwriters Inc., Burlington, N.C., has selected Troy, N.Y.-based MapInfo Corp. to integrate location intelligence into its underwriting process. Specializing in the placement of excess and surplus lines of business for both personal and commercial accounts, TAPCO works with insurance agents to find a carrier to underwrite high-risk policies, such as those in flood zones. Prior to using MapInfo, TAPCO conducted distance-to-coast analysis manually, which was time-consuming and not 100% accurate. Using MapInfo's Web services-based architecture, Envinsa, integrated into TAPCO's proprietary system, the exact distance to coast is automatically calculated and presented to underwriters after a policy's address has been entered.

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