Who's Buying What

LIFE POLICY ADMINISTRATIONSecurian Financial Group Inc., a St. Paul, Minn.-based provider of financial products, selected the AdminServer Policy Administration System from AdminServer Inc., Chester, Pa. The system will be implemented as a common platform for the rapid development, launch and efficient administration of Securian's new life insurance products. The implementation also includes IllustrationServer, which uses AdminServer's Common Calculation Architecture. This will provide Securian a processing model with a common set of business rules between policy illustration and policy processing.

CASUALTY CLAIM MANAGEMENT

Broadspire Services, a third-party administrator of casualty claims, medical management and integrated disability management services based in Plantation, Fla., has chosen iVOS from San Ramon, Calif.-based Valley Oak Systems Inc. as its new casualty claim system. Broadspire evaluated a number of claims systems and chose iVOS based on its ability to offer the most comprehensive solution for 245 clients who receive workers' compensation and auto and general liability claims services from the TPA. iVOS will replace multiple Broadspire systems and ultimately consolidate claims intake and administration, billing, reporting, financial and managed care functionality into a single platform.

POLICY AND CLAIMS SERVICES

Edison Insurance Co., St. Petersburg, Fla., selected WaterStreet Co, Bigfork, Mont., to provide homeowners and flood policy and claims administration services. Specifically, WaterStreet's new technology called Aquant is designed to enable each Edison user to securely access the system with as much or as little functionality as the company determines. Edison users will experience sub-second updates and virtually instant field-by-field server validation. This is designed to give claims adjusters in the field, agents in a satellite office or company representatives an in-house system experience.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE FOR RATING

Personal auto insurer Unitrin Direct has selected SAS Enterprise BI Server to improve internal productivity, while also enhancing the analytical process underlying the development of its auto insurance rates. Unitrin Direct, a segment of Unitrin Inc. headquartered in Chicago, has been a SAS customer since 2001 and plans to use the Cary, N.C., provider for a variety of future initiatives, such as rate simulations multivariate analyses of its auto rating structure.

BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT

Chicago-based Adeptia Inc. has deployed its business process management (BPM) product at Preserver Insurance Group, Newark, N.J. Preserver Group will use Adeptia's BPM for Insurance for several applications: automating workflows that involve several manual tasks, such as data entry by business analysts, validations and corrections; making it easier and more efficient for agents to work with Preserver by offering automated upload and download of policy information in real-time; and connecting back-end applications with seamless integration and data flows between policy management systems, rating packages, claims applications and accounting.

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT AND SALES

ACE USA, the U.S.-based division of the ACE Group of Companies, has licensed AuthorityUnderwriter and Product-Authority from Toronto-based Camilion Solutions Inc. These products are designed to create efficiency and ease of use for producers, and improve speed to market for a range of insurance products. ACE USA sought a sales and underwriting product to support ACE Online, its real-time, quote and bind portal for online delivery of insurance products and customized risk management services and tools. The carrier's goal is to move more products to online distribution channels.

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Southern Trust Insurance Co., a Macon, Ga.-based regional provider of personal and commercial property/casualty insurance, has licensed AcroSoft Corp.'s Insurance Content Management solution. Beginning as a project to provide backup of the carrier's files and documents as part of its overall catastrophe plan, the initiative led to the selection of a full document management system. AcroSoft Corp. is a Columbia, S.C.-based company that provides electronic imaging, filing and storage, object, document and automated workflow and work management to insurance companies.

RATING AND POLICY ADMIN

Chicago-based Noodle Specialty Brokers, a division of online broker Insurance-Noodle, signed an agreement with INSTEC, Naperville, Ill., for implementation of INSTEC's QuickSolver Commercial Package rating and policy administration. Noodle Specialty Brokers will integrate the INSTEC software within the NoodleASPTM platform to process excess and surplus property and liability lines of business for more than 300 classes of business. QuickSolver will rate "main street" and many "off main street" businesses on behalf of two large national carriers for InsuranceNoodle's network, which consists of more than 2,400 independent commercial agency partners and wholesalers.

WEB-BASED POLICY WRITING PLATFORM

Western Life Assurance Co, of Alberta, Canada, is using a Web-based policy-writing platform, called WriteNow, from MFX, a Parsipanny, N.J.-based provider of technology and IT outsourcing solutions. Western Life is using the platform for its suite of @pprove online, term life products. WriteNow was developed by MFX to provide agents and brokers with the ability to qualify, rate, quote, bind and deliver policy documents in minutes. MFX is a subsidiary of Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.

IT SERVICES MANAGEMENT

Insurance Australia Group (IAG), headquartered in Sydney, has selected Skywire Software's iWave Integrator, an integration framework for IT services management (ITSM) applications. Insurance Australia Group's initial project will use iWave Integrator to connect Microsoft Oper-ations Manager (MOM) to IBM Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC). iWave Integrator is an integration framework designed to make ITSM applications communicate in near-real time to exchange alerts, notifications, trouble tickets and support data. iWave Integrator produces highly customizable integrations among an unlimited and interchangeable number of ITSM applications, according to Frisco, Texas-based Skywire Software LLC.

REAL-TIME AGENCY DOWNLOAD

AssuranceAmerica Corp., an Atlanta-based provider of property/casualty insurance to the non-standard private automobile market, selected Connective Technologies Inc. to provide Internet-secure downloads for those agents using the Houston-based company's TEAM-UP Download product. After a two-month implementation, AssuranceAmerica's agents will be able to retrieve in real-time, a policy or a group of policies from archives without any dependency on the insurance company's customer support group.

POLICY ADMINISTRATION

Harleysville Insurance has licensed the AQS/advantage suite from AQS Inc., a Hartland, Wisc., provider of commercial policy administration solutions to the property/casualty insurance industry. The suite includes: AQS/advantage, AQS' policy administration system; AQS/advantage Integrator, its integration solution; and AQS/advantage Product Manager, a self-maintenance tool. Two key corporate priorities for the Harleysville, Pa.-based carrier are to continue to make it as easy as possible for agents to do business with the company and to shorten the product development life cycle.

IT APPLICATION OUTSOURCING

Supported by onshore and offshore resources, Phoenix Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of The Phoenix Companies Inc., is using the Applications Management Services of Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), El Segundo, Calif. A CSC client since the early 1980s, Phoenix uses a number of CSC software applications, including VANTAGE-ONE, PerformancePlus, Repetitive Payment System, JETS and LIFE-COMM, to manage its life insurance and annuity products. Last December, Hartford, Conn.-based Phoenix signed a new five-year contract with CSC to provide applications maintenance and development services.

POINT-OF-SALE SYSTEM

Kansas City Life Insurance Co., Kansas City, Mo., has selected COSS Development Corp., Huntersville, N.C., to deliver advanced marketing software to the financial services company's home office and field force. COSS specializes in illustration and point-of-sale systems for the financial services industry. COSS' marketing system includes 20 marketing concepts and presentation modules, including estate liquidity funding, charitable giving, policy value analysis, buy/sell funding with life insurance, split dollar, executive bonus, and dynamic duo.

RATING, UNDERWRITING, PROPOSAL SYSTEM

WEA Insurance Corp. has chosen the EXAMPLE Platform from Duck Creek Technologies Inc, Bolivar, Mo., to provide a rating, underwriting, and proposal generation system for the Madison, Wisc.-based insurer's multiple lines of business. WEA Insurance, which provides insurance and financial services to Wisconsin public school employees, is implementing Duck Creek's EXAMPLE Author, EXAMPLE Server, EXAMPLE Express, EXAMPLE TransACT, and EXAMPLE Forms products.

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