EMPIRE PACIFIC CHOOSES WC SOLUTION
Empire Pacific Risk Management, a Lake Oswego, Ore., administrator of self-insured workers' compensation groups in the Western United States, licensed Mount Arlington, N.J.-based AGO Insurance Software Inc.'s fully integrated Workers Comp Solution to streamline its operations and facilitate growth.
GUARDIAN LIFE STANDARDIZES WITH DIALOGUE
Guardian Life Insurance Co. of America is using Lexington, Ky.-based Exstream Software Inc.'s Dialogue software as the corporate standard for producing complex insurance documents. After success using Dialogue to create a multi-faceted group policy insurance proposal that involved the insertion of complex variable information tailored specifically to the recipient, New York-based Guardian selected Dialogue as a common platform to design, manage and deliver composed documents-streamlining processes and ensuring communications are coordinated, consistent, relevant and build brand loyalty. Dialogue's ability to produce multiple output formats simultaneously from a single design makes it possible for Guardian's clients to view PDF documents on the Web, print them and choose to eliminate receipt of paper copies.
END-TO-END CLAIMS FOR FCCI
After searching for a single, end-to-end claims system to consolidate and manage all of its claims processing, Sarasota, Fla.-based FCCI Insurance Group decided on Guidewire ClaimCenter from Guidewire Software, based in San Mateo, Calif. ClaimCenter will be integrated with FCCI's policy systems, ImageRight document management system, ISO ClaimSearch, medical bill review systems, downstream statistical reporting, and general ledger applications. With ClaimCenter, Guidewire maintains that the FCCI claims organization will be able to centralize loss reporting; standardize claims processing through use of business rules; assign claims automatically based on loss type and accident geography, and consistently process claims regardless of adjuster location.
STATE AUTO FOCUSES ON BI
To fine-tune its ability to use company data as a corporate asset, State Auto Insurance Cos., Columbus, Ohio, selected analytic tools and the SAS Enterprise BI Server component from Cary, N.C.-based SAS Institute Inc. State Auto plans to use the SAS data-driven analytics and key performance indicators to improve its ability to use corporate and third-party data for the pricing process, customer and analytic research programs, sound daily management of results and increased data management efficiency.
THE HARTFORD TO FURTHER STRENGHTEN PLATFORM
Hartford, Conn.-based The Hartford Fire Insurance Co. (The Hartford) licensed a policy administration system, from Chester, Pa.-based AdminServer Inc., to further strengthen the company's growing technology platform. According to AdminServer, it worked closely with The Hartford to ensure the AdminServer platform aligned with the company's strategic direction and comprehensive processing requirements. AdminServer's system includes a rules-based engine that enables clients to define complex and comprehensive products while minimizing program changes.
SUA IN PRODUCTION WITH ADMIN SYSTEM
Chicago-based SUA Insurance Co. is in production with a new end-to-end policy administration system, powered by Bolivar, Mo.-based Duck Creek Technologies Inc.'s EXAMPLE platform. The implementation was completed in less than six months, and SUA's partners can now submit, quote and administer the insurer's commercial products through Internet-based processing. In addition to the Web-based processing capabilities, the platform's service-oriented architecture (SOA) enabled integration with SUA's back-end systems and easy access to the company's data. SUA implemented the complete suite of EXAMPLE platform products, including: EXAMPLE Author, EXAMPLE Server, EXAMPLE Express, EXAMPLE TransACT, EXAMPLE Templates for Commercial Lines and EXAMPLE Forms.
WSTIP INTEGRATES DOC MANAGEMENT, IMAGING AND WORKFLOW
Washington State Transit Insurance Pool (WSTIP), Olympia, Wash., uses ImageNow integrated document management, imaging and workflow solutions from Shawnee, Kan.-based Perceptive Software Inc. to manage insurance claims documentation. Agencies use ImageNow to send documents electronically, reducing the number of hard copies WSTIP receives. Documents are scanned into ImageNow and labeled by event, document type and unique identification number. Multi-page e-mail attachments are created with a single click and sent to WSTIP. ImageNow Mail Agent captures these incoming e-mails and imports them directly into ImageNow for immediate processing.
INSURERS SIGN LEDGER AND AP SOLUTIONS CONTRACTS
Three insurance organizations, NLC Insurance Cos., Norwich, Conn., Mountain States Mutual Casualty Co., Albuquerque, N.M., and Norcal Mutual Insurance Co., San Francisco, signed contracts for PRO Financial general ledger and accounts payable solutions from Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc. PRO Financial solutions are designed to support financial analysis in addition to streamlining the regulatory reporting processes that are unique to the insurance industry. Complex consolidations and allocations are automated, and the systems offer multicurrency conversions and accounting for global commerce. Each of the three insurers purchased additional integrated financial solutions from Fiserv to address its annual statement reporting, automated disbursements and/or compliance reporting.
HERMITAGE DEPLOYS RATING TECHNOLOGY
Hermitage Insurance Co., White Plains, N.Y., will implement the ISO Rating Service to handle its core rating processes. In addition to streamlining rate management and reducing rating maintenance and insurance program development costs, the component-based ISO Rating Service from Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO Insurance Technology Solutions will enable Hermitage to develop and integrate a custom-built quoting front-end without having to replace its existing policy management system. A single rating solution for all business lines enables Hermitage to replace a legacy environment with responsive, customizable rating technology for ISO programs. By using XML in conjunction with the company's IT and integration expertise, Hermitage can streamline its quoting process and remain current with ISO programs.
SECURIAN USES POLICY ADMIN TO LAUNCH PRODUCTS
St. Paul, Minn.-based Securian Financial Group Inc. is using NaviSys Home Office policy administration system from NaviSys Inc., Edison, N.J., to support SecureLink, a fixed indexed annuity that offers fixed interest based on equity index performance with a minimum interest rate guarantee. According to Securian, by using NaviSys Home Office, its actuaries can now configure new products using business rules rather than defining new code processes from scratch. Since 2003, Securian has used the NaviSys solution to launch all of its new annuity products-a total of nine fixed and variable products with a variety of riders and death benefit options.
INDUSTRIAL ALLIANCE CONSOLIDATES DATA
Quebec City-based Industrial Alliance Insurance and Financial Services Inc. selected Moncton, New Brunswick-based Whitehill Technologies Inc.'s software to improve communications with customers and save on production costs. The company purchased Whitehill software to assemble and produce semi-annual statements for its customers. Prior to Whitehill, clients would receive two or more separate statements, depending on the number of policies or funds in their portfolio. Information for each of these statements was stored in a different legacy system, with no way to consolidate the data. Industrial Alliance used Whitehill's software to extract the data from these legacy systems, consolidate it and merge the separate statements into a single package.
STONE INSURANCE SELECTS DOC MANAGEMENT
Stone Insurance Inc., Metairie, La., reports it selected Piscataway N.J.-based EasyLink Services Corp.'s Integrated Desktop Messaging Service to provide a reliable, secure and efficient method of processing critical documents. The solution will offer greater reliability than traditional phone line-based fax machines, claims EasyLink.
WPS IMPROVES EFFICIENCY WITH DOC SYSTEM
Wisconsin Physician Service Insurance Corp. (WPS), Madison, Wis., implemented Cincinnati-based Cincom Systems Inc.'s Intelligent Document Solutions document automation system. Using Intelligent Document Solutions, WPS streamlined its customer communications process in its contact center, reducing average document generation and claimant call times by more than 40%, document generation user-training time from five to two days and editing time on document models from days to minutes. The result: Cincom's Intelligent Document Solutions enabled WPS to produce up to 25,000 customer documents per day-4.5 million per year.
PHYSICIANS MUTUAL LICENSES FJA-US PRODUCT MACHINE
Physicians Mutual Insurance Co., Omaha, Neb., licensed the FJA-US Product Machine from New York-based FJA-US Inc. to facilitate the modeling and development of its insurance products based on IBM's Insurance Application Architecture (IAA) model. Physicians Mutual configured the commercially available software to represent and support IBM's IAA constructs. FJA-US's product machine, combined with IAA in the context of agreement modeling, is designed to enable the efficient and expedient creation and maintenance of both product agreements and intermediary agreements and allow agreements to be created and maintained by end users in a common language with minimal programming effort.
NBA UPGRADES CLAIMS ADMIN SYSTEM
National Benefits America (NBA), a Charlotte, N.C.-based third-party administrator specializing in workers' compensation, recently upgraded to Claims Decisions, a claims administration system from Hartford, Conn.-based Insurity. After NBA lost its database administrator, Insurity helped find a replacement and worked with NBA to put a new team in place.
GREAT AMERICAN CHOOSES DOC PRODUCTION
Great American Financial Resources Inc., a Cincinnati-based provider of insurance and annuities, licensed Markham, Ont.-based InSystems Corp.'s IStream ContentFlow, which includes IStream Writer, IStream Publisher and IStream Document Manager. The suite from InSystems, a document and compliance automation specialist for insurance and financial services recently purchased by Whitehill Technologies Inc., will streamline document production and new product introduction. Great American will use InSystems for all its products: fixed, variable and indexed annuities, and life, supplemental and long-term-care insurance.
MUTUAL OF ENUMCLAW SELECTS DATA WAREHOUSE
To achieve a tenfold increase in performance while reducing infrastructure costs, Mutual of Enumclaw Insurance Co., an Enumclaw, Wash.-based mutual company that provides a broad array of insurance products and services, is using Oracle Database 10g on the Linux platform. By implementing Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Oracle Corp.'s automatic storage management, a key feature of Oracle Database 10g, Mutual of Enumclaw can automatically load-balance its database across multiple available storage disks to enable better performance and reliability, help eliminate the need for manual storage management, and help lower storage and management costs.
