DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER INSURER CHOOSES RULES MANAGEMENT SYSTEMPrecedent Insurance Co., a subsidiary of American Community Mutual Insurance Co., headquartered in Livonia, Mich., chose Redwood Shores, Calif.-based Corticon Technologies' Business Rules Management System as a critical component in the development and management of Precedent's direct-to-consumer healthcare insurance solution. Precedent plans to deliver a suite of health insurance solutions called REMIX, which includes "Coverage on Demand" plans that charge the insured for only the health insurance coverage they need.
"Using Corticon as a central element in our strategy we have already begun the transition of the development of underwriting rules to our business staff," says Don Ames, CTO, Precedent Insurance. "An additional benefit to Corticon's model-driven approach is that all the business rules are understandable by a wide-range of our business users, providing us a level of transparency in our business logic that we would not have been able to achieve through other solutions."
OMFN SELECTS SKYWIRE'S INSURANCE DATA EXCHANGE
London-based Old Mutual Financial Network (OMFN) will automate the exchange of policy data with its brokerage general agencies and independent marketing organizations using Insurance Data Exchange (IDX) from Skywire Software, Frisco, Texas.
IDX is a centralized data hub that automates real-time data exchange between carriers, BGAs, IMOs, and service providers for life, health and annuities. OMFN will use IDX to exchange pending policy data with its distribution network, eliminating the need for its BGAs and IMOs to visit the company's Web site, check status, and then manually enter data into an agency management system.
AAA SELECTS COSS' WEB-BASED ILLUSTRATION SYSTEM
Livonia, Mich.-based AAA Life Insurance Co. chose Huntersville, N.C.-based COSS Development Corp. to supply an integrated Web-based illustration system. The AAA system will include Basic Needs Analysis, quotes and illustrations for Return of Premium Term, a referral function, an underwriting calculator and electronic forms for new business submission.
ACHMEA IMPLEMENTS DOCUMENT AUTOMATION
Achmea, an insurer and pension administrator based in the Netherlands, is implementing Lexington, Ky.-based Exstream Software Inc.'s Dialogue enterprise document automation software across 16 business units to streamline document creation processes and provide value-added communications for its customers.
Achmea chose Dialogue for its ability to generate all of the personalized document types they expect to create, including statements, enrollment forms, marketing materials, and customer letters, as well as its open architecture for integrating with the company's existing corporate systems and IT infrastructure.
ACC MANAGES ALL CLAIMS WITH FINEOS SOLUTION
The final wave of Accident Compensation Corp. (ACC) users has gone live on the FINEOS Claims solution. More than 2,000 ACC users are now live on FINEOS Claims, known internally as Eos. All claimant and claim information has also been migrated to the new system and business units are using Eos to manage these claims. The roll-out coincides with the signing of a Premium Support Services Agreement with New Zealand-based ACC.
Dublin, Ireland-based FINEOS Corp. will provide on-going maintenance and support for Eos and work with ACC to identify business improvement opportunities to optimize the benefits of Eos across the organization. ACC selected the system in 2004 to process claims for bodily injury, work cover and workers' compensation.
INSURER SIGNS CONTRACT FOR CREDIT VALUATION TOOLS
Munich, Germany-based Allianz SE signed a multi-year contract with Moody's KMV, a provider of quantitative credit risk measurement and management solutions.
San Francisco-based Moody's will provide Allianz with credit valuation tools. Included in the agreement is RiskFrontier, a "next-generation" multi-user, portfolio management solution, which is built on a robust data platform.
Allianz SE will use RiskFrontier to analyze the effect of CDO tranches in its portfolios and to facilitate stress-testing across multiple commercial loans and asset classes, required by many banking and commerce regulators. In addition, Allianz SE will use Credit Monitor and CreditEdge, a tool for quantifying default risk.
AMERITAS GENERATES CUSTOM POLICY DOCUMENTS, IDS
Ameritas Group, Lincoln, Neb., is using software from Moncton, New Brunswick-based Whitehill Technologies Inc. to generate policies, certificates and ID cards for its group customers. Ameritas is using IStream Publisher from Whitehill Technologies to generate custom-tailored policy documents, as well as certificates and ID cards for each individual member.
Ameritas stores generated documents in an electronic repository, and displays them online through a secure Web portal. This gives customers instant, easy access to their documents, and has resulted in significant savings for the insurer, according to the vendor.
CNA SPECIALTY LINES SELECTS PRODUCTAUTHORITY SUITE
CNA Financial Corp., a Chicago-based commercial insurance writer in the United States, chose ProductAuthority from Camilion Solutions, Markham, Ontario, as the product development solution for its specialty lines business.
CNA will use ProductAuthority as a faster alternative to building a solution in-house, to streamline their product development processes, increase their product capacity and reduce costs.
GENERAL AGENCY REPORTS FASTER TIME-TO-MARKET
Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc., a San Diego-based privately held general agency, reports faster time-to-market of new products by as much as 50% since implementing xPression software suite from Carlsbad, Calif.-based Document Sciences Corp.
Arrowhead General reports that it has improved document quality, overall presentation since integrating xPression into its organization. With xPression, users have taken greater ownership over application changes, minimizing IT's involvement in design and maintenance of document applications.
Arrowhead General will continue to leverage xPression's integration capabilities by incorporating the technology into its sales portal, Arrowhead Exchange, as well as improving document quality by continually consolidating its document production onto xPression.
WESTLAND PROTECTS TECH WITH BUSINESS CONTINUITY
Westland Insurance Group Ltd., New Westminster, British Columbia, implemented high-availability solutions from Neverfail Group Ltd., Berkshire, England to protect the company's Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, File Server and IIS environments. In 2005 and 2006, Westland Insurance conducted internal and external audits of the company's business continuity and disaster recovery plans to determine the company's level of preparedness.
During the audits, Westland's IT department identified four mission critical applications-Exchange, SQL Server, File Server and IIS-that required continuous protection. The company immediately began the search for a high availability solution that was easy to install and manage, could operate in geographically dispersed scenarios and would proactively alert IT staff if any issues arose. The Neverfail solutions monitor the health of an organization's entire server environment including hardware, network infrastructure, operating system and supported applications.
