Who's Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services

BUSINESS SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES FOR ATLANTICNew York-based Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co. chose MFX to provide business software development, maintenance and enhancement services from MFX's data center facility in Roanoke, Va. MFX hired the application support staff previously supporting Atlantic Mutual's proprietary business software applications. The new team will support Atlantic Mutual, as well as gain knowledge and exposure to MFX's proprietary products including WriteNow, ClaimsAssure and RiskVault. Atlantic Mutual's proprietary business software applications will continue to be owned by Atlantic Mutual.

HEALTH CARE PROVIDER TO RECONFIGURE WORKFLOW

Healthcare Providers Insurance Co. (HPIC), Madison, Miss., selected PREMIA, from Edison, N.J.-based 3i Infotech, to administer to the medical malpractice insurance lines it provides to members of the Madison, Miss.-based Mississippi Hospital Association, (MHA) and other health care providers. A Risk Retention Group sponsored by the MHA, HPIC serves the liability insurance needs of Mississippi hospitals and other health care providers. HPIC expects PREMIA to reconfigure its workflow so operations run efficiently.

NEW MEXICO MUTUAL DEPLOYS NEW CLAIMS SYSTEM

New Mexico Mutual Casualty Co., an Albuquerque, N.M.-based workers' compensation carrier in the state of New Mexico, fully deployed ClaimCenter from San Mateo, Calif.-based Guidewire Software Inc. Now in production, ClaimCenter supports the insurer's entire claims organization and all phases of the claims process. New Mexico Mutual experienced real-time view of inventory, the ability for in-house medical bill reviewers and adjusters to work in the same claims system, built-in productivity tools and more captured claim data.

DESJARDINS MIGRATES TO NEW PLATFORM WITH BLUEPHOENIX

Desjardins General Insurance Group, a Lévis, Quebec-based direct property and casualty insurer in Canada, chose BluePhoenix Solutions Ltd., headquartered in Cary, N.C., to manage a multi-million dollar platform and database migration project. The project involves migrating Desjardins General's current COBOL/IDMS applications to a Windows/COBOL (Fujitsu NetCOBOL) and Unix/Oracle platform environment. This will enable Desjardins General to operate in a more standard IT environment suited to its current insurance applications.

NEEDS ANALYSIS SUPPORT PROVIDED FOR FARM FAMILY

Fiserv Insurance Solutions, a unit of Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc., released its Life Portraits ES sales illustration system for Farm Family Life Insurance Co., a Glenmont, N.Y.-based member of the American National family of companies. With Life Portraits ES, Farm Family provides its field force with needs-based selling. Needs analysis presentations calculate a prospect's financial goals, which are then used to produce accurate, regulation-compliant sales illustrations. Life Portraits ES provides Farm Family with support for whole life, universal life and term life, with added support for advanced sales illustrations.

NATIONWIDE RUNS VIRTUAL SERVERS ON MAINFRAME

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., based in Columbus, Ohio, completed deployment of a virtualization solution running SUSE Linux from Waltham, Mass.-based Novell Inc. on IBM mainframe computers to help the company reduce the total cost of ownership of its IT environment. Running two IBM System z900 servers on Linux, Nationwide is deploying hundreds of virtual servers onto the mainframe systems to help it reduce the costs of data-center floor space, power and Web hosting.

CHUBB EUROPE CHOOSES END-TO-END POLICY SYSTEM

Chubb Insurance Company of Europe S.A. bought a new end-to-end solution from Docucorp International Inc., Dallas, to automate the design, production, management and delivery of all its policy-related correspondence. Docucorp's solution will replace Chubb's reliance on Microsoft Word, enabling the insurer to establish a series of rules governing its policies and general correspondence. The rules within the new system relate to a number of reusable templates, which can prescribe anything from standardized content, through to branding, logo positioning, font and color, thus ensuring both greater consistency and more centralized control across the organization. Using these rules, Chubb will be able to create a standardized design function and achieve greater control over policies, thus supporting contract certainty.

REPLACEMENT COST ESTIMATOR

South Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co., West Columbia, S.C., contracted with Boston-based risk management software provider AIR Worldwide to use ISO HomeValue, its Web-based residential replacement cost estimator. The product is designed to enable SCFB and its agents to make reliable estimates of the replacement cost of residential properties in the event of a total loss. The carrier, which already uses AIR's CLASIC/2 catastrophe risk management system, selected ISO HomeValue to further improve the insurance-to-value of its portfolio and streamline the incorporation of high quality replacement cost and property data into its catastrophe modeling process.

AGENCY INTERFACE SYSTEM

Everest Security Insurance Co., Alpharetta, Ga., will use the TEAM-UP Download agency interface program from Connective Technologies, a Houston integration and interface technology firm. TEAM-UP Download is an Internet-secure offering designed to provide accessibility to more than 10,000 trading partners with more than 28 different agency management systems throughout the United States. The system will provide Everest's 300 agents with a seamless migration from other download processes.

AUTOMATIC ROUTING

Aflac, Columbus, Ga., licensed an enterprise BPM solution from Dallas-based Global360 to support conversion of a manual correspondence system into an electronic process management system solution. The paperless process is designed to reduce cycle times and increase response times to customer queries. Aflac will use the system to automatically route all work requests received via the Web site to the correct department within the company, eliminating all manual routing.

BPO DEAL

New York-based TIAA-CREF Life Insurance Co. launched its newest product, Intelligent Life variable universal life insurance, from McCamish Systems' BPO site in Atlanta. McCamish, a technology services provider, will provide full back-office support including policy issue, service center support, policy administration, disbursements and claims processing.

BUSINESS AVAILABILITY

Israel-based Phoenix Insurance is using Mercury Business Availability from Mercury Interactive Corp., a Mountain View, Calif., business technology optimization (BTO) software provider. Mercury will help Phoenix manage the business-critical applications and processes that support its distribution network. Phoenix provides general, life, health and nursing insurance services through its network of more than 3,000 agents.

GENERALI IMPLEMENTS POLICY ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM

New York-based Generali US Branch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Assicurazioni Generali Inc., agreed to implement QuickSolver Commercial Automobile and Commercial Package from Naperville, Ill.-based INSTEC Insurance Information Technology Inc. Generali provides policy administration services for the U.S.-based risks of European-originated insurance agreements. Users process multi-line commercial insurance, written in 48 states, using bureau-based rates, rules and forms. Users also have easy access to QuickSolver's SQL database for use with management and accounting reports as well as bureau reporting requirements.

BPM FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

Electric Insurance Co., Beverly, Mass., has contracted with Cambridge, Mass.-based Pegasystems Inc. to streamline its customer service operations. The insurer will use the PegaRULES Process Commander to provide its agents and customer service representatives with improved access to customer information in real-time, improved guidance on cross-selling opportunities and the ability to resolve inbound calls more quickly.

INTEGRO SECURES E-MAIL TRANSMISSION AND STORAGE NEW YORK-BASED INTEGRO Insurance Brokers selected the SecureMail system from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Voltage Security Inc. to provide policy-based data protection for the transmission and storage of e-mail communications. Employees within Integro will use Voltage SecureMail to provide secure messages among Integro employees, business partners and customers. Also specific to this application is the use of Voltage SecureMail to protect mobile messages sent from Integro executives using handheld devices.

CONSECO CHOOSES VERINT OPUS FOR PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Indianapolis-based Conseco Inc. deployed Opus from Melville, New York-based Verint Opus to enhance operational performance across its call center operations, policy holder services and medical management divisions. Conseco predicts Opus will identify the root causes of service performance issues and continually monitor the effectiveness of Conseco's operations.

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