MICHIGAN MILLERS LAUNCHES POLICY ADMINMichigan Millers Mutual Insurance Co. a Lansing-based provider of auto, homeowners, agribusiness and commercial P&C coverage for small and midsize businesses, is implementing a commercial policy administration system from Hartland, Wis.-based AQS Inc. The licensed AQS/advantage components include a policy administration system and a back-end administrator tool used to monitor the ETL process, providing success/failure notifications from the client's back-end systems.
The insurer hopes to gain efficiency in underwriting processes, establish faster turn-around for new business and renewals, and extend policy administration capabilities, including new business, endorsements and renewals, to their agents.
PENN NATIONAL DEPLOYS RATING, UNDERWRITING SYSTEM
P&C carrier Penn National Insurance, Harrisburg, Penn., has selected the InsBridge rating, rules and underwriting system from Skywire Software, Frisco, Texas, to create, deploy and manage complex rating and rules for personal lines of business. Penn National will integrate the software with a legacy policy administration system.
The decision to select InsBridge supports the company's service-oriented architecture (SOA) strategy to leverage existing technology investments and extend the use of modern systems. Penn National will initially deploy InsBridge for rating its personal auto and homeowners lines of business, with plans to roll out InsBridge to support all of the company's personal lines.
CONTENT MANAGEMENT INTEGRATED WITH AMS
Lanier Upshaw, a Lakeland, Fla., insurance brokerage firm, has selected OnBase enterprise content management software from Cleveland-based Hyland Software Inc., to streamline the access and control of documents, e-mail and other data across the company. Lanier Upshaw integrated OnBase with the Sagitta agency management system from AMS Services, Bothel, Wash.
Before obtaining OnBase, Lanier Upshaw's employees retrieved electronic documents through a time-consuming process, cross-referencing annotated notes in the agency management software and then finding the documents on the network, the company reports. On average, the process took up to eight minutes of lookup time. With the OnBase ECM system, all mail is scanned into the central location and documents are routed using a bar code data system the correct employees.
BETA HEALTH ASSOCIATION OUTSOURCES DENTAL PORTAL
Beta Health Association Inc., a Denver provider of voluntary and contributory dental discount plans, will use India-based 3i Infotech's PREMIA Collaborator solution to provide an online portal for Beta Health stakeholders. The product is pre-configured to meet the requirements of the dental business, arming users with online enrollments, billing and payments to help eliminate manual interventions and create better customer engagement.
The 3i Infotech solution is designed to deliver access to vital information on demand, providing Beta Health's employers, employees, brokers and providers with advanced self-service functionality. Beta Health plans to brand the portal toward each of its user groups.
AVIVA BOOSTS ANNUITY PLATFORM WITH ADMINSERVER
European financial services provider Aviva is implementing AdminServer's policy administration system to provide a common platform for the company's U.S. annuity product family, headquartered in Des Moines. The implementation is designed to support a family of 23 annuity products as well as a new enterprise service bus (ESB).
The decision to choose AdminServer, Chester, Pa., is the result of the recent merger of AmerUs Group Co. with a subsidiary of Aviva plc. That brought the opportunity to establish a standardized annuity business process on a single platform to ensure consistency of service and to effectively manage operational costs, the companies report.
TWO CARRIERS SIGN WITH GUIDEWIRE
Two companies will use San Mateo, Calif.-based Guidewire's ClaimCenter to improve their claims adjusting divisions. Chicago-based Specialty Underwriter's Alliance Inc., and its wholly owned specialty P&C subsidiary SUA Insurance Co., will use ClaimCenter to support the end-to-end claims process for all of SUA's lines of business, including workers' compensation, general liability and commercial automobile.
ClaimCenter will be used by SUA's 20-person claims organization and by its third-party administrator claims adjusting partners. The solutions will replace the company's existing legacy claims systems in a phased deployment over eight to 13 months and will ultimately process approximately 10,000 claims annually.
One of Canada's oldest P&C insurers, Toronto-based Dominion of Canada General Insurance Co., is also in production with ClaimCenter. ClaimCenter is being used to modernize and replace the company's legacy claims system. The ClaimCenter rollout started with 35 adjusters and is expected to include 300 adjusters by the end of May 2007. This initial phase includes personal automobile and personal property, along with some commercial automobile lines.
AHIA SIGNS WITH VIMO
A joint marketing agreement between the Falls Church, Va.-based Association of Health Insurance Advisors (AHIA), the health insurance division of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and Vimo, a Mountain View, Calif., provider of an Internet-based comparison shipping site for health care plans and services, will provide AHIA members-brokers involved in group and individual health-related products with discounted access to health insurance leads. In exchange, AHIA will use its network to raise Vimo's profile among the nation's 300,000+ independent insurance agents.
CALL CENTERS EXPAND BPM USE
To drive efficiencies in several of its call centers, American National Insurance Co., a Galveston, Texas, provider of life, property, casualty, credit and health insurance, is expanding its use of the SmartBPM Suite from Pegasystems, Cambridge, Mass. The suite is enabling legacy system data reuse, reducing agent training time, ensuring consistent delivery of information and eliminating redundant work processes. All significant metrics, such as abandonment rates, average speed-of-answer and average handling time, have improved by double digits, reports the company.
MEMIC SELECTS DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
Maine Employers' Mutual Insurance Co. (MEMIC), a Portland, Maine, provider of workers' compensation insurance in the Northeast, will use Transport from Whitehill Technologies Inc., Moncton, New Brunswick, to help speed delivery of critical documents to customers and agents. MEMIC will use the software to deliver policy declarations to customers via e-mail and to make them accessible to agents via a secure Web portal.
Whitehill Transport extracts data from insurers' existing systems, such as policy administration, claims or underwriting. It takes structured data (such as tables and databases) or unstructured data (such as text) and converts it to XML, an open, flexible data standard. The carrier formats the data with Whitehill Layout Designer, a layout tool that helps create professional-looking documents. The finished documents can be delivered via the Web, e-mail, print, mail or fax.
SUNCORP STANDARDIZES ON COGNOS PLATFORM
Suncorp, one of Australia and New Zealand's largest insurance groups, is standardizing on the Insurance Product Performance Blueprint, a performance management solution designed to enable organizations to forecast and report in detail on individual business segments and insurance product profitability. The Burlington, Mass.-based Cognos co-developed the product with Suncorp.
The Insurance Product Performance Blueprint is designed to enable insurers to create income statements and balance sheets at the business segment level, by product line, product and brand, enabling business analysts, product managers and finance executives to report and analyze profitability and effectively plan initiatives to improve business segment results.
CHUBB SIGNS DEALS FOR BPO, AND INSURANCE TO VALUE
Chubb Group of Insurance Cos., headquartered in Warren, N.J., is offering agents and brokers an online application that will make it easier to determine insurance limits for commercial properties. The application, Building Valuation System (BVS), was developed by MSB (Marshall & Swift / Boeckh), a New Berlin, Wis., supplier of building cost data and valuation tools. The system provides construction costs that are updated quarterly, and accounts for regional deviations in pricing. It also provides estimates for costs associated with complying with building codes.
AMERICAN FAMILY SELECTS EXSTREAM
Madison, Wis.-based multi-line carrier American Family Insurance has selected the Dialogue enterprise document automation software from Exstream Software, Lexington, Ky., as a platform to help streamline document production. Using Dialogue, American Family will replace multiple legacy technologies currently deployed to create communications that include letters, bills and other policyholder correspondence. Moving toward a single solution allows the company to share internal development resources and reduce overall costs.
COUCH BRAUNSDORF SELECTS DTI'S OASIS
To manage its brokered and program business, Couch Braunsdorf, a managing general agent (MGA) headquartered in Liberty Corner, N.J., is implementing the OASIS Policy Management and Financial Management software solution from Boston-based Delphi Technology Inc. (DTI).
Couch will include the following OASIS components to administer its Lawyers' Professional Liability business: policy and financial management, central information system, the OASIS document solution and a data warehouse component. Couch will also use OASIS to track claims data provided by the carriers. OASIS will be deployed via a hosted solution with OASIS maintained by DTI at an IBM Hosting Center, and Couch users remotely accessing the system from their New Jersey office.
INSURER STANDARDIZES LAN AND EXTERNAL NETWORK
Grange Insurance Cos., a Columbus, Ohio-based insurance and financial services provider across the South and Midwest, has standardized on the nGenius Performance Management Solution from Westford, Mass.-based NetScout Systems Inc. for its corporate LAN and its secure, external network for independent agents.
Independent agents rely on Grange's Web-based services to carry out a broad range of activities, including sending quotes, signing up new customers and managing billing information. Grange is using the nGenius System to proactively monitor and diagnose problems with the network and agent-supporting applications. Grange is also leveraging nGenius Performance Manager's trend analysis capabilities to monitor the network's bandwidth utilization during peak business hours. This has enabled Grange to achieve cost efficiencies by making bandwidth adjustments at just the right time and with no interruption of customer service, reports NetScout.
ALABAMA INSURANCE BOARD RETAINS HEALTH SERVICES
The State of Alabama selected SHPS Inc.'s health management division as its newest government agency client. The State of Alabama's State Employees' Insurance Board retained Louisville, Ky.-based SHPS for integrated health advocacy services, including disease management, utilization management, case management and a 24-hour nurse line.
SHPS health advocacy is a coordinated set of solutions designed to assist employees with all issues, conditions and decisions relating to their personal health. A knowledgeable health "advocate" provides a single point of access to all programs and services available to the employee, maximizing individual health benefits while minimizing health risks.
STATE AUTO UPGRADES AGENTS' CLAIMS REPORTING
Columbus-based State Auto Insurance Co. implemented the IVANS Transformation Station, a routing service from Stamford, Conn.-based IVANS that creates a bridge between University Park, Ill.-based Applied Systems' agency management systems and State Auto's agency extranet, AgentSite.
As part of the deal, Applied Systems is partnering with Safelite Solutions, a provider of P&C claims management services, to give State Auto's independent agents access to the claims service via its agency management system. Online auto glass claim reporting is available immediately for all State Auto Applied Systems agencies following their regular Transformation Station update.
