ANPAC ENHANCES ENTERPRISE DATA WAREHOUSE OFFERINGSpringfield, Mo.-based American National Property and Casualty Co. (ANPAC) selected Evolutionary Technologies International Inc.'s (ETI), ETI Solution and ETI Data Profiler as their enterprisewide data integration platform. The products from ETI, an Austin, Texas, global provider of data integration solutions, are designed to provide real-time data to strategic and operational decision-makers.
According to the company, ETI Solution will consolidate data across multiple subsidiaries, create unified data views, heighten management visibility into customers and field operations, streamline reporting and accelerate ANPAC's sales and product delivery cycles.
In addition to using ETI Solution for building efficient data integrations, ANPAC will use ETI Data Profiler to reduce time and labor requirements for analyzing the data and building the data warehouse. ETI Data Profiler is designed to reduce overall project costs, produce graphical analytics in minutes versus hours and manage the iterative process of addressing and normalizing data issues.
COMMERCE GROUP EXTENDS PACT WITH CGI GROUP
Montreal-based CGI Group Inc. (CGI), a provider of information technology and business process services, reached an agreement with The Commerce Group Inc., a Webster, Mass., writer of private passenger automobile insurance, to extend their personal and commercial automobile policy processing services agreement through Dec. 31, 2011.
CGI decided to enhance the current insurance processing systems used by Commerce Group in Massachusetts, and to modernize those systems to enhance their capacity to compete in the Massachusetts marketplace. Both parties agreed to enter into negotiations on a new long-term agreement by October of this year.
CONNECTIVE SIGNS CONTRACT WITH ARBELLA INSURANCE
Connective Technologies Inc., Houston, a provider of e-Commerce business solutions for the property/casualty insurance industry, signed a contract with Quincy, Mass.-based Arbella Insurance Group for licensing and implementing TEAM-UP Download and Data Translation solutions. The applications provide once-and-done processing in an industry-compliant, data-secure environment for agency downloads. With an improved data translation process and environment, the company holds that both applications are easy to use and maintain.
Now in its third major release, TEAM-UP Download has evolved to provide agencies with a seamless migration from other download processes. The improved self-reliant features, such as single-policy, real-time archival retrievals by the agents, improved group management distribution and tracking features that ease and accelerate the registration process for both agencies and carriers, have been implemented with TEAM-UP's service-oriented architecture.
INSURERS CHOOSE STG'S RENAISSANCE SUITE
Systems Task Group (STG), New York, an enterprisewide provider of property/casualty insurance software solutions, announced three insurance client contract signings, and the successful implementation of billing and policy components of STG's Renaissance Suite by an additional four insurance clients.
Companies that recently purchased STG's Renaissance Billing include Farmers Alliance Mutual Insurance Co., McPherson, Kan., and Max Specialty Insurance Co., Richmond, Va.
STG clients that recently implemented Renaissance Billing include:
Capitol Indemnity Corp., Middleton, Wis.; Max Specialty Insurance Co., Richmond, Va.; and RLI Insurance, Peoria, Ill.
Another existing STG client, New York-based Tokio Marine Management Inc., implemented Renaissance Policy for its New York personal auto business using STG's Managed Application Hosting service.
STG's Renaissance Suite is designed to provide fully integrated or stand-alone components for policy, billing and claims automation. Based on the Oracle platform and using Java/HTML as the presentation layer, Renaissance solutions offer insurers the ability to establish efficient workflows, manage complex product distribution schemes and accommodate different business models, the company says.
HERITAGE UNION SELECTS MCCAMISH SYSTEMS
Atlanta-based McCamish Systems LLC, a provider of business process outsourcing administration services to the life insurance industry, announced that Heritage Union Life Insurance Co., Richmond, Va., selected McCamish to provide policy administration services for its series of income continuation products designed for mid-market consumers and distributed on a direct-marketing basis. McCamish will provide a range of back-office services, including business processing and contract issuing, a call center, contract maintenance and claims processing.
Heritage Union's products range from accidental death insurance to fully underwritten life insurance.
KINGSWAY IMPLEMENTS INSURITY SOLUTION
Kingsway Financial Services Inc., a P&C insurer in the United States and Canada, completed the first stage of its companywide implementation of Insurance Decisions, an end-to-end insurance processing application from Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint's Insurity. Insurance Decisions will provide rating, quoting, underwriting, issuance, billing, reinsurance, claims administration, management-reporting and bureau-reporting services for Kingsway.
Kingsway's Lincoln General Insurance Co. subsidiary, which claims to be North America's largest truck insurer, began issuing commercial policies utilizing Insurance Decisions just five months after implementation began, says Claude Smith, vice president and chief information officer of the Mississauga, Ontario-based company.
Lincoln General's implementation is the first step in consolidating 23 systems at 12 operating companies into one enterprise system. All applications will be hosted at Insurity's data center. The system ultimately will support thousands of employees and independent agents in the United States and Canada.
MAIN STREET SELECTS ONEPARTNER PROGRAM
The Main Street America Group, Jacksonville, Fla., chose Jacksonville-based ICS Merrill's OnePartner vendor management program. A part of the investigative services division of Examination Management Services Inc., Irving, Texas, ICS Merrill is a provider of investigative services to many large U.S. insurers.
ICS Merrill's OnePartner is a comprehensive, scalable outsourcing program that centralizes all investigative services functions across multiple nationwide vendors, creating consistencies in quality, pricing, time service and results delivery. ICS Merrill claims its solution will standardize service for all Main Street America fraud abatement, claims investigations and compliance functions.
NATIONWIDE RENEWS AUTOCHEX SERVICES
San Diego-based Mitchell International Inc., a provider of performance management solutions to the automotive insurance claims and collision repair industries, announced a renewal agreement with Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Columbus, Ohio, for customer satisfaction indexing (CSI) services to be provided by AutocheX, Mitchell's voice-of-the-customer performance management group.
Nationwide will continue to use AutocheX to measure and report satisfaction with its Blue Ribbon collision repair facilities and staff associates across the United States through 2009. Specifically, AutocheX evaluates customer satisfaction with the individual Blue Ribbon shops following the collision repair transaction, and the front-line claims adjusters during the claim settlement process.
Both Nationwide and Blue Ribbon shops use the satisfaction data to identify and capture improvement opportunities. The AutocheX CSI program includes voice-to-voice customer contact, problem recognition and notification, and detailed management reporting at multiple levels.
