WESTBOROUGH, Mass.--OneShield, Inc. and NetRate Systems are collaborating to address the rating system needs of small to mid-sized insurance carriers. The companies remain separate organizations but have agreed to combine efforts to address the needs of insurance carriers who want a tools-based configurable architecture provided by OneShield along with dedicated resources having over 25 years in the rating engine business offered by NetRate.

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has selected and begun to implement applications from Webify Solutions' Healthcare On Demand solution. The product consists of a suite of service-oriented business applications that will enable BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee to rapidly expand the breadth and depth of information exchange and process automation with its health care provider community by implementing a direct connect strategy, the company says.

Everybody likes to talk about the weather, but nobody wants to do anything about it.The same axiom could be applied to U.S. insurers' approach to customer service. Most insurers will declare that customers represent the lifeblood of their business, but what are they doing about it? The proliferation of siloed databases across organizations-compounded by multiple systems and processes-inhibits insurers' ability to quickly identify cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and provide quality customer service.

Three years ago, The Baltimore Life Insurance Co. implemented an automated sales and underwriting system in conjunction with striking a marketing deal with a large membership organization. The Owings Mills, Md.-based carrier believed the affinity deal could drive unprecedented new premium growth for its death benefit products through a concerted campaign of television ads and mailers."It was a significant opportunity," says Garry Voith, Baltimore Life's assistant vice president and director of distribution technology and marketing.

Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. has been no stranger to technology outsourcing initiatives over the past three years. But the term "outsourcing" might be an inaccurate depiction of what the carrier's senior IT team regards to be its mandate. Instead, Fireman's Chief Technology Officer Diane Comer views these agreements as "strategic partnerships."In January, the Novato, Calif.-based carrier announced two major initiatives involving technology firms that provide Fireman's Fund with a comfortable degree of internal decision-making latitude. Under a seven-year, $157-million contract with IBM Global Services, Fireman's Fund plans to implement IBM's on-demand computing technology. One of the key distinctions of IBM's on-demand computing is that it enables clients such as Fireman's to pay for only the computing power it uses within a shared-services arrangement. Fireman's Fund projects savings of about $10 million a year in IT-related costs from this advantage.

Although the specter of organized crime rings receives the brunt of the publicity, the proliferation of "garden variety" insurance fraud continues to badger insurance companies.In their efforts to implement best-practices claims management, fraud and buildup (the inflation of an otherwise legitimate claim) added between $4.3 billion and $5.8 billion to auto injury settlements in 2002, representing between 11% and 15% of all dollars paid for private passenger auto injury insurance claims that year.

It's no surprise that the workers' compensation market has been challenged by a host of issues that have driven costs skyward for carriers and agents. According to the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers (CIAB), Washington, D.C., commercial property/casualty insurance premiums continued to decline significantly during third quarter 2004.

If an application works well for a business, why risk staff and financial resources on a replacement system that may prove to be substandard? That's the quandary carriers are addressing, many of whom have invested tens of millions of dollars in systems and software to track, store, and manage data on their policyholders, finances and product lines.Indeed, many insurers are still using software originally written in the 1970s and 1980s for mainframes, but which continues to support critical operations. The issue often boils down to whether to stay with the big iron-and its high administration and upgrade costs-or migrate to more distributed, commodity-priced systems such as Unix, Linux, or Windows.

New York--Tower Group, Inc. today announced the appointment of Joseph P. Beitz to a newly created position as Managing Vice President, Program Underwriting, reporting to Michael H. Lee, Tower Group, Inc's President & Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Beitz's primary responsibilities will be the production and management of new program opportunities for the company, which will be underwritten by its own insurance company and through other insurance companies for which its managing general agency produces premiums.

Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. announced that Chuck Brady has joined the company as president of the professional liability division, located in Torrance, Calif.

Over the next 18 months, employees will be spending more time online--not surfing the Web or checking e-mail but rather logging onto their company Web site and signing up for employee benefits with a click of the mouse. According to MetLife's recently released 2004 Employee Benefits Trend Study, employee self-service on the Internet is an important benefits strategy, particularly among large employers. As a result, companies expect a huge surge in e-benefits use over the next two years.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla.--As some insurance carriers tinker with proprietary policy download solutions in their electronic interfaces with independent agents and brokers, agents are seeing increased workflow time as well as other unanticipated issues, according to the Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet), the user group of Applied Systems agency management technology. "Agents are paying the price for unconventional download," said ASCnet President Robby Dunn. "For years, IVANS, trade associations, carriers, agents and their vendors have worked side-by-side to integrate common, multi-company communication components, develop file retrieval and update processes, and establish clear agency support services. We all saw the advantage of an industry solution. Competing on technology in this space did not make economic or business sense then, and it still doesn't."

Newark, Calif.--Risk Management Solutions (RMS), a provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, today announced that it will fund technology improvements for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program that will support its collection of real-time wind speed data during major hurricanes. The Florida Coastal Monitoring Program (FCMP) is a joint venture to develop full-scale experimental methods to quantify near-surface hurricane wind behavior and resulting loads on residential structures. The program's aim is to provide data necessary to identify methods to cost-effectively reduce hurricane wind damage to residential structures.

ATLANTA, GA--The year 2005 should be challenging, with additional complications from regulatory and legislative issues, say members of the LOMA Board of Directors. LOMA's Resource magazine surveyed members of LOMA's board for their views on what the industry can expect in 2005.

Conshohocken, PA--RippleTech, a provider of security, compliance and systems management solutions, announced today the launch of the LogCaster for Sarbanes-Oxley solution.

ISO, a provider of anti-fraud and personal injury claims solutions, has identified ten key factors that can help insurers reduce the rising costs of handling personal injury claims.

NEEDHAM, MA--New challenges in the US insurance industry are creating one of its most difficult operating environments in recent memory. In the context of such divergent issues as terrorist threats, state and federal regulatory activity, competition from other financial services players and tight global economic conditions, TowerGroup forecasts a cautious approach to technology spending by US insurers in 2005.

Uniondale, NY--OnlineBenefits Inc., provider of Internet-based HR solutions, has officially unveiled AgencyWare, the first integrated sales, service and commission tracking software product specifically designed for group benefits brokers.

Rewind-to February 2004. Outsourcing, in particular offshore outsourcing, was a bad word in the American lexicon. Merely one year later--with the presidential campaign over and President Bush still in office, it's not such a bad word anymore. In fact, industry sources say, outsourcing-even offshore outsourcing-has actually been growing, even while it was under fire. What's more, they say, "global sourcing" is here to stay."Outsourcing captured so much attention around the world in 2004," notes Lorrie Scardino, research director, at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc., during a recent teleconference. "A lot of people would say there was a lot of political rhetoric and attention that kept outsourcing at top of mind in many industry sectors-especially the IT sector, while others would say there were a lot of economic issues that kept it top of mind," she says. "But the reality is: Outsourcing in the IT services sector is a mainstream business practice."

Agent extranets that don't support quoting, issuing and servicing policies are like dinosaurs: plodding, cumbersome and heading toward extinction.Grange Insurance executives understood that merely pushing information through a portal to its agents would fail to meet its standards of service.