Core systems

United Farm Family Life Insurance Company, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, has selected Philibert Software Group to develop an illustration system to be used by its sales force. The system will illustrate the company's Millennium Universal Life product in presentations for new sales. It also will be used for reprojecting values and protection scenarios for existing insureds under the re-proposal or in-force portion of the system.

INDIANAPOLIS--Anthem Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Anthem Inc.'s program designed to help companies maintain an emotionally healthy workforce, has made available a new Web site that provides instant access to various online resources and interactive tools to help employees better manage their work and home lives in an effort to improve or maintain their well-being. "An organization's success is dependent upon a physically and emotionally healthy workforce," said Marty Dubin, Psy.D., vice president, Anthem EAP. "The Anthem EAP Web site is completely confidential and provides streamlined access to a wealth of content and self-service capabilities to help provide guidance when facing life's stressful challenges."

The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. (HSB) has launched HSB InstantQuote, an online tool that provides a quick way to quote and bind equipment breakdown coverage in as little as three minutes. A two-minute animated demo of InstantQuote can be viewed at www.hsb.com.HSB InstantQuote is designed to provide new business equipment breakdown quotes for small commercial and middle-market firms with individual location values up to $10 million for manufacturing and $20 million for non-manufacturing.

SOLCORP, a subsidiary of EDS, and Universal Conversion Technologies (UCT), Addison, Texas, will jointly host a Webinar on data migration best practices . This interactive Web-based presentation, "Policy Administration System Consolidation: Overcoming the challenges of data migration" will be presented live over the Web on March 11, 2004 at 2 p.m. EST.Reduction of operating costs is a top priority for life insurance carriers, and many are investigating consolidation of back-office systems, or migration to a new policy administration platform to address this business imperative. With either of these options, however, CIOs face a data migration project that brings with it a host of challenges. In this interactive presentation, experts from SOLCORP and UCT will present a strategy for minimizing the risks and maximizing the benefits, one that's based on a realistic understanding of the degree of complexity involved in data transformation. The presentation will include a step-by-step migration playbook--from calculating return on investment on the front end to improving data quality on the back-end.

Newark, Calif.--Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's leading provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, has announced that it is providing funding for the first visiting research fellowship to be established at the new International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. The Centre is based at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and was officially inaugurated on February 20 by Wong Kan Seng, Minister of Home Affairs in Singapore.

Conshohocken, PA--eMoney Advisor, a leading provider of holistic wealth planning solutions, today announced the availability of AdvisorPlatform Version 3.5. The new version offers significant upgrades to Version 3.0, which was released in January 2003, including streamlined data entry through the Fact Finder, simulated sales of an asset, "what if" scenarios versus base facts, and additions to the Client Financial Home Page. In addition, the new version includes an updated user interface for greater ease of use.

IVANS Inc., the Greenwich, Conn.-based provider of network and real-time solutions for the insurance industry, has released a study detailing the current state of insurance agent adoption of technology in the United States. The study, which received responses from more than 435 independent agents, revealed that an overwhelming majority of insurance agents (84.3%) prefer to work with insurance carriers that they consider "aggressive" in their use of new technology."The results of this survey are important because they show that recent advances such as real-time agency/company interface and use of broadband technologies have clearly dispelled the concerns from a few years ago about disintermediation of agents when embracing new technologies," says Maggie O'Hara, divisional vice president of offering management for IVANS. "In fact, if anything, these technologies have helped convert agents into huge technology proponents that now hunger for more positive change."

Hyland Software Inc., the developer of OnBase(R) enterprise content management software, has formed a partnership with HealthTek Solutions. HealthTek focuses on providing information technology consulting services to IDNs, community and teaching hospitals, health care payers, physician groups and other healthcare providers. Frank Veale, considered to be a leading expert on document imaging technologies, leads HealthTek's document management practice and will manage the Hyland/HealthTek partnership activities.

ATLANTA--Ebix Inc., a leading international supplier of software and e-commerce solutions to the insurance industry, announced that it has completed its acquisition of LifeLink Corp. Inc., adding hundreds of brokers and approximately 35 life insurance companies as customers.

Vertis Inc., a Baltimore-based provider of targeted advertising, media and marketing services, today announced the results of its Customer Focus 2004: Insurance study, which reveals that some consumer audiences are willing to purchase dental, health and life insurance through resources other than an agent."With both life and dental insurance purchases, Generation X adults (28 - 39) were more willing than the average adult to consider utilizing the Internet, telephone or direct mail to initiate their policies," says Therese Mulvey, vice president, marketing research, at Vertis. "The results of the study show that Generation X adults are 10% more likely than the average adult to purchase life insurance and seven percent more likely to purchase dental insurance through channels other than the insurance agent."

MasterCard Advisors(TM), a subsidiary of MasterCard International, today announced the acquisition of TowerGroup from Reuters. MasterCard Advisors is a global professional services organization, offering consulting, research, outsourcing and information products and services.

Salt Lake City, Utah--Castle Data Services has signed an agreement with Allied Insurance Company, a member of Nationwide, to provide them with replacement cost data through the use of Castle's online replacement cost estimator.

Exstream Software, Inc. today announced that Richard Troksa has joined the company as vice president of business development. Mr. Troksa brings to Exstream over 19 years of experience in development, strategic planning and marketing segmentation focusing on software and service solutions for the printing market. Troksa will help Exstream expand into new channels and vertical markets by developing and managing business partnerships, strategic alliances and independent software vendor (ISV) relationships. Exstream has developed an impressive number of strategic partnerships over the past several years that include IBM, Xerox, Hewlett Packard and Böwe Bell & Howell, and plan continued growth in this area.

SAN RAMON, Calif.--ADP Claims Services Group, a leading provider of integrated business solutions for the property and casualty, collision repair and automotive recycling industries, announced today Frontier Adjusters, Inc., a national provider of independent adjustment and appraisal services, has chosen PenPro as its auto appraisal software provider.

ATLANTA, GA-- Knowlagent, the exclusive provider of software solutions that build best performers fast in customer service centers, announced today that its largest healthcare customer has rapidly and successfully deployed the Knowlagent Agent Performance Solution to thirteen call centers across the United States and offshore markets.

CONYERS, GA and SAN MATEO, CA- ImageRight, a provider of document management and workflow solutions for insurers, and Guidewire Software, Inc., a provider of claims solutions to property and casualty insurers, today announced the immediate availability of an integrated claims processing and document management solution for the insurance industry. In addition, Guidewire has joined the ImageRight Business Alliance as a Gold Partner.

Nearly 2,700 American technology workers in 12 states will receive advanced information technology job training in the coming months in programs administered by CompTIA, the Computing Technology Industry Association, Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.CompTIA has received two grants totaling $6 million from the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration. The H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants are intended to train U.S. workers in specialty occupations such as computer science, information technology, engineering and advanced manufacturing technology.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A report issued by the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) on the use of credit-based insurance scoring found no basis for any conclusion that credit history is skewed toward ethnic minorities or low-income individuals.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. today announced the acquisition of R. P. O'Brien & Co., Inc. of White Plains, New York. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Although the hype surrounding offshore insurance business process outsourcing (BPO) is rising, insurers are reluctant to "go there" with their core processes. Meanwhile, the vendors have not yet proven their domain expertise. This is according to recent research conducted by Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc.