Digital distribution

IT INFRASTRUCTURE OUTSOURCING CONTRACTThe Netherlands subsidiary of Blue Bell, Pa.-based Unisys Corp. has expanded its relationship with long-time client REAAL Insurance through a new five-year outsourcing contract with a value estimated at $11.6 million (U.S). By managing the company's IT infrastructure, Unisys will provide support 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to REAAL and its agents. REAAL hopes to achieve significant cost reductions through consolidating infrastructure outsourcing services under one vendor. REAAL will consolidate its hundreds of existing support contracts and suppliers to one central contract with Unisys, and will reduce the number of services suppliers from 20 to one.

According to 2000 U.S. Census figures, 17.9% of the U.S. population (47 million people) speak a language other than English at home. In fact, from 1980 to 2000, the number of people in the United States who speak a language other than English at home doubled.U.S. Census projections issued in 2004 state these numbers will continue to trend upward. The current number of Asian people living in the United States is 3.6% of the population. In California, this jumps to 10.9%. And the 2004 U.S. Census projections predict the percentage of Asian people in the United States will grow over time.

STUDY SHOWS POOR USABILITY OF WEB HOME PAGESAccording to a recent study by Oak Park, Ill.-based Vox Inc., home page usability of many insurance companies isn't up to snuff. The study analyzed the positioning of key customer and user elements, such as insurance quote and "find an agent" functions. Each company was given a rating based on a set of usability and benchmark criteria. One exception to the overall findings is 21st Century Insurance Co., Woodland Hills, Calif., which recently redesigned its home page. The study, conducted in the first quarter, reviewed content and where it was positioned on the page, comparing 12 insurance providers: State Farm, Allstate, Progressive, Geico, American Family, Liberty, 21st Century, Country Financial, AIG, Nationwide, AAA Chicago and USAA.

WEB-BASED POLICY PROCESSINGAgent X Press, a suite of processing capabilities, is designed to enable small insurers to support their agents and MGAs with Web-based policy processing. The suite from Wyncote, Pa.-based IDP Inc. is available to new and existing clients of IDP's VISION 21 policy management system. Agent X Press' functionality includes online policy inquiry for billing and claims information; and quoting, application submission and issuance. Agents enter a customer's name or unique identification data, such as policy number. They can then obtain the status of a bill or a claim, or obtain an accurate quote, within seconds, according to IDP. Subsequent to providing a quote, Agent X Press will permit the agent to electronically submit the application to further speed the process.

Build it and they will come. Such was the faith in location intelligence technology from Church Mutual Insurance Co.'s leaders back in 1999 when the Merrill, Wis.-based provider of insurance for religious institutions began looking for a way to improve its claims operations.Seven years later, the insurance company is using mapping technology from Troy, N.Y.-based MapInfo Corp., in some surprising ways.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - Young independent insurance agents identify technology to help them more easily write business and service customers as the second most important thing – after competitive rates – carriers can offer an independent insurance agency. Drive Insurance Group of Mayfield Village, Ohio-based Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. discovered this while conducting a survey of more than 750 young (40 years of age or younger or those who have been in the industry less than 10 years) independent agents to find out what they think about everything from business growth opportunities and technology to the skills necessary to succeed and the challenges faced by the industry.Drive insurance conducted the survey to coincide with the National Young Agents Leadership Institute, put on by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, which gets underway in New Orleans next week.

Charlotte, N.C. - Montgomery Mutual Insurance Co., a Charlotte, N.C.-based member of Liberty Mutual Group, Boston, implemented the Commercial IQ SmartRisk underwriting and pricing system for business owners' policies developed by Liberty Mutual Agency Markets' strategic business unit.After a pilot launch in Maryland yielded a 100% increase in policy issuance, Liberty Mutual made Commercial IQ SmartRisk available to appointed agents for BOP coverage in Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and will be available to Virginia appointed agents this fall.

Seattle - Safeco has launched online technology that enables independent agents to make instant changes to clients' commercial auto policies. The real-time capability cuts a one-week process into a two-minute drill--saving agencies time and enhancing their customer-service experience.Safeco agencies in 10 states have received access to Safeco's enhanced policy change tool. The rest of the company's more than 9,000 independent agent partners will receive access during rolling state launches that run through November 9. All agencies can use Safeco's single intake system for commercial endorsements, a simple policy change Web form introduced this spring that eliminates agents' need to call, mail or fax.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - Drive Insurance from Progressive, the carrier's program for distributing auto insurance through independent agents and brokers in the United States, has signed a joint marketing agreement with Homesite Insurance Group, a national provider of home insurance products.The agreement paves the way for a test that will allow selected Drive agents in three states--Ohio, Pennsylvania and Oregon--to provide their Drive auto insurance customers quotes for homeowners, renters and condo insurance policies underwritten and serviced by Homesite.

Chicago -- Fort Dearborn Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), a Mutual Legal Reserve Co., has launched a redesigned Web portal designed to make managing group life, disability and dental programs easier for employee benefits administrators.The Benefits Manager Web portal at http://www.fdl-life.com provides solutions for all employee benefits customers regardless of which billing method they choose. Features include online policy contracts, benefit claim reports, employee coverage verification, and group payment history. For customers that want to manage all aspects of administration online, Web billing is offered as a unique administration tool to manage employee benefits and eligibility.

Washington - Former Sen. John Breaux hopes policy makers, health care experts and the American public will tune into and participate in a new blog on the Ceasefire on Health Care Web site, www.ceasefireonhealthcare.org.The Ceasefire on Health Care campaign's goal is finding bipartisan "common ground" agreements leading to market based, incremental change to the nation's health care system. The online forum is designed to supplement the Ceasefire podcast series and engage its participants in lively discussion about pressing health care reform trends and issues.

Mayfield Village, Ohio - The Progressive Direct Group of Insurance Cos. is providing a text messaging service to its customers. Progressive customers can sign up to receive up-to-date information about their auto insurance policies through text messages sent directly to their cell phones. Customers can opt-in to receive Progressive Direct Mobile Alerts including payment reminders, sent in advance of billing dates; payment confirmations, sent once payment has been received; and other payment information."A Mobile Alert sent directly to a cell phone makes it easy to know when a payment is due and when it has been made. The beauty of it is the customer gets the information instantly - without having to be connected to e-mail," says Toby Alfred, Progressive customer experience general manager.

New York - Nearly four in ten (37%) California employers see workforce diversity--and the wide range of benefits needs associated with it--as a top human resource priority, compared with 29% of employers nationwide. This is according to MetLife's 2005 Employee Benefits Trends Study. One way the state's employers are working to meet this challenge is by providing work/life benefits--an approach adopted by 58% of California employers, compared with 52% of their peers nationwide."More than employers in other states, California employers strive to truly understand their employees' diverse needs in order to create the most appropriate benefits packages," said Randy Stram, vice president, Institutional Business, MetLife. "While many companies nationwide still continue to offer a one-size-fits-all benefits package, California employers are taking extra steps to maximize benefits satisfaction and return-on-investment."

Lawrenceville, Ill. - UnitedHealthcare's Golden Rule Insurance Co. is offering its HSA customers a selection of mutual fund investment options as well as a debit card and online account management and bill paying services through Salt Lake City-based Exante Bank.Golden Rule helped pave the way for HSAs when it introduced a medical savings account more than a decade ago. More than 41% of the Lawrenceville, Ill.-based insurer's customers currently are covered by health insurance plans that include health savings accounts. As of June 30, 2006, these customers had accumulated more than $170 million in their health savings accounts; the average account balance exceeded $2,400.

Needham, Mass. - A new market emerging from virtual reality into the real-world global economy is growing by leaps and bounds, according to Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup Inc., yet remains largely unknown to the financial services industry. This new market is driven by the popularity of "massively multiplayer online role playing games" (MMORPGs) and online "virtual social worlds" (VSWs) - such as the hugely popular Second Life - where the lines between online and offline commerce are rapidly blurring.New research from TowerGroup finds that in 2005, online (nontravel) sales exceeded $83 billion (USD), of which virtual social worlds contributed $1.5 billion. As MMORPGs quickly develop into complete online economic systems, TowerGroup forecasts that the "real world" revenue they generate will reach $2.5 billion in 2006, and that the market will grow to 40 million people spending $9 billion annually by 2010. These virtual games include complete social and economic systems for which players use specialized browsers to engage in a virtual life. Each game provides the potential of interacting with multiple players simultaneously, and on a global basis.

Mount Laurel, N.J. - In an effort to lower costs for its members, simplify employee benefit plan administration, streamline processes, and make it easier and faster for members and employers to manage health care benefits, Mount Laurel, N.J.-based AmeriHealth New Jersey will offer new online capabilities through its Web site, www.amerihealthexpress.com, to its group customers and members, starting in 2007.Through a contract with Mount Pleasant, S.C.-based Benefitfocus.com Inc., AmeriHealth New Jersey will improve its self-service Web site by providing new Web tools to create an online resource for health benefit management.

Boston - Cutting-edge concept illustration software is at the heart of a new program at the Advanced Markets unit of John Hancock Life Insurance Co. to enable producers to create a presentation of a Charitable Lead Trust (CLT) specifically tailored to their client's situation.

Tampa, Fla. Arbitration Forums Inc. (AF) is introducing its E-Subro Hub System, a Web-based paperless network that acts as an electronic clearinghouse for subrogation workflow between insurance carriers and other parties involved in subrogation.The Web-based network, to be launched in September, was developed by AF, a provider of inter-insurance dispute resolution services, to streamline the subrogation process and reduce costs for thousands of insurers, self-insureds, third-party administrators (TPAs) and claims service organizations. The E-Subro Hub is expected to handle millions of transactions annually.

Chicago - Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans has created a database of claims information (with no personal identifiers) from 79 million lives. Called Blue Health Intelligence (BHI), this resource is designed to help to improve health care quality through sharing critical health information initially with employers, and in the future, with consumers and providers.The secure, HIPAA-compliant database is significantly larger than existing healthcare databases, which may strengthen the movement to greater health care transparency by ultimately providing unmatched detail about health care trends and best practices.

Brookfield, Wis. - A wave of insurers will update their core processing systems in 2006 and early 2007, according to the results of an online survey on property and casualty insurance technology. The survey, conducted by Fiserv Insurance Solutions, a unit of Fiserv Inc., a Brookfield, Wis. software and services provider, revealed that interest in improving processing capabilities and offering better customer service underlies the emphasis on overall business process management and data accessibility.