Claims

McLean, Va. - The transformation of core policy administration systems and processes is one of the most critical success factors for property and casualty insurance companies in the coming decade, according to a report issued today by BearingPoint Inc. a McLean, Va., global management and technology consulting firm.

New York - Results from a recent employee benefits benchmarking report and Web-based companion tool issued by New York-based MetLife revealed that for small companies (with between 2 and 49 employees), "retaining employees" is the number one employee benefits objective (57%). Yet retention rates are at risk, as only 29% of employees who work for a small company are satisfied with the benefits offered by their employer - despite the fact that MetLife research indicates a correlation between job satisfaction, employee loyalty and benefits satisfaction. Additionally, only 16% say that their company's benefits communication effectively educates them about their benefits. Their peers at the largest companies (25,000+ employees), however, are much more satisfied with their benefits (48%) and 39% believe that their company's benefits communication is effective.

Newark, N.J.-Prudential Financial Inc. finalized its acquisition of Northbrook, Ill.-based Allstate Financial's variable annuity business through a reinsurance transaction.Prudential's initial investment in the business, reflecting total consideration to Allstate, related taxes and capital requirements, is approximately $591 million. This amount reflects a price adjustment paid to Allstate for market movements between signing and closing. Over the course of a transition period of up to 24 months from closing, Newark, N.J.-based Prudential will assume the administration of Allstate Financial's in-force variable annuities, with account values of approximately $17 billion (value as of March 31, 2006).

Remember the old days of paying an electric bill or making a car payment-writing out a check, putting the bill and check into the provided envelope, slapping a first-class stamp on it and tossing it in the mailbox? Thanks to technology, much has changed, and the insurance industry is changing right along with it.The process of paying bills online has been catching on for consumers over the past few years. And, according to a recent Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif., survey conducted by Columbia, S.C.-based MarketSearch Corp., car and homeowner insurance customers would be willing to pay their insurance bills over the Internet.

From call centers to data centers, the insurance industry continues to turn to outsourcing in an effort to manage costs and secure access to resources. Information technology assets have become vital to ongoing operations and new growth, making these outsourcing relationships more than technology arrangements-they are now critical to business success. Combined with new regulatory mandates, this trend may be forcing carriers to push deeper and engage more proactively with outsourcing vendors.IT industry analyst firm Gartner Inc., Stamford, Conn., calculates that outsourcing will capture up to 33% of all IT services spending across industries by 2008-up from 26% in 2003. The analyst firm also predicts the insurance sector will be spending more than $10 billion on outsourced services by that time.

SAFECO NAMES WILLIAM JENKS AS CIO

NEW CSF DESIGNER FEATURESMetavante Corp., Milwaukee, has added a number of features to its CSF Designer document composition application:

For many insurance companies, the challenges involved in processing claims are ongoing. Because claims often involve multiple decisions, data from various sources, and task handoffs, it's clear why carriers see the potential for improved customer service and financial results from streamlining manual claims processing.After recognizing many opportunities to automate its manual processing decisions, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC), headquartered in Durham, decided to dive right in. "We process more than 30 million claims annually, and about 12% have to be manually handled in some fashion," explains Sherman Owens, BCBSNC vice president, quality and compliance. "As you can imagine, there's a lot of costs associated with that."

The NAIC formation of a task force to examine climate change comes on the heels of devastating back-to-back hurricane seasons that caused a record $30 billion in U.S. insured losses in 2004 and as much as $60 billion in insured losses from Hurricane Katrina alone in 2005. Insurance Networking News magazine recently interviewed Tim Wagner, director of the Nebraska Department of Insurance, who is co-leading the task force, to find out what the NAIC hopes to achieve.INN: Who at the NAIC became aware of the issue, and how was it pushed forward on the agenda?

For some time now, insurance companies have made technology investments a priority. The result? Instead of disparate, paper-based information residing in hard-to-access metal file cabinets, all kinds of e-data languish in disconnected computer systems.Now, insurance companies are realizing that if they do not find a better way to use this data, the whole foray into information technology might go for little more than naught. That's where performance management "scorecard" systems come into play.

ADOBE, ITEMFIELD JOIN FORCES ON E-FORMS DEALItemfield, a San Mateo, Calif., provider of data transformation software, will work with San Jose-based Adobe Systems Inc., to develop a solution designed for the insurance industry. The companies plan to combine Adobe's intelligent forms, which support the ACORD XML data standard, with Itemfield's process-specific business rules and complex data transformation capabilities to help insurers increase efficiency by accelerating the processing of transactional data in electronic forms, such as quotations and new business submissions.

UNIVERSAL SIGNS SEVEN-YEAR BPO AGREEMENTUniversal Insurance of North America, Sarasota, Fla., has signed a seven-year agreement with CGI Group Inc. valued at between $45 and $75 million for policy and accounting business process services (BPS). Montreal-based CGI will process Universal's personal lines (book of business) including homeowners, dwelling-fire, auto, and umbrella in Texas and Florida. CGI will continue to support Universal's business processing needs as they expand their services into new markets. As part of this agreement, CGI will open a processing facility in Tampa to support Universal Insurance and other Florida-based insurance customers. CGI will initially hire 50 professionals and expects staff to grow to more than 200 professionals over the next two years.

Hamilton, Bermuda - Accenture Ltd. launched a technology delivery center in Pune, India, for software outsourcing and systems integration services. The facility is Accenture's ninth delivery center in India and represents further expansion of the company's Global Delivery Network.The new delivery center provides application outsourcing and systems integration services across the full range of technology capabilities. The center develops capabilities in enterprise technologies from Germany-based SAP and Siebel (Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif.); Net-centric technologies like Java and Microsoft; business intelligence and testing.

Fort Collins, Colo.-The U.S. Atlantic basin likely will experience another active hurricane season, but coastal regions may face fewer landfalling major hurricanes than last year, according to the Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., forecast team. The team maintained its earlier predictions for the 2006 hurricane season, which starts on June 1.Colorado State's forecast for the 2006 hurricane season anticipates 17 named storms forming in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and November 30. Nine of the 17 storms are predicted to become hurricanes, and of those nine, five are expected to develop into intense or major hurricanes (Category 3-4-5) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater.

Boston - AIR Worldwide Corp. (AIR) released Version 8.0 of CLASIC/2, CATRADER, and CATStation, AIR's catastrophe risk management systems. The version 8.0 releases include updates to several of AIR's catastrophe models and a number of software enhancements to make catastrophe analyses more efficient.

Hartford, Conn. - Cycle management is the key driver of P&C insurance company investment strategies today, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting, Inc.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Recognizing outstanding accomplishments and achievements as well as leadership in the implementation of standards, The Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD), Pearl River, N.Y., held its 14th Annual ACORD Awards ceremony at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum in Las Vegas this week.

Las Vegas, Nev. - The Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development (ACORD), Pearl River, N.Y., released the first component of the ACORD Standards Framework, the organization announced at its annual meeting this week. The framework, an initial content release (ICR) of the single business data/information dictionary, brings together three groups of information:

Fremont, Calif. - A recent study on underwriting in the $222 billion commercial lines insurance industry has revealed that U.S.-based property/casualty insurers are taking new approaches to risk assessment and acceptance to sustain profitable growth in their business. The study, commissioned by Infosys Technologies Ltd. and conducted by TowerGroup, was designed to assess the strategic direction and readiness of the commercial underwriting market, from both business and technology perspectives.The study found that P&C commercial insurance companies are choosing to make the strategic shift toward "flow" and "transaction" underwriting to build competitive advantage and gain profitable market shares. Flow underwriting promotes straight-through underwriting for risk classes that were previously underwritten through manual, subjective evaluation by underwriters.

Boston - Fidelity Investments and WebMD Health Corp. are expanding their relationship to integrate WebMD's health care cost planning tools with the Fidelity HSASM, Fidelity's health savings account (HSA) product launched in December.