Practice management

Jersey City, N.J. - ISO has acquired eLIENS, a unit of Xtria LLC. eLIENS provides lien holder and mortgagee notification services for insurance carriers. Xtria is an information technology and services company. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.Lending institutions that finance the purchase of autos, homes and other property typically require borrowers to maintain minimum levels of insurance coverage. As a lien holder or mortgagee to the property being insured, these lenders are entitled to receive many of the same notices that are sent to policyholders. The result for insurance companies is often a very paper- and labor-intensive notification process.

Newark, N.J. - Prudential Financial Inc. has launched a Women & Finance section on its consumer Web site. The new section of the company's site provides information and tools designed to help women address the unique financial issues they face."Bringing education to the online experience is just one way we hope to provide women with the tools they need to help secure their own financial futures," says James Brett, vice president and head of eBusiness Development for Prudential. "In today's fast-paced world, a great way to provide knowledge is through the convenience of the Internet."

Hinsdale, Ill. - In the past few years, organizations with contact centers have been at risk of a multi-million dollar exposure due to a phenomenon known as Katz telecom licensing fees. To help educate enterprises regarding their options in this area the Opus Group LLP, an operational performance management firm has published a white paper that describes the benefits of performing a telecom operational analysis after receiving a so-called "Katz letter."Ronald A. Katz telecom licensing fees are assessed for the use of technologies covered under a variety of patents. Most of these patents cover technology that ties telephone and online/computer equipment together, a practice that is almost universal in today's contact centers. The Katz letter estimates the fees owed based on public records and standard industry practices. Until now, organizations have had to choose whether to pay the fees as stated or fight them in court. To date, according to a research note from Saddletree Research analyst Paul Stockford, the Katz organization has never lost a case.

Mississauga and Toronto, Ont. - Chubb Insurance of Canada, a subsidiary of the Warren, N.J.-based property and casualty company Chubb, has implemented MS/B's IntegriClaim property claim estimating technology as a desktop application into Chubb's property claims management process. Chubb Insurance of Canada, located in Toronto, will use the Los Angeles-based company's technology to help facilitate its continued development in the Canadian market.IntegriClaim is a suite of property claims solutions for the P&C industry. It is designed to deliver more consistent and accurate estimates reflective of localized costs by using total component data researched from nearly 100 unique cost locations in Canada.

Greensboro, N.C. - DataDelta Inc. has launched its first "Single Customer View Accuracy Survey" in partnership with market research firm The CDI Institute. Burlingame, Calif. The purpose of the survey is to measure single customer view accuracy that results from customer data integration (CDI) projects.The initial survey results will be presented at the 17th Information Quality Conference hosted by Larry English and The International Association for Information and Data Quality (IAIDQ) September 19-23 in Houston, Texas.

Los Angeles - While most believe insurance is important to protect assets and, in the case of life insurance, their families, Los Angeles-area Latino consumers in general under-utilize insurance, according to a study released today by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) at the University of Southern California.The study, made possible by a grant from Allstate Insurance Co., Northbrook, Ill., used focus groups and a telephone survey to assess Los Angeles-area Latino resident's attitudes toward three types of insurance: auto, property (homeowners and renters) and life. The study also examined how these consumers make decisions about insurance purchases and gather information about insurance. Among the key findings:

Oak Ridge, Tenn. - Diversified Product Inspections Inc., a provider of independent product failure analysis, air contamination and fire investigations for the insurance industry will now send its clients product failure analysis reports electronically via a secure PDF file format.Warren Wankelman, vice president of marketing says, "Effective Monday, August 8, 2005, DPI started transmitting reports, pictures, and invoices electronically, which will replace the reports being sent via U.S. Mail. These reports will be in a secure encrypted Acrobat Reader format with access only with a password. Subrogation managers, claims managers and adjusters will access this new system via the DPI Web site by registering and setting up an account. While adjusters will only be able to access or view their own claims, managers will be able to view all their company's reports that have been completed."

Phoenix - AlohaCare, a non-profit Hawaii health plan serving state QUEST members, has selected an enterprise application and professional services application from Quality Care Solutions Inc. (QCSI) to administer claims and accommodate future growth. QUEST is a state program that provides health insurance for more than 150,000 Hawaii residents, provides comprehensive medical care for those who cannot afford their own commercial insurance coverage and do not qualify for other programs.AlohaCare has been successfully running its claims administration using QCSI's product suite since August 2000, and was previously under contract with a third-party vendor for support and hosting services. AlohaCare recently upgraded to a more current version of QCSI software, in order to achieve its desired business outcomes and maximize its information technology investment.

Northbrook, Ill. - Allstate Insurance Company has engaged ProcessClaims, Manhattan Beach, Calif., to develop and test new claim-related quality assurance technology. The software is being designed to streamline quality assurance processes and ensure accuracy in vehicle estimate preparation. The companies are also exploring broader new technology approaches to drive e-business in the rapidly evolving collision repair inter-industry. ProcessClaims is a provider of software connectivity and business process automation for the property and casualty industry.

New York-As the next step in its efforts to automate the sales and processing of life insurance policies, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) has launched its pilot program for InsurExpress, New York. Leveraging DTCC's infrastructure and established network of connectivity, InsurExpress integrates key insurance industry service providers to support communications between insurance companies and participating distributors of insurance products, providing necessary functionality for life insurance application processing.Firms participating in the initial pilot testing include Genworth Financial, Richmond, Va., and Piper Jaffray, Minneapolis. In the coming months, DTCC intends to expand the program to include multiple financial advisors in various geographical locations, together with an expanded product set and carrier list.

The decision to send IT operations overseas is often viewed in the pejorative by IT line personnel, who feel they must continuously "skill up" or face the unemployment line. Though carriers are often reluctant to publicize their strategies, sources indicate it's definitely a topic of executives' conversation.IT offshore outsourcing, i.e., offshoring, has intensified, and from a business driver perspective, its discussion is becoming more commonplace in the boardroom, where it holds less controversy.

Customer service can be performed and measured in many ways. In this month's cover story, the nuances of customer relationship management-performance monitoring and analysis-play a big role in insurer's success. Being able to provide high levels of service with each and every customer contact-whether in person, on the phone or online-is sure to drive revenue and retention.How your company manages customer service may be the result of definable metrics, such as demographic studies, formal assumptions about customer behavior, anticipation of future requirements, etc. It may also involve a bit of guesswork. The results of your measurement should prove unequivocally that you know your customer.

We all remember the horror stories about customer relationship management projects gone awry: XYZ Insurance Co. spent $5 million in 2000 on a CRM engagement, and another $2 million on software, only to find out a year into implementation that the big idea wasn't working. XYZ's call center performance measurements-such as average wait time, average call handling time, and abandon rate-were below industry benchmarking standards-if they were measured adequately at all.Now, five years later, these same insurers have sophisticated performance management systems in place that tell them exactly how long it takes for their service representatives to resolve a customer's problem, how long a caller waits in a queue, and how much money the company can save by improving these key performance indicators.

Chicago - Agents are being introduced to an e-mail autoresponder that automatically includes complete health insurance quotes to prospective customers and allows continuous flow of e-mails to prospects over a specified timeframe. Norvax, a Chicago developer of Web-based sales and customer communications tools, has released its LeadMiner tool in three versions - Basic, Pro and Marketer. Each version enables agents to automatically e-mail messages customized with their own information on a regular basis at intervals specified by the agent, automatically send HTML and text e-mails with instant, integrated health insurance quotes, and automatically add updated health insurance quotes to scheduled e-mails sent after the initial contact.

Alexandria, Va.--Five top insurance industry leaders will participate in a CEO panel discussion during the opening session of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America's (Big "I") Convention in New York.CEOs participating as panelists for the discussion are: Frederick H. Eppinger, CEO, Allmerica Financial Corp.; Robert J. Joyce, chairman and CEO, Westfield Group; Charles M. Kavitzky, president and CEO, Fireman's Fund; Axel P. Lehmann, CEO, Zurich North America Commercial; and William J. Mullaney, president, MetLife Auto & Home.

Princeton, N.J. -- American Re-Insurance Co. was named "Best Overall Reinsurer in the U.S." in the 2005 survey of cedant perceptions about reinsurance and reinsurers conducted by Flaspohler Research Group, a Kansas City, Mo.-based business-to-business research. American Re received the same recognition in 2003, the last time this survey was conducted."We are enormously proud of the results of the Flaspohler Survey. Retaining our No. 1 ranking in the "best overall reinsurer" category clearly demonstrates that we continue to be judged as the best reinsurer in this market by our clients - by far the most important arbiters of our performance," said John Phelan, Chairman and CEO of American Re-Insurance Co.

Chapel Hill, N.C. - Yankelovich Inc., has unveiled a tool that links the attitudes of individual consumers to insurance industry-specific product behaviors. The tool, Attitudes in Action, enables marketers to tailor their messages to a specific individual's wants and needs and tailor their offers to attitudes linked to individual names and addresses. These insurance-specific attitudes can be used for selecting target lists and performing database enhancements, thereby improving marketing productivity through higher response rates and reduced costs.

Frisco, Texas -Skywire Software, an insurance and financial services software company based in Frisco, Texas, announced it has completed its acquisition of InsBridge, Richardson, Texas, a rating and underwriting applications software provider.

Kansas City, Mo. - The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) warns that significant market disruptions could develop with the Federal Terrorism Risk Insurance Act's (TRIA) expiration on December 31, 2005, the law's current sunset date. The economy's current strength reflects the ability of businesses to cover affordably catastrophic terrorism risks.

El Segundo, Calif. - Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, a Bucyrus, Ohio, insurance company, has experienced a 13 percent increase in staff productivity over the previous year, thanks in part to software from Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), El Segundo, Calif. Previously known as the Ohio Mutual Tornado, Cyclone and Windstorm Insurance Assoc., Ohio Mutual today provides auto, home, farm and business insurance. The implementation of CSC's property and casualty insurance software follows its move last year to replace its legacy system with CSC's POINT IN policy administration and claims components. The POINT IN policy administration component provides Ohio Mutual with an integrated, paperless system for rating, underwriting, reinsurance, and billing and collection. The advanced claims component automates claims assignment and tracking. The company, which writes more than $120 million in premiums each year, reports a surplus of more than $67 million. CSC reports that the carrier also achieved the largest annual net operating profit in the company's 104-year history.