Mayfield Heights, Ohio - The Progressive Group of Insurance Cos.' national catastrophe response team (NCRT) stands at the ready to handle increased claims volume resulting from weather-related events including hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms and floods.The company has opened its first permanent catastrophe response center in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, claiming it is even better positioned to deliver 24/7 claims service when people need fast, accurate claims resolution most.

Jersey City, N.J. - ISO has identified a six-point strategy where technology now exists for the effective management of claims through improved visibility of the claims handling process, establishing best practices and a more accurate assessment of injuries and recovery implications.Statistics from the Insurance Research Council (IRC) have shown that claims cost inflation has risen at an average of around 7% every year since 1997, with the average bodily injury claim cost rising from $4,804 in 1997 to $6,711 in 2002.

Tampa, Fla. - CGI Group Inc. has signed of a seven-year agreement valued at between $45 million and $75 million to provide Universal Insurance of North America, Sarasota, Florida, with policy and accounting business process services (BPS).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.

Simsbury, Conn. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has named Mark Esposito as chief information officer for its individual life division.Esposito, who is also vice president and director of business technology, will lead the division's project management office and technology initiatives. He will be a member of the senior planning group, which helps Executive Vice President Michael Kalen, director of individual life, set direction for the division.

Washington - At a hearing before the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, Joseph Smith, senior vice president and chief information officer of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, urged Congress to adopt a realistic timetable for a major shift in medical coding, moving systems from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Smith testified at the hearing, which focused on health care information technology, on behalf of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA).The bill Smith referenced, HR 4157, the Health Information Technology Promotion Act of 2005, calls for the major conversion of diagnostic and procedural codes that providers and insurers must use by 2009. Systems would change from ICD-9 diagnosis codes, which include 13,000 codes, to ICD-10, which includes over 120,000 possible codes.

Andover, Mass. - CGI's special investigative unit (SIU) operating within Clarendon National Insurance Co. has concluded a probe that resulted in the arrest of four California residents. Six felony charges have been lodged in connection with a fraudulent auto theft claim that was filed with Clarendon.On March 1, 2006, California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi announced the arrests and added: "These types of false claims cost all of us more in the form of higher insurance premiums. My department will continue to fight this fraud to help ensure a fair, affordable insurance system for all Californians."

El Segundo, Calif. - In response to interest, Computer Sciences Corp.'s board of directors has decided to explore strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including a potential sale of the company.The company has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. as its financial advisor in this process. CSC cautions that there can be no assurance the exploration of strategic alternatives will result in a transaction, and the company does not intend to disclose developments regarding its exploration unless and until the Board of Directors has approved a specific transaction.

Santa Clara, Calif. - Itemfield, a provider of complex data transformation software, has formed a relationship with Adobe Systems Inc. to work together to develop a solution designed specifically for the insurance industry.The combination of Adobe's intelligent forms that support the ACORD XML data standard with the process-specific business rules and complex data transformation capabilities from Itemfield can help insurers increase efficiency by accelerating the processing of transactional data in electronic forms, such as quotations and new business submissions, according to the two companies.

Seattle - Safeco has named William Jenks chief information officer, effective April 17, 2006.Jenks most recently served as executive vice president and chief information officer of worldwide operations at Publicis Groupe, one of the world's largest advertising and media companies. At Publicis, Jenks led the consolidation of separate technology platforms following a major corporate acquisition. He also realigned the company's technical resources to support top-line business objectives and improve the efficiency of its global workforce.

Las Vegas - Recognizing the growing role of enterprise systems in assisting companies to meet the increasing challenges of corporate compliance and risk management, SAP AG is acquiring Virsa Systems Inc., a privately-held supplier of cross-enterprise compliance solutions. The announcement was made at Simplify, the 2006 Virsa Customer Conference, being held in Las Vegas.Founded in 1996, Virsa has more than 300 enterprise customers, many of which are global 1000 companies, across all major vertical market segments. SAP stated that the transaction with Virsa is continuing evidence of its strategy to use "fill-in" acquisitions to add to its broad solution offering by gaining specific technologies and capabilities that meet the needs of its customers, within industries or across industries, while maintaining its successful organic growth track record. Terms of the all-cash transaction were not disclosed.

Gilsbar Inc. has had a detailed disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place since 1996. The New Orleans-based third-party administrator, which handles claims for about 150,000 members, employs a certified disaster recovery specialist. And, the company's executives and technical staff go through tabletop disaster recovery scenarios at least twice a year.Like many other insurance companies, Gilsbar is prepared for catastrophes. However, when Hurricane Katrina hit last year, insurance executives were caught by surprise and had to act on their feet and respond to a bevy of unexpected circumstances.

He ain't no Oprah; but he's definitely a force to reckon with. At Aflac, at least, he's the senior vice president and CIO-and, like Oprah, he likes books. In fact, Gerald Shields likes books so much he established a lunchtime book club several years ago for his entire IT leadership team. Every week, some 50 or so Aflac IT executives, directors and managers attend the one-and-a-half-hour meeting."It's more than just a book club," says Shields. "It's a way for me to invest in our people." Shields has been CIO at Aflac since last July. And, before that, since 2002, he was vice president, information technology-enterprise services at the Columbus, Ga.-based insurer best known for its lovable quacking duck.

In a sign of the major benefits to be won by insurance firms that accentuate Web-based and electronic solutions, the Blue Bell, Pa.-based insurer PMA Insurance Group received superlative ratings in customer service in a recent survey conducted by an independent researcher.In the survey, J.P. Murphy and Co., a Malvern, Pa.-based marketing and opinion research firm, asked approximately 500 of PMA's active clients about the quality of customer service that the insurer offered in areas including claims processing, risk assessment, risk management and cost control.

Despite reeling from the worst year in history for claims losses, pundits say the insurance industry plans to increase its spending on claims technology in 2006. For some, the idea of stepping up to new technology sounds like the perfect way to address inefficiencies that continue to plague claims processing. To others, it's yet another Band-Aid that may or may not be effective in solving what has become a hushed, off-the-record issue: claims leakage."Claims leakage is the difference between what you spent on a claim and what you should have spent," says one East Coast health insurance claims executive, who, like many sources interviewed for this story, asked to remain anonymous.

According to the coalition Against Insurance Fraud, insurance fraud is an $80-billion crime wave. Unfortunately, most insurance carriers have neither the processes nor technology they need to stop fraud.Even so, as fraud schemes become more sophisticated, insurance carriers must examine an even wider array of data to identify fraud trends and detect fraudulent claims. To do this, they must institute a set of technology best practices and techniques to automatically detect fraud and abuse early in the claims process.

Seoul, Korea - In what is being called the largest deal of its kind for the financial services industry in Korea, Kyobo Life Insurance has contracted IBM to operate and manage its IT infrastructure.Under the terms of the 10-year agreement which has a total contract value of approximately 340 million U.S. dollars, IBM will provide IT strategy consulting services to help develop and advance Kyobo's IT vision and strategy. IBM will also manage the company's servers, storage systems, network and desktop computers and operate its data and disaster recovery centers. Additionally, IBM will provide IT skills development and IT management training services, called 'IT University', for Kyobo's employees.

Bowling Green, Ohio - Sky Financial Group Inc. has hired Zahid Afzal as executive vice president/chief technology officer. He will report directly to Les Starr, corporate executive vice president of technology and operations.Afzal comes to Sky from Bank of America, where he was a senior vice president and chief information officer of the consumer banking division. While at Bank of America, Afzal directed the consumer banking information technology initiatives and successfully implemented several programs, which reduced expenses while growing the business organically and through mergers and acquisitions. Prior to Bank of America, Afzal was the chief information officer for Broadslate Networks and a senior technology executive for Citicorp.

Okemos, Mich. - Sircon Corp. and Efficient Forms LLC, Littleton, Colo., have formed an exclusive partnership designed to build on each other's products and customer bases to create an online platform for agent hiring, contracting and licensing for insurance agents, carriers and regulators. The partnership is a step toward creating a single online community where insurance carriers and their distribution partners can collaborate through an integrated, coordinated network, according to the two companies."This combination provides online capabilities that can transform processes between insurance carriers and their distributors," says Gary Gummig, vice president of business development at Sircon. "By integrating online services that will automate transactions and workflow, and virtually eliminate paperwork, this creates opportunity for unprecedented process breakthroughs."

Bettendorf, Iowa and Edison, N.J. - Fraud Resource Group, a business, insurance and identity fraud investigative and consulting firm, is using StrikeForce Technologies' products to launch a Web-based identity validation and authentication service, called the Trusted Customer program, which is designed to help prevent fraudsters from setting up fraudulent accounts and stealing high-value vehicles, goods and rental equipment.Construction equipment theft is a $1 billion annual problem, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, and only 10% to 15% of stolen equipment is ever recovered, according to the National Equipment Register. Fraudsters, posing as customers and contractors, use false credentials and stolen credit card data to "rent" vehicles, tools, and construction equipment. The rental stores lose equipment and potential income until a replacement arrives, and the legitimate credit card holder is left to dispute the charge.

Jersey City, N.J. and Oakland, Calif. - ISO and InsureWorx have formed an alliance to integrate ISO's Workers Compensation Information Services (WCIS) solution modules with the policy and claims administration software applications from InsureWorx.Under the agreement, customers of ISO's workers' compensation products and the InsureWorx PowerComp offering will be able to access and exchange policy and claims data seamlessly between the two companies' applications. This combination of InsureWorx's workflow processing software with ISO's data management and analytic tools is designed to provide workers' compensation carriers with a more comprehensive end-to-end solution.