NEW YORK, NY--The Tillinghast business of Towers Perrin today announced that the EPIC Consulting staff has joined its property/casualty insurance practice. Consulting actuaries Michael Miller, Klayton Southwood, Richard Smith and Kenneth Leonard are among the new hires.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass.--Workscape, Inc., a proven provider of outsourced benefits and workforce management solutions, today announced the introduction of its new nationwide partner program. Known as the Workscape Broker Alliance Program, it is available to insurance brokers and consultants that service employers with greater than 2,500 benefits-eligible employees and wish to supplement their offering with Workscape's benefits administration solution, OneForce/Benefits.

HARTFORD, Conn.-- MassMutual Financial Group today introduced Web-based enrollment for its Strategic Edge group universal and group variable universal life insurance products, making participant enrollment fast, easy and accurate.

Newark, Calif.-- Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's leading provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, is now offering software developer tools for its RiskLink and RiskBrowser systems. The RiskTools software development kit allows companies to efficiently integrate key components of RMS products into their internal underwriting and portfolio management systems, allowing users to access RMS decision support tools via internal system interfaces.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Jefferson Pilot Financial, one of the nation's leading providers of universal and variable universal life insurance and fixed annuities, recently expanded its continuing education program for insurance agents with five new courses of study.

LONDON and PRINCETON--Aon Re International has today announced that it has licensed the Pivot Point insurance transaction system from CATEX Inc. Pivot Point is a web-based system handling the full reinsurance process from business production and quoting through to IBA ledger.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) announced today that the Web site of its Technology Evaluation Center has been awarded Health Web Site Accreditation from URAC, a Washington, DC-based healthcare accrediting organization that establishes quality standards for the healthcare industry. The accreditation applies to the Technology Evaluation Center Web site at bcbs.com/tec

PEARL RIVER, NY--ACORD, the global leader in standards for the insurance and financial services industries, is launching an advocacy campaign that features original print and web advertising that takes a humorous look at a world without standards.

BOSTON, Oct. 14--OneBeacon Insurance, a wholly owned subsidiary of White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., today announced that Matt Mueller has joined the company to lead its high-tech commercial insurance business.

DALLAS--Docucorp International, a leading provider of enterprise information solutions, announced today the introduction of QuickConnect, a process designed to upgrade the company's longtime Documerge customers to its rules-driven, real-time publishing solution.

SEATTLE--Safeco announced today that its aggregate pretax catastrophe losses for the third quarter are estimated at $195 million. The estimated effect on third-quarter net income is $127 million after tax, or $0.96 per diluted share. Safeco expects its total catastrophe losses to increase the company's third-quarter combined ratio by 13.9 percentage points and that, as a result, its third-quarter combined ratio will be 101.6 percent.

PEARL RIVER, NY--ACORD released a new Strategic Briefing, Impact of Technology and Data in Rating A Company's Financial Strength, that provides insight into the process used by one of the industry's leading ratings agencies when evaluating the technological capabilities of an insurer, reinsurer, or intermediary.

New Haven, CT--Metaserver, Inc., a leading provider of business process integration (BPI) solutions for the insurance industry, today announced the release of iConnect 2.0 for P&C, the latest version of its agency interface solution for Property and Casualty carriers.

NEW YORK--MetLink, MetLife's state-of-the-art employer benefits administration portal, has received a Web Marketing Association 2004 Standard of Excellence Web Award. This annual award competition judges corporate Web sites against an overall standard of excellence related to design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, navigation and ease of use.

AUSTIN, TX--Webify Solutions, a provider of On Demand Applications for the insurance industry, today announced that Fireman's Fund Insurance Company (FFIC), a leading provider of property and casualty insurance products, has selected and begun to implement Webify's service oriented business applications.

ALPHARETTA, Ga.-- ChoicePoint, a provider of identification and credential verification services, today announced its acquisition of InsurQuote, a leading provider of insurance rating solutions to the property and casualty carrier markets.

University Park, IL--Vista Equity Partners and James P. Kellner have acquired Applied Systems, Inc., the insurance software company born 20 years ago in suburban Chicago as a one-product, home-based business that grew to become the leading provider of automation solutions in the property and casualty insurance industry.

Newark, Calif.--Responding to increases in the frequency and severity of global terrorist activity in each of the past three years, Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world's leading provider of products and services for the management of catastrophe risk, today announced the launch of a new suite of tools designed to help insurers and reinsurers manage terrorism risk outside the U.S. The tools include the industry's first Global Terrorism Risk Model, as well as a multi-country expansion of the RMS(R) Terrorism Scenario Model and accumulation management functionality in the company's RiskLink(R) catastrophe management software.

LOS ANGELES--RPost, The Registered e-Mail Company (www.rpost.com), announced today its revolutionary (R)egistered e-Mail(R) product has been endorsed by The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers. The Council represents the top one-percent of all commercial property/casualty and employee benefits brokers in the United States, a group that places 80 percent of commercial insurance premiums.

PeopleSoft and IBM will jointly market and deliver integrated, cross-functional industry solutions targeted at solving some of the most difficult business process challenges facing companies today.