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From Resource,
August 2005
Copyright by LOMA
Forum
Exhibitors Show Solutions For Success
ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum attendees were able to discuss their IT
needs with exhibitors at more than 180 booths, seeing how various solutions
could help them achieve greater success in today’s marketplace.
By Tammy McInturff
Finding
the systems tools and partners to make business vision a reality is not always
an easy proposition. It takes dialogue, understanding, and partnership. Even
more, it takes looking at many different companies and solutions to make sure
you have the best possible fit for your organization.
At
the 2005 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum in
Orlando
,
Florida
, attendees had the advantage of talking to exhibitors at over 180 booths in the
Forum Exhibit Hall. They were able to see live product demonstrations and
network with exhibitors and other attendees to develop relationships and look
for partnership opportunities. These professionals left the Forum with a better
comprehension of the products and partners that are available to help them meet
their needs in the current climate of uncertainty—understanding which ones
might have solutions that would help ensure future safety and success.
Some
exhibitors took the opportunity provided by the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems
Forum to unveil new products, introduce partnerships, or make announcements.
Here are some of those announcements, along with highlights of the many products
demonstrated.
EDS-SOLCORP Releases Radience: Consolidation
EDS-SOLCORP,
Toronto
,
ON
, a provider of software solutions to financial industries, and a subsidiary of
EDS, announced the launch of the Radience: Consolidation administration
solution that enables life insurance companies to access and manipulate data and
execute common business processes across a variety of administration systems.
Radience:
Consolidation centralizes and
standardizes replicated business processes and data across a variety of
administration systems, including EDS-SOLCORP INGENIUM and Caps-I-L Systems,
other third-party administration systems and in-house systems developed by IT
departments. The Radience: Consolidation initiative is a direct response
to industry analyst forecasts and customer demand for solutions that improve
customer service delivery and facilitate communication with distribution
channels.
The
Radience: Consolidation solution comes complete with near-out-of-box
adapters to EDS-SOLCORP administration systems and well-constructed frameworks
for third-party applications and in-house systems. It offers a back-office
system consolidation approach with minimal or no code invasion. In addition, Radience:
Consolidation adheres to standards-based models and schemas (XML for Life)
to facilitate front-office, distribution and self-service capabilities. The
XML-based architecture also makes it future-ready, ensuring solution longevity
and readiness for a smooth transition to the Radience Administration Platform.
For
more information, visit the SOLCORP Web site at www. solcorp.com or visit the
EDS Web site at www.eds.com.
AdminServer J2EE Solution Certified at
IBM
Innovation
Center
AdminServer,
Inc.,
Chester
,
PA
, a member of IBM’s PartnerWorld Industry Network for the insurance industry,
announced that they have successfully completed their testing at the
IBM
Innovation
Center
for Business Partners in
San Mateo
,
California
. AdminServer certified the J2EE version of AdminServer’s life and annuity
policy administration system running in an IBM WebSphere, DB2, and Linux on
IBM’s environment.
The
combined AdminServer application and IBM software platform was also tested in a
variety of IBM hardware environments, including: xSeries, pSeries, and iSeries.
The two-week lab tests also entailed a series of multi-platform online and batch
execution tests to evaluate the up/out scalability of the AdminServer System.
Throughout
the test, the IBM/AdminServer team worked with a top-tier insurer (an existing
AdminServer client) to size and perform processing on an implementation equal to
the client’s total in-force block of business. While maintaining sub-second
transaction times, this configuration was further optimized to be the most
scalable, cost-effective option for the client.
The
data gathered via this testing will further help AdminServer to provide the
measurable statistics to optimize configurations for their clients who choose
the J2EE platform of the AdminServer System.
Kevin
Walma, vice president business development with AdminServer, noted, “We
appreciate IBM inviting us to their Innovation Lab and providing our team with
the environment to accomplish the testing process. These tests not only
demonstrate our commitment to IBM and to leveraging the latest technology, but
also prove the strength and flexibility of the architecture of the J2EE version
of our system. We were extremely pleased with the test results and the ease and
speed of deployment across multiple IBM platform options.”
For
more information, call 610-619-3100, e-mail info@adminserver.com, or visit the
AdminServer Web site at www. AdminServer.com.
Document
Sciences
Showcases xPression 2.1
Document
Sciences Corporation,
Carlsbad
,
CA
, showcased xPression 2.1, its dynamic content publishing solution that extends
the value of major ECM solutions such as Documentum ECM and IBM Content Manager.
Document Sciences also demonstrated xPression as part of the IBM Insurance
Solution Prototype.
Additionally,
Document Sciences’ ReadyForms provides P&C insurers with a library of
pre-built electronic bureau forms, complete with pre-defined business rules for
automated forms assembly, and delivery via Document Sciences’ xPression
dynamic content publishing technology.
Document
Sciences enables leading insurance organizations in the Life & Health and
Property & Casualty markets to create and deliver in real-time—quotes,
proposals, policies, and correspondence highly customized for each policyholder.
xPression, using XML-based business rules and open standards, automates field
agent policy production, speeds forms implementation and maintenance, and
simplifies the correspondence processes.
Document
Sciences was recently named by Celent Communications in their April 2005
“Insurance Software Deal Trends” report, as a leading provider in the policy
and correspondence document categories for both Life and Property/Casualty
insurance.
For
more information, visit the Document Sciences Corporation Web site at
www.docscience.com.
Accenture and SAP Survey Finds One-Fifth of Americans Unsatisfied with Claims
Service
One-fifth
(20 percent) of Americans who have filed property or casualty claims during the
past three years are not satisfied with the way their insurance companies handle
their claims, according to the results of a survey released by Accenture and
SAP. In addition, two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents said they think it is
important for their insurance companies to provide the ability to check the
status of claims online.
Consumers’ dissatisfaction regarding claims service significantly increased
with the number of claims representatives they had to speak with during the
course of their claims settlements. Survey respondents who spoke to three or
more people at their insurance companies during the course of claims were nearly
five times as likely to be dissatisfied with their claims experience as those
who spoke to only one or two claims personnel—49 percent versus 10 percent.
Three-fourths (75 percent) of respondents said they would prefer to speak to
only one person from their insurance companies about their claims.
Respondents
with more complex claims experiences were more likely to negatively rate their
claims experiences. Negative claims experience ratings were highest for claims
that took more than 20 days to be resolved (40 percent compared with 20 percent
overall); claims that resulted in recovery of less than half of their losses (28
percent); and claims that involved auto-related injuries (39 percent).
“Insurers
need to continue to implement new automated claims technology to help further
expedite the process and improve the customer experience,” said Michael
Lucarini, a partner in Accenture’s Insurance practice. “The most significant
opportunities to improve claims customer satisfaction are reducing the
carrier-to-customer interactions required to handle high-frequency, low-severity
claims and keeping the customer more informed on longer, more-complex claims.”
For
more information, visit the Accenture Web site at www.accenture .com or the SAP
Web site at www. sap.com.
Allfinanz
Launches xpertBridge Release 3.5
Allfinanz
Inc.,
Dublin
,
Ireland
, a provider of intelligent automated underwriting and new business processing
software solutions for the life insurance industry, launched Release 3.5 of
their xpertBridge Web based, rules driven automated underwriting solution.
Available for immediate delivery, Release 3.5 provides significant enhancements
to the already robust support of straight through processing (STP) in
xpertBridge’s Home Office environment, enabling companies to support 100
percent of their new business cases on a single platform, regardless of product
or application submission method (i.e. paper-based or electronic-based
applications).
The
Release 3.5 enhancements have been incorporated into the base xpertBridge
product to make the extended capabilities available to all current and future
xpertBridge clients. The new xpertBridge functionality is already in production
at a number of Allfinanz clients.
xpertBridge
was designed and developed with the goal of delivering a fully automated new
business process to life insurers; from electronic submission of applications
through automated, intelligent underwriting. While the fully automated
environment continues to evolve, it is not yet a reality for most life insurers
who are still burdened with paper applications, as well as agent direct
applications within the streamlined xpertBridge New Business workflow.
For
more information, visit the Allfinanz Web site at www.Allfinanz.com.
InSystems
Announces Availability of Calligo™
Doc Services 3.1
InSystems,
Markham
,
ON
, a specialist in complex document and compliance automation for insurance and
financial services organizations announced the availability of InSystems Calligo™
Doc Services 3.1. InSystems Calligo Doc Services is an enterprise document
automation software solution that complements core business systems for product
development, sales and marketing, administration and customer service.
InSystems
Calligo Doc Services provides a set of integrated services that have been
specifically engineered to automate document-intensive business processes.
InSystems Calligo Doc Services is used to satisfy event-driven requests, such as
new policy fulfillment requests, which trigger a range of activities. This could
include automatically retrieving documents from multiple sources (file systems,
the Web, or InSystems Calligo Document Management System); assembling
personalized, complex documents and document packages such as policies, letters,
contracts and booklets; rendering them in multiple file formats (Microsoft Word,
PDF, PCL, HTML, TIFF and Postscript); and delivering them to multiple recipients
via their preferred channels (print & mail, fax, e-mail, the Web).
The
solution is now offered in two editions: InSystems Calligo Doc Services and the
new InSystems Calligo Doc Services Express.
InSystems
Calligo Doc Services Express provides a core subset of InSystems Calligo Doc
Services functionality and is targeted for companies with lower volumes and
common business requirements. InSystems Calligo Doc Services Express is ideal
for customers who do not currently have complex multi-channel delivery
requirements, but who value the ability to easily add on such advanced
capabilities in the future.
For more information, visit the InSystems Web site at www.insystems.com.
Fiserv
Offers Broad Set of Industry-Focused Solutions
Fiserv
Insurance Solutions specializes in progressive software and outsourcing
solutions for the insurance industry. Hundreds of carriers, managing general
agents and third-party administrators rely on Fiserv for policy, rating, claims,
billing and reinsurance administration, as well as point-of-sale solutions,
straight-through processing and business process management. In addition, more
than 3,000 companies use the company’s financial and compliance solutions.
At
the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, Fiserv showcased a number of
industry-focused software solutions including its ID3 (Insurance Database- 3
Dimensional) solution. ID3 is an advanced, client-based, full-function life,
annuity, and health insurance administration system. ID3 supports a full range
of traditional, interest-sensitive, and variable life and annuities plans.
Fiserv offers ID3 through a variety of contractual options, including full
license agreement, outsourcing arrangements, and third-party administration.
For
more information, visit the Fiserv Web site at www.fiserv.com.
Insurance
Technologies Showcases ForeSight
Based
in
Colorado Springs
,
Colorado
, Insurance Technologies provides illustration and point of sale software that
can easily adapt to the changing business requirements of the financial services
industry. The ForeSight™ family of products supports all product types
including life, annuities, DI, LTC, critical illness and mutual funds—all on a
single mobile platform.
For
more information, visit the Insurance Technologies Web site at www.
insurancetechnologies.com.
McCamish
Showcases its VPAS® Products
At
the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, McCamish Systems showcased its VPAS
Life, VPAS Benefit Plan Administration, and PMACS Producer Management Accounting
Compensation System products. These applications have client/server
architecture, and are portable across a broad range of hardware and software
platforms. These highly scalable systems provide many years of efficient,
low-cost operations. In addition, an easy-to-use desktop that is intuitive,
powerful and flexible, contains extensive online help and is seamlessly
integrated with Internet and Intranet capabilities to maximize administrative
efficiency.
According
to the company, the VPAS product line has exceedingly rich functionality, yet is
flexible enough to customize cost efficiently. By translating its comprehensive
market knowledge into system processing efficiencies, McCamish significantly
reduces its clients’ administration and overhead costs. The powerful
combination of advanced technology and proven administrative experience can make
the market difference for dynamic institutions.
For
more information, visit the McCamish Systems Web site at www. mccamish.com.
MFX
Offers RiskVault
MFX
showcased a number of solutions and services at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems
Forum, including RiskVault, ClaimsAssure, WriteNow, GlobalAssist and
CorporateShield. RiskVault is a streamlined Web-based environment that speeds
claims handling while significantly reducing costs. ClaimsAssure is a highly
intuitive processing system able to assemble, display and help adjudicate claims
quickly.
MFX provides the framework for a comprehensive range of products and services
offered to the insurance marketplace including a virtual claim file, claims
processing solutions, legacy system outsourcing and application development.
For
more information, visit the MFX Web site at www.mfxfairfax.com.
Majesco Launches Component-Based Solution Framework
Majesco,
Woodbridge
,
NJ
, a provider of solutions and services focused exclusively on the insurance
industry, announced the
U.S.
launch of the first-ever, component-based solution framework, Elixir—designed
specifically with insurance carriers in mind. Already proven in over 50
installations worldwide, Majesco’s Elixir component-based solution
framework offers an extensive library of functional components that can be
combined to create unique, customer-specific solutions for point-of-sale,
channel portal, channel compensation, claims processing and more.
Elixir
offers an alternative to existing legacy product solutions and broader,
horizontal offerings that require extensive customization. Through its
component-based approach, the Elixir solution framework zeroes in on the
specific pains facing today’s life and health insurance carriers, providing
individual, “plug-and-play” solutions.
For
more information, visit the Majesco Web site at www.majesco.com/insurance.
PossibleNOW
Launches Consulting Services Practice
PossibleNOW,
a trusted source of Internet-based privacy preference management solutions, has
formally launched a Consulting Services Practice that focuses on consumer
privacy data management. The practice is built on the years of experience
PossibleNOW has in helping its customers comply with privacy preference
legislation. Each of the consulting services may be customized to fit a
company’s specific needs.
The
foundation of the Consulting Services Practice is the Compliance Audit. This
rigorous audit analyzes a company’s marketing compliance operation to
determine its strengths and weaknesses. The audit helps ensure that the
marketing compliance program is properly designed and operating effectively.
Another offering is Compliance Managed Services. Companies can outsource any or
all of their marketing compliance operation to the experts at PossibleNOW. This
lets a company take advantage of PossibleNOW’s compliance and technology
expertise in privacy preference data management. Companies may find that
outsourcing is often more cost-effective than running and managing an internal
operation.
PossibleNOW
also regularly schedules Webinars to LOMA members. These Webinars provide
education on compliance topics.
To
learn more about PossibleNOW’s Consulting Services Practice, please visit
www.possiblenow.com. For information on the next Webinar for LOMA
members, contact PossibleNOW at 800-585-4888 or e-mail webinars@ possiblenow.com.
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