Every once in a while, we come across a product or a vendor thatjust impresses the heck out of us. Maybe its the wow factor when wesee a demonstration. Maybe its the usefulness and clarity of thecompanys vision. Or maybe its how simple, obvious, and necessarythe product is.

Over the years, weve written about these products as weve comeacross them (one, WrExpert, is even in this issuesee Case in Point,page 17), but this month we decided to do something more.

Of the better products weve seen, a good number of them aresimply lacking the mindshare we think they deserve. Some are madeby smaller companies, or companies playing in narrow niche markets.Others are made by bigger corporations, but havent blipped on theradar screens of the insurance industry.

So we took this opportunity to pick five companies and fiveproducts we think are worth a few minutes of your time. These arentby any means the only ones that impressed us; there are plenty ofthose, from large and small vendors alike. But there are only somany pages in each issue, and these five stood out as being alittle differenta little cooler if you will. And, perhaps moreimportantly, these five arent as well known as we think they shouldbe.

DWL Customer

DWLToronto, Ontariowww.dwl.com

Come together, right now, over me.The Beatles, Come Together

Youve got to give DWL credit for keeping its flagship productsname straight and simple: Customer. Its also an accurate name;Customer is one of the few products that does true CRM, putting acarriers customers at the center of an information universe.

Like all good ideas, the broad description is simple, but thedevilor in this case, the beautyis in the details. And although thecompany balks at any oversimplification, we cant help but do justthat because Customer does so much.

So heres the over-simplified description: DWL Customer giveseveryone in your organization a single, accurate view of everycustomers information, no matter which of your databases thatinformation came from. And it keeps that information accurate andconsistent across all those databases.

There are some other ways to describe Customer:

Its extremely powerful middleware. Customer sits between yourvarious front ends (call center, billing, etc., even your publicWeb site) and your back-end processing systems. Thats systems,pluraland thats important.

Its a substitute for a data warehouse. To create a datawarehouse, you have to move all the information from your variousback-end databases into a single (at least virtually single)location. Customer does effectively the same thing, although youcan leave your separate databases separate.

It creates on-the-fly, single-customer data marts. When someonerequests information on a customer, the appropriate data are pulledfrom the appropriate databases and presented as a single view. Whenchanges are made, those changes are sent back to the databases theybelong in, keeping information consistent.

When someone requests information, Customer pulls the data fromthe appropriate back-end system, so users dont have to think aboutwhere the correct information is. More importantly, when someoneinputs dataa change of address, first notice of loss, orwhateverCustomer makes sure that the information is not onlyentered into a single database, but into all your back-endsystems.

Its a CRM system thats true to the definition of CRM: It givescarriers a single view of every customer even when that customersinformation is kept across multiple databases. As customer-centricbecomes the catchphrase of importance to insurers, products likeDWL Customer are just what carriers should be thinking about.

NetMap for Claims

NetMap AnalyticsColumbus,Ohiowww.netmap.com

I went to the rock to hide my face; The rock cried out, nohiding place. No Hiding Place Down Here, traditional Gospel

If any product weve ever encountered gets an award for the Wowfactor, its NetMap for Claims. In fact, during a demo, we jumped upexcitedly to point to something on the projection screen. HerbJones, company president at the time, remarked, Yeah, that happensa lot.

Its easy to see why. NetMap gives you a graphical representationof all the people, places, and numbers associated with your claims;when the diagrams start appearing, things that dont belong, likethe same phone number associated with several claims, stand outimmediately. For an SIU thats used to mapping relationships byhandusing Post-Its, whiteboards, and index cardsNetMap is a dreamcome true.

Several factors go into making NetMap for Claims so appealing.First, its easy to describe what it does: It shows you how everyperson, place, and number involved in a claim links to one anotherand links to millions of other claims. It can tell you how manytimes a particular doctor has been involved, for example, orwhether several unrelated people used the same phone number, or ifthe same address has been used in multiple claims.

Second, its easy to get started using it. Once its connected toyour claims database, you simply enter a name, phone number, orother information to create any of several kinds of relationshipdiagram, each of which shows a set of relationships in a differentdegree of detail or with a different set of connections.

Third, it offers disturbingly detailed information. You can digand dig, deeper and deeper into the relationships between peopleinvolved in your claims. Think of someone using the World Wide Webthe first timeyou can find yourself clicking from place to place,almost addicted to the way one piece of information links toanother. And that information doesnt just come from your own claimsdatabase. Assuming its connected to the Internet, NetMap for Claimswill pull in data from ISO, to show claim connections regardless ofcarrier. Crooks who think that hitting a different insurer eachtime is safe are in for a nasty shock.

It works like this. Lets say your Spider Sense is tickling youwhen it comes to a particular claim. You enter a piece ofinformationa claim number, a person involved, a phone number, orsomething similar. NetMap searches through your claims database(and ISOs, if youve configured it that way) to show you connectionsto that claim. So youll see links from that claim to the names ofthe claimant, witnesses, doctors, and body shops, as well asnumbers: phone, Social Security, vehicle ID, street addresses, andso on.

Then the magic starts. For each point of information, NetMapdisplays any connections it has to other claims. So a doctor orbody shop may also have been involved with other claims. So, too,with people; a claimant here might have been a witness here. Itsnormal for a person to have a couple of connections, but if someone(or someones address or phone number) has a lot of links to itwell, thats telling you something. So you click on that person andsee how he links to other claims.

Think of it as a game of six degrees of separation, but in thiscase, if someone is connected to too many other eventsa KevinBacon, if you willyou may have found a bad guy. And if a group ofpeople are connected in several different ways, the phrase fraudring comes to mind. NetMap for Claims makes finding both simpleand, dare we say, fun. Almost.

You can also set NetMap to review claims automatically, andtrigger an alert if something seems suspicious. And, in keepingwith the times, you can purchase it as either an installed productor on an ASP basis.

The NetMap PR people were happy to talk about their productup toa point. They got close-mouthed when we asked about uses outsidethe industrygovernment, for example. Could NetMap technology beused by the CIA? Polite smiles is all we could get, although,referring to the attacks on September 11, one said, Wasnt it greathow quickly the FBI was able to connect all those people, allacross the country, who had some relationship with theterrorists?

Well, yes.

Kodak DC-5000 Picture Authentication Cameraand KodakPicture Authentication Software

KodakRochester, New Yorkwww.kodak.com

Let me take your picture,add it to the mixture,there it is I gotyou now!Really nothin to it, anyone can do it, its easy and we allknow how.Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, Can You PictureThat?

Digital cameras seem like great tools for claims repsimages cango right from the camera into the claims system in electronic form.Theres no scanning required and no film to buy. Unfortunately, inan industry plagued by fraud, digital images present an easy targetfor anyone with a decent knowledge of Photoshop: Unlike a negative,digital images can be easily altered; few if any people could tellthe difference. Watermarking systems like Digimarc can protectcopyrights, but arent suited to ensuring the photo isntaltered.

Enter Kodak and its aptly named Picture Authentication Software.Available built into the DC5000 digital camera or as an add-on tothe DC280, it neatly solves the problem of image tampering. Thesoftware simply adds a digital signature to every image the cameratakes. Using a one-way hash function like those used in public-keycrypto system, it generates a number thats mathematically relatedto the image file. Change the file and the number is no longerrelatedyou know the image has been altered. (Quick note for nonmath geeks: Its called a one-way hash function because, althoughyou can calculate the number from the image file, you cant reversethe process and get any information about the image from theauthentication figure.)

Besides the software in the camera, the system provides aPC-based product to authenticate the images. It conforms to theNISTs Digital Signature Standard as well, so the process itselfcant be called into question. The company hopes that this kind ofsoftware will eliminate the need for photographers to testify incourt that the image in evidence in the original.

Granted, the Kodak cameras arent necessarily the kind of digitalequipment a professional photographer would use; both aretwo-megapixel units in a four (or more) megapixel world. Butcarriers and claims adjusters arent professional photographers, andthey arent looking to make 11×17 enlargements, and the lower pixelcount translates to a lower costthe DC5000 sells for less than$300.

Todays claims and document management solutions aim to do awaywith a lot of the paper carriers put up with, and that meansconverting as much as possible to digital format. Kodak adds acrucial piece to the process by making sure that at least theimages on your system are tamper proof.

ImageRight

Advanced SolutionsConyers,Georgiawww.imageright.com

For paper now is all the rage,

And nothing else will suit the age.

Howard Paul, “The Age of Paper” (c.1860)

ImageRights marketing materials may not be the heavyweight stockglossy brochures youre used to; the ones it sent us wereKinkos-quality color printouts with plastic spiral binding. Butthats okay, because the company is obviously putting its effortinto creating the kind of software we like: Clean, standards based,well documented, customizable, and useful. (Beware small companiesspending big bucks on marketing materials, we say. Toy giveawaysand other dog-and-pony shows dont translate into greatproducts.)

There are two parts to ImageRight: document management andworkflow. And, as you might expect, theyre tightly integrated. Putsimply, you bring documents into the systemby scanning, via fax, byprinting, etc.tell the system what they are, and those documentsare routed through the workflow youve established as if they werepaper files with routing slips attached.

No one believes that a paperless office will ever happen, andthat includes the folks at ImageRight. But taking a big bite out ofa paper-intensive process is certainly doable, and thats the nailthat ImageRight hits on the head. Most importantly, its entirelystandards based.

You enter documents into the system via a scanner, by fax,through the network (TCP/IP or IPX), via e-mail, or from existingdocuments. The program stores its data on a dedicated server or anexisting one, and supports backup to CD, DVD, optical devices, andCOLD. And it works within any standard network environment.

ImageRight has the features you expect from just about everydocument management system. You can drag or drop documents andimages where you need them, add annotations, enter details of thefile, zoom and rotate images, and so on. Interfaces, as we allknow, are in the eye of the beholder, although Advanced Solutionspoints out several ways it thinks ImageRights is better. Thats yourcall.

What impressed us about ImageRight and the Advanced Solutionsphilosophy is the openness and standardization. ImageRight workswith DB2, Informix, Oracle, SQL Server, or Sybase databases, usingnative drivers or ODBC connections. It can integrate with any ofyour existing applications. It can run on any standard networkenvironment. And the company touts a no secrets approach, meaningit will tell you whatever you want to know about how the systemworks, all to make installation and integration easier.

Beyond the document imaging and management part of the productis how it handles workflow. Again, the design is clean andintuitive. You set up workflow and routing using a simple graphicalinterface, dragging and dropping departments, users, instructions,criteria, date and time functions, and so forth, as if you werecreating a flowchart. (Forget as if. You are, in fact, creating aflowchart for your documents.)

Workflows can call other workflows, and any workflow you createcan include making (or receiving) SQL calls. You can also have adocument or transaction take two paths at once, so it isnt held upby one department when another can work on it. That translates to alot of power for carriers with complex document routing.

The beauty of ImageRight remains in how it strikes a perfectbalance between behind-the-scenes power and up-front simplicity.And by maintaining standards and making it easy to link into yourexisting office systemthe whole thing was envisioned and designedby insurance peopleAdvanced Solutions can offer carriers one of theslickest document management solutions weve seen.

WrExpert

Injury Sciences

(877) 979-7378*

Toe bone connected to your foot bone,Your foot bone connected toyour ankle boneJames Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamund Johnson, DemDry Bones

It may be the oldest joke in auto insurance: My neck! My neck!Whiplash is the poster child of soft-tissue injuries, but there areplenty of others, and they share a common premise: Theyre hard toprove (or disprove) and theyre easy to collect on.

With fraud a multi-billion-dollar problem for carriers, and withthose same carriers looking for effective ways to reduce their lossratios, finding a way to fight soft-tissue-injury fraud seems likea good place to start.

It seemed that way to us, too.

Contrary to what many laypeople think, there is a science behindthe possibility of whiplash. Newtons laws of motion applythevehicles involved are moving in just such a direction and at justsuch a speed, and they weigh a certain amount (as do theoccupants). Only so much energy is transferred to the neck of theguy in the passenger seat whos screaming for an ambulance (and alawyer). Whats important is knowing how much energy, and how muchit takes to actually injure a human neck. Theres no trick.Engineers and doctors know how the human body works and whatstresses bone and muscle can take. The rest is mathematics.

So Injury Sciences took the physics, medical science, andengineering behind soft tissue injuries and codified it, then addeda pretty face (what you might call a graphical front end). Theresult is WrExpert, a standalone piece of software that can tell aclaims adjuster whether or not the injury someone claims is reallypossible under the accidents circumstances.

WrExpert takes into account a lot of variables: the speed anddirection of travel of the vehicles, their make and model, thepositions of the passengers, and so on. How do the crumple zones ona 2001 Camry affect the 165-pound front-seat passenger in a head-oncollision? What happens to a 280-pound man in the rear seat whenthe 1998 Taurus hes in gets hit from the side by a 2000 Explorer?If the claimant says his head hit the side window, WrExpert cantell you how likely that is.

Is it 100 percent accurate? Of course not; there are too manyvariables involved. (Students of chaos theory, rejoice.) But itsmore than good enough to tell an adjuster whether a claimantsinjury is likely, unlikely, or falls somewhere in between. And itsnot as if you get a red, yellow, or green light; WrExpert providesa detailed report that might scare away potential scammers, alongwith those back-of-the-phonebook lawyers expecting an easysettlement.

And lately, Injury Sciences has gone a bit further. WrExpertsnewest feature may smack of Big Brother, but thats not so bad whenyou get to play the part. By integrating with the diagnosticequipment in later model carsthe stuff that tells the airbagwhether or not to deployWrExpert can get detailed information aboutthe accident, such as speed, braking, engine RPM, and so forth.That makes the softwares determination more accurate.

Injury Sciences worked with Vetronix, the maker of thatautomotive black box, giving WrExpert access to better informationthan witnesses are able to deliver. So no longer will someone beable to claim He didnt even slow down! when the black box says thedriver was slamming on the brakes.

Like any claims-related product, WrExpert probably isnt going tobreak any case wide open, or suddenly bring your loss ratio down 10points. But in an area rife with scammers and opportunists, its anice weapon to have in your arsenal.

*The companys Web site doesnt contain much information. In thewords of president Scott Palmer, A spouting whale getsharpooned.