Agency/Carrier
Travelers Creates New Interface

Travelers Property Casualty Corp. announced an implementation ofindustry-standard, ACORD-based agency/carrier interface (SEMCI)processing to support the transition of business relative to recentagreements between Travelers and other carriers. Travelers hasconstructed a process utilizing Applied Systems TAMCentral, theInternet-based ASP version of Applieds The Agency Manager software.The process will invoke interface and SEMCI tools and procedures toreceive and format policy data and transmit the data into Travelerspolicy processing systems.

The flexibility and proven nature of our SEMCI processes allowedus, in less than one month, to begin seamlessly facilitating ourbusiness transitions, says David Findley, senior vice president ofoperations for Travelers Commercial and Personal Lines. We workedwith Applied Systems to train key transition personnel, and[Applied] supported our efforts to take the operation live. Thecooperation and shared SEMCI expertise between the organizationswas critical to making this happen in such a short period oftime.

Travelers is a leader in developing automation and servicesolutions for independent agencies, offering a wide range ofelectronic services. The Travelers agency portal, Agent HQ,provides access through the Internet to the many systems, forms,and applications independent agencies use on a daily basis. Forsmall commercial insurance, Travelers provides a total businesssystem, much of it accessible through Agent HQ, which offersflexible automation options that enable a greater ease of doingbusiness for independent agencies. Components of this systeminclude:

Real-time transaction capability directly from agency managementsystems. The company is in production for quoting for businessowners policies, commercial auto, workers compensation, andumbrella insurance and also offers electronic policy view, claimloss runs, and billing inquiry. Travelers was the first insurancecarrier to launch this technology using the ACORD XMLstandards.

Issue Express Net, a browser-based real-time quote, rate, andissuance system.

A service center that functions as an extension of an agencysservicing operations, offering a variety of customer servicelevels.
In personal lines, Travelers provides automation options accessiblethrough Agent HQ. Travelers is one of the first carriersimplementing real-time policy quoting directly from agencymanagement systems. It offers ATLAS3, an Internet-based automationsystem that enables real-time policy quoting and issuing. Thecarrier also is a leader in download capabilities thatautomatically update an agency management system with new policydata the next business day. Download capabilities are available fornew business, renewals, endorsements, cancellations andreinstatements, direct bill commission statements, and direct billstatus. Travelers customer care center, staffed by licensedinsurance professionals, helps an agency offload service functionssuch as providing policy information and processing policy changes.Extensive training also is offered to help transition agency stafffrom service functions to sales.

Whos Using What
Commerce Insurance Group has renewed its business processoutsourcing contract for an additional six years with CGI, whichwill provide the carrier with full policy processing services aswell as an agency interface tool, application support andmaintenance, regulatory support, systems consulting, and documentmanagement services. In addition, CGI has signed a 10-yearoutsourcing contract with Kanawha Insurance Company. CGI willprovide infrastructure management, data center services, andapplication maintenance and development.

Mercury Insurance has selected a sales effectiveness solutionfrom Vuepoint to provide product and corporate information toemployees, partners, and agents.

State Auto Insurance is using the new Web Bridge technology fromApplied Systems to offer real-time billing, policy, and claimsinquiries to State Auto agents who use The Agency Manager or TheAgency Manager Vision Series software from Applied.

Mass Mutual Life Insurance Group has selected a system from COSSDevelopment Corporation to develop a point-of-sale illustrationsystem for the carriers variable annuity product.

Canadian insurer National Life has implemented SOLCORP/E-LINKSfrom SOLCORP to provide a data- transmission bridge to the carriersback-office policy administration system. In addition, SOLCORP hasentered into a license agreement with the Great-West Life AssuranceCompany to use the software providers INGENIUM solution.

Assurity Life Insurance has licensed the LifePRO Life InsuranceCompany Administration tool from Professional Data Management Again(PDMA). The PDMA system will replace the carriers mainframe legacysystem.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has installed thefibre channel storage transport service from Time Warner Telecom tolink the carriers data center with a disaster recovery site.

Washington State Transit Insurance Program, a self-insurancepool, has begun using MetaFrame Conferencing Manager from CitrixSystems.

Travelers Property Casualty Corp. and InStar Corporation, anagency management system provider, are using IVANS TransformationStation to provide real- time e-service capabilities for loss runs,electronic policy review, and billing inquiry for small-commercialpolicies.

Interstate Insurance Group has completed a combined integrationwith ePolicy Solutions and Docucorp International for Web-basedrating for two of the carriers six major commercial lines.

Preferred Mutual Insurance has signed a licensing agreement withAscendantOne to use a comprehensive property/casualty suite ofsales and service solutions, including browser-basedrate-quote-issuance, underwriting, policy administration, andaccount management.

OneBeacon Insurance Group has selected a new claims solutionfrom EasyLink to support the carriers claims operation.

Web Site
Aetna Recognized at Tech Conference
Aetnas two Web sites recently were honored at the LeveragingTechnology and the Internet for Performance and ProfitabilityConference in Phoenix. Aetna InteliHealth (www.intelihealth.com), theinsurers online consumer health-information resource, and AetnaNavigator, the companys self-service Web site for members, receivedeHealthcare Leadership Awards for Health/ Healthcare Content andInteractive Site, respectively. Aetna InteliHealth and AetnaNavigator are part of Aetnas larger strategy to offer a full rangeof self-service and round-the-clock options for accessinginformation and doing business with us, says Mark Bertolini, headof Aetnas e-commerce initiatives.

Aetna InteliHealth was the winner of the Platinum eHealthcareLeadership Award for Best Health/Healthcare Content in the ConsumerGeneral Health Site division. Aetna Navigator was awarded a SilverAward for Best Interactive Site in the HMO/PPO/Other Insurerscategory. Aetnas self-service initiative includes Web sites ande-connectivity options where members, physicians, physicianpractice managers, and other healthcare professionals can receiveinformation and answers to many questions and complete transactionsthat are central to doing business with Aetna.

In addition to Aetnas Web site awards, Aetna Voice Advantage(AVA), the insurers member and physician self-service telephonesystem, recently was recognized by ScanSoft Inc., a supplier ofspeech and imaging solutions, as the winner of the 2003 BestPractices Competition. AVA enables callers to use normal speech tohear personal claims and coverage information and performself-service transactions around the clock without needing to speakto a customer service professional.

Aetna InteliHealth features content developed throughrelationships with Harvard Medical School and the University ofPennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. The site offers healthinformation that consumers, in consultation with their healthcareprofessionals, may use to take an active role in healthcaredecisions. Visitors to Aetna InteliHealth can find interactivetools and information on specific diseases and conditions,complementary and alternative medicine, nutrition, and more. AetnaNavigator serves approximately three million Aetna members withsecure round-the-clock access to claim status and paymentinformation, Aetna participating physicians, healthcaredecision-support tools such as Price-A-Drug and the HospitalComparison Tool, and transactions such as requesting ID cards orchanging primary-care providers.

In receiving this award, Aetna Navigator was cited for itsability to recognize registered members and prefill personalinformation to simplify physician searches, drug formulary checks,and e-mail correspondence with member services. Members also canaccess health information, including Aetna InteliHealth, directlyfrom Aetna Navigator. The eHealth-are Leadership Awards program wasdeveloped in 2000 by eHealthcare Strategy & Trends, an Internetresource published by Health Care Communications. The awardsprogram received more than 1,200 entries that were judged by 104industry experts.

Comdex Report
Gates: New Software Infrastructure Will Enable OptimizedBusiness

By Ara C. Trembly

Insurance and other industries always are searching for new andbetter ways to do business, and not surprisingly, Microsoftchairman and chief software architect Bill Gates believes softwareadvances will lead the way. Delivering the keynote address at theComdex Global Technology Expo held in Las Vegas in November, Gatestold an audience of several thousand the industry still needs aplatform to enable faster and more efficient commerce ande-commerce. This platform will be built on an infrastructure ofsoftware that delivers what he called seamless computing.

Gates focused on various seams or constraints that have heldback development of a better infrastructure for business. In the1980s, the problem was hardware was not sufficiently developed toallow rapid development, he explained. In the 1990s, hardwareadvanced, but there were constraints on connecting devices untilthe Internet matured enough at the end of that decade. Peoplethought that was the last boundary, the last thing to be solved,said Gates. They were wrong.

In the current decade, which Gates has dubbed The DigitalDecade, the challenge is to overcome the seams to establishsoftware connections that will enable better commerce, he noted.Todays seams include boundaries that prevent technology devicesfrom communicating and others that keep different softwareapplications from working cooperatively, Gates observed. Manythings are not done because of these difficulties, he said. You aregoing to have many devices; they should be connected. Once we getrid of the seams, Gates asserted, we can deliver all the scenarioswe dreamed about.
How will that happen? According to Gates, It requires a lot ofinvestment in research and in building new software applications.He added companies should work with industries that are conductingpioneering research, while standards organizations need to moveinto new frontiers to better enable communication. He focusedparticularly on boundaries between corporations, where the ease ofmoving information in a secure way is still way too difficult. Wehave to schematize data in standard ways.

Gates also spoke of Microsofts initiative to provide trustworthycomputing, providing reliability and security. These are softwareproblems, and theyre not easy software problems, he noted.According to Gates, Microsofts most acute focus is security. Itsthe largest thing were doing. He emphasized software must be keptup to date with the latest patches to prevent security breaches andadded the software maker is working toward providing automatedupdates to make the process more manageable for customers.

Spam, or unauthorized commercial e-mail, is another toughproblem for the security of the software infrastructure, saidGates, noting spammers exploit e-mail to find a few customers. Evenif they only get one in 10,000 potential customers interested, theproposition is economic for the spamming company because the costof sending mass e-mails is so low. Gates said advances in anti-spamsoftware, along with legislative efforts aimed at stopping spam,will shift the tide and make it no longer attractive to be aspammer.

Another topic that was briefly discussed is the much-awaitednext version of Microsoft Windows, code-named Longhorn. Noting thatLonghorn is a very ambitious piece of work, Gates said the companyhas not set a time frame for its release. Theres still a lot to bedone, he stated, and much of what will happen will aid the cause ofseamless computing.

One new feature in Longhorn is called Stuff Ive Seen, which cutsacross the seams between applications to find almost anything auser has accessed recently, regardless of where the informationcame from. Information from e-mail, Web pages, files, and evenhandwritten notes can be easily accessed, said a Microsoftspokesperson.

Another new feature of the system in development is implicitquery, which proactively finds information related to whatever auser is working on, without the user having to ask.

Ara C. Trembly is senior editor, technology, for theNational Underwriter property/casualty and life and healtheditions.

Comdex Report
Spam Is a Productivity Killer
Spamunsolicited e-mail, usually for commercial purposesis not onlya nuisance for corporate users, it is a drain on productivity,according to a panel of experts at the recent Comdex 2003 GlobalTechnology Marketplace, held in Las Vegas.

Panel leader Dave Piscitello, president of Core Competence,Inc., a network management consulting firm based in ChesterSprings, Pa., noted that in addition to its unsolicited status,spam often is advertising for dubious, offensive, potentiallyillegal products and services. Often, he added, the message is ascam involving some get-rich-quick scheme or soliciting donationsto phony causes.

However, Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research, Inc.,Black Diamond, Wash., asserted the significant problem forbusinesses is their employees may each spend more than six days ayear dealing with the spam they receive. For most people, between50 percent and 65 percent of all e-mail is spam, he said, notinghis companys research found users consistently identify spam astheir number-one problem. Its grown so quickly; its a very seriousproblem, he stated.

While some 80 percent of organizations have some form ofanti-spam technology in place, even protected employees will spendas much as 80 minutes per 1,000 e-mails (about 2.4 work days ayear) dealing with spam, Osterman emphasized. Unprotected employeeswill spend about 200 minutes per 1,000 e-mails (6.1 work days peryear).

Spam is not free speech, Piscitello claimed. It is costly fororganizations. It also is costly to the technology community,because it turns a lot of consumers away from technology, he added.Spammers and anti-spam technologists constantly are playing a gameof cat and mouse, he pointed out, with spammers working hard tofind ways to bypass anti-spam filters.
When it comes to such filters, however, Osterman said his researchindicates 40 percent of spam-filter users say the productsperformance is degrading over time. He also noted, Early-generationsystems are not as effective as current products. With spamfilters, Osterman added, false positiveslegitimate e-mailsidentified as spamare more of a problem than spam itself, becausethey could result in missing important e-mails. An acceptable levelof false positives is three percent, he asserted, while one percentis good, and the ideal is .0002 percent. Having zero falsepositives is possible, he said, but that requires a lot oftuning.

He also pointed out anti-spam laws have been passed in 28states, but they have been difficult to enforce. One reason is theydont apply to offshore spammers. Often, he added, such laws are toovague to allow judicial interpretation.

The percentage of e-mail that is spam will increase, Ostermanpredicted while noting protected users will not experience theincrease to the same extent. One area of particular concern will beincreased pornography spam, which could result in potentialworkplace claims (sexual harassment) and involve enterpriseliability for internal and external e-mail, he said.

Spam volume and tactics represent a real threat to e-mail uptimeand quality of service, stated Scott Petry, founder of Postini, ane-mail security company located in Redwood City, Calif. He said hiscompany has processed 148 million e-mail messages for its clients,finding about 111 million, or 75 percent of those messages, werespam.

People send out spam for profit and viruses for sport, notedPaul Judge, chief technology officer for CipherTrust, Inc., asecurity solutions developer based in Alpharetta, Ga. Anti-spamtechnologies primarily offer detection and protection that includeswhite lists (lists of acceptable e-mail senders) and also maycontain a challenge/response mechanism. Such a mechanism, heexplained, requires the sender answer a question, thereby ensuringthe sender is human, rather than a computer running through alist.

Asked for general tips on dealing with spam, the panelrecommended the following:

Do not respond to any spam e-mail. This allows the spammer tovalidate your e-mail address.
Never click a remove me from your list link, since this alsoenables the spammer to validate your address.
Use a separate e-mail address for online commercialtransactions.

By Ara C. Trembly

Editors Note: As this story was going to press, federallegislation was passed that would outlaw some junk e-mail andcreate a do-not-spam registry.