New Products Aim To Enhance WorkflowTechnology offers answers to automating insuranceprocesses



SurePower Innovation

The new product features improved modularity, enablingintegration across insurance departments while still allowing eachfunction to stand alone, the company noted. Innovation allowsautomation of departments and individual functions, includingunderwriting, claims, receivables, Web portal services, documentmanagement, management vision tools, accounting and payables.

Other features include point-of-sale policy management and customerservice, online quotes, rules-based underwriting, real-time policyissuance, automated reinsurance, reserve tracking and averagereserving, lawsuit tracking, CAT tracking, fast-track processing,agent sweep, lockbox processing, and out-of-sequence endorsements,the company stated. The product's Web Portal Module allows insuredsto make online payments and report claims information.

SurePower Innovation is available on all platforms and databases,said ISCS. Pricing starts from about $75,000 annually and may rangeinto the millions, depending on the size of the company and theextent of usage, a spokesperson noted.



PowerComp Remote Auditor

Taliant Software announced the release of PowerCompRemote Auditor, an audit system for use in the workers'compensation insurance marketplace.

According to Jim Haley, chief marketing officer of Denver-basedTaliant, while the auditing product "was built synchronized toTaliant's PowerComp product, the new audit system can be usedstand-alone or bolted onto other policy administration systems withinterface modifications."

Remote Auditor captures details such as classified payroll, coveredindividual payroll, or subcontractor payroll, the company said.Auditors can add new insureds, risk locations and class codes basedon audit observations, sending them to underwriters for acceptanceor rejection. "Rejected items return to the auditor with anexplanation," Taliant explained. "The auditor then reviewsendorsements and computes a billable exposure summary used tocalculate new premium."

The system allows auditors to track time spent on an audit, at thehome office or at an insured's site, said Taliant. It also printsreports to give to the insured at audit completion.

Remote Auditor is sold at $5,000 per seat as a stand-alone item,said Mr. Haley.



PremiumBill

Allenbrook Inc. announced PremiumBill, astand-alone .NET-based billing product that was due out inAugust.

According to Brunswick, Maine-based Allenbrook, the new productwill streamline billing for any insurance lines into "a singleWeb-based system." It eliminates the need for multiple billingsystems and integrates with multiple policy systems, "whileproviding cost-savings and efficiencies to carriers," the companynoted.

Chuck Peck, president of Allenbrook, claimed that in one case theproduct was able to combine 16 billing systems into one,"eliminating redundant data and business logic."

Benefits, according to Allenbrook, include reduced operations,maintenance training costs due to fewer billing systems, improvedefficiency, ability to change billing options for the user at amoment's notice, and adaptability to changing business needs.

Licensing for the system begins at $250,000, a company spokespersonsaid.



ISO Rating Service

Insurance Services Office introduced ISO RatingService, an automated rating system and rate management product forthe property-casualty industry.

"ISO Rating Service is an operational rating platform with built-inaccess to ISO-validated rating information and automatic electronicrating updates for insurers to manage their programs morecost-effectively," said Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO.

The rating service is loaded with the contents of ISO circularslosscosts, standardized policy language and rules based on stateregulations, the company explained. It includes ongoing validationsand updates for each ISO line of insurance. It can also becustomized to administer independent, company-specific insuranceprograms and non-ISO lines of business.

ISO said its turnkey automated rating platform will help carriersimprove their use of up-to-date advisory prospective loss costs andmanual rules. It is designed to integrate into "existinginfrastructures."

The service is expected to be available by the end of this year forthese ISO lines: commercial property, commercial auto, commercialumbrella, commercial multi-peril, commercial inland marine, generalliability, business owners and crime, said ISO. Personal lines willbe available at a later date.

Pricing was not available.



PREMIA and PREMIA CrossRoads

Edison, N.J.-based ICICI Infotech showcased two newproducts for the U.S. P&C industryPREMIA and PREMIA CrossRoads.PREMIA is an insurance company management system that manages theentire insurance process, including rating, policy administration,claims administration, billing, reinsurance, and MIS and statutoryreporting, the company said.

PREMIA CrossRoads is an enterprise relationship management productthat allows secure, multi-channel interaction among agents,brokers, customers and insurance companies, said ICICI.

Both products help eliminate "the pains that insurance companiesface when processing business transactions from multiple legacyapplications," said Vivek Sethia, vice president of ICICIInfotech.

The company declined to provide pricing details.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, December 3, 2004.Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.