IVANS, Inc. announces it has launched an enhanced InsuranceCarrier Exchange (ICE) website to provide an easier way forcarriers to manage the process of doing business electronicallywith their independent agents. IVANS ICE is the platform thatcarriers use to register agents and manage the distribution ofpolicy and claims information electronically in batch format to theagents' agency management systems.

This new IVANS ICE website was designed to simplify thecarrier's management of the data they send via IVANS ECSsolution. Using industry-standard formats, IVANS ECS allowscarriers to download data to electronic mailboxes, enabling agentsto use an automated process to pick up their policy data and loadinto the agency management system, without manual workflows on thepart of the agency staff.

“IVANS is constantly working with our carriers and agents toimplement enhancements to our agency interface solutions,” says JimOchiltree, president, IVANS Property-Casualty Services. “Today, IVANS has more than 224,000 connections between agenciesand carriers and we are committed to providing solutions that makesit easy for carriers to manage these connections, which IVANS ICEdoes.”

Enhancements to ICE include:

• Single Sign-On – Previously carriers had to goto two different sites to manage agency relationships. IVANSICE provides a single interface, and therefore single sign-on, tothe functionality previously provided by the IVANS AgencyRegistration and ECS administrative websites.
• Credential Management Improvements – IVANS ICEallows carriers to better control the functions each specific usercan perform. The functionality offered is tailored by type ofuser, but each company has the flexibility to modify that accesseven more, to better fit access to a user's specific jobresponsibilities.
• Archiving – Files are archived on theIVANS ICE system to allow agents the ability to retrieve a policyor file if necessary. This archiving has been extended to 90days based on requests of carriers.
• Carbon copy – Carriers are now able to copydata sent to one agency mailbox into additional mailboxes, asneeded. This can be useful in situations where an agency hasa service center that they want to make sure has access to the samepolicy data as the producers within the agency, or in cases wherean agency is in the process of migrating to a newer version oftheir agency management system and needs a copy of the data fortesting purposes.

• Enhanced Reporting – Carriers can access evenmore in-depth information about their implementations of downloadand real-time. Some of the existing reports have beenextended to include additional information, and several new reportshave also been added. These enhancements give carriers evenmore visibility into their agency interface initiatives, making iteasier for them to track and manage those initiatives.