Accenture announces the release of enhanced versions of itspolicy administration, claims management, and billing software,designed to help property & casualty insurersimprove customer service by processing policies and claims moreefficiently.

The software upgrades are engineered to support fasterdevelopment of insurance products, increasing speed to market andimproving ease of use for the carrier, agents and policy holders,according to Accenture.

"The ability to recognize and capitalize on industry changeswill separate the winners from the others," says Michael A.Jackowski, global managing director of Accenture Software forP&C Insurance. "Delivering new customer insights, insuranceproducts, and enhanced services at speed is clearly the newlifeblood. To that end, we have enhanced our software withconfiguration and third-party integration capabilities to make themeasier to implement and to change."

Accenture Duck Creek Billing (release 5.2) enhancementsinclude:

• Workflow interface and user navigation to improve productivityof both technical and non-technical users.
• Commission options that enable carriers to customize agentcommission plans.
• Configurability that enables carriers to deal with non-standardbilling situations such as policy cancellations, out-of-cycle billtypes, renewal plan changes, and payments.

The new release of Accenture Claim Components (release 10.3)features:

• A library of integration adapters and accelerators, enablingintegration with third-party applications.
• Enhancements to the software's codeless configuration, allowingfor customization of business event definition and workflows,facilitating easier system behavior changes.
• Configuration management tools that drive upgrades.
• Injury benefit processing and financial authority options, forfinancial management.

Finally, the new release of Accenture Duck Creek PolicyAdministration (release 5.2) includes:

• A new product modeling feature within Accenture Duck CreekProduct Studio. A product lifecycle management component allowsbusiness users to experiment with product changes and improvecarrier profitability by delivering new products to marketfaster.
• Updates to Accenture Duck Creek Templates. The producttemplates within Accenture Duck Creek Policy Administrationaccelerate the process of loading of ISO circulars and rule updatesfor the U.S. market. Additionally, installation of multiple linesof business can now be automated.

"Our latest release demonstrates the synergies our customersgain when using our integrated suite of Duck Creek P&Csoftware," says Jackowski." With configurability for both productsand process, Accenture Duck Creek Property & Casualty Softwaredelivers faster implementations and upgrades while providinginsurers of all sizes with a powerful and comprehensive P&Csoftware suite."