New York Life International and InfosysTechnologies have teamed up to deploy New York Life'sworldwide expansion project. Infosys is developing the necessarylife insurance business systems for the initiative.

Acordia has signed an agreement witheHealthinsurance, a distributor of healthinsurance for individuals, families and small businesses, toprovide health insurance to Acordia's clients through itswebsite.

Ebix.com has signed a memorandum ofunderstanding with iwix.net-the first independente-marketplace for agents, brokers, and carriers-to purchase certainiwix.net assets, including software, the intellectual propertyrights of all iwix.net products, and access to iwix.net agency andcarrier partners. The transaction is contingent on the developmentand completion of a final agreement.

Policy Master and Insurance InformationTechnologies formed a strategic partnership in hopes ofstorming the managing general agency marketplace. The partnershipwill combine InsTec's full policy rating and issuance capabilitieswith Policy Master's back-office product set for agency management,billing, accounting, and claims processing.

Benefitfocus.com and Compaqfinalized a business partnership to deliver touch-screen kiosktechnology to the employee benefits marketplace. The partnershipwill consist of Compaq hardware, support, and services, and as theplatform for delivery of the Benefitfocus Internet and kiosk-basedbenefits enrollment and communication application.

Bridium, an application developer of claimsworkflow solutions for the property and casualty industry,finalized an agreement with Scene Genesis, aP&C software developer and application service provider. Theagreement enables Bridium's claims workflow application, Claims3(formerly ClaimsXL), to offer added task management and digitalinformation gathering functionality, which will be provided byScene Genesis's proprietary technology, SceneAccess.Net.

Commercial P&C insurance software provider InsuranceInformation Technologies developed an agreement withColonial Risk Insurance for the implementation ofInsTec's workers' compensation policy processing system forColonial's Bridgemaster program.

EPolicy.com Insurance Services, which offersinsurance products for small businesses and professionals over theInternet, signed an agreement with Zurich North AmericaSmall Business to provide Zurich's small businessinsurance to ePolicy's clients. EPolicy will offer Zurich's smallbusiness insurance products, including business owners policies,workers' compensation, commercial auto, and umbrella insurance,nationwide.

BenefitPoint, whose products help with thedistribution and management of employee benefits, has formed apartnership with online health insurance destinationeHealthInsurance to offer its broker/consultantpartners an online vehicle for delivering individual andsmall-group health insurance to potential customers.

Kemper Insurance and Aquilahope their strategic alliance will expand the global market forweather derivatives and weather risk management products. Weatherrisk products are used to offset the effects of abnormal weather onbusiness revenues or expenses.

Liberty International Underwriters recentlyallied with Cogentric, an enabler of e-businessviability, to assess e-business sites for companies seeking cyberinsurance. Cogentric's software solution will allow LIU to provideits clients with a risk assessment model capable of finding faultsin e-business Web infrastructures.

CRM solution provider DWL and businessintegration software provider CrossWorlds Softwareallied to market and sell e-business solutions to the insurance,financial services, and consumer products industries. The intendedresult: an enhanced end-to-end transactional CRM solution poweredby CrossWorlds's pre-built integration products.

Born, an e-business and technology solutionsconsulting firm, and Rural Community Insurance Services(RCIS), a Wells Fargo subsidiary providing insuranceproducts and services to the agricultural industry, have teamed upfor RCISag.com, a Web-based, automated system that enables bothagricultural producers and insurance agents to streamline cropinsurance policy processing.

The National Institute of Financial Services(NIFS), a provider of investment and insurance servicesfor banks, entered a marketing alliance with InsuranceCentral, an affinity-based third-party direct marketer oflife insurance products. The agreement will make Insurance Centralservice available to NIFS's client banks and the NIFS endorsedstate banking associations.

BenefitPort recently signed a nationalagreement with Metropolitan Life Insurance tomarket and distribute insurance products through BenefitPortbrokers, who will begin selling to employer groups and theiremployees in May.

Amerisure Insurance has entered a joint venturewith Taliant Software to develop a workers'compensation processing system. Amerisure is partnering withTaliant to expand PowerComp, Taliant's component-based workers'compensation software package, into a fully integrated system tomanage all policy lines.

AMS Services and Multico arein cahoots, integrating AMS's strategic management systems-AfW, AfWOnline, Prime 2000, and Sagitta Browser-with Multico's PersonalLines Comparative Raters. While one-way integration with Prime 2000exists, the next step includes two-way integration rollouts forAfW, Sagitta Browser, and Prime 2000.

Return to the July 2001 issue'sTech Update