Performance Mgmt. Products Debut At IASA Denver

The IASA Educational Conference and Business Show, held last month, featured multiple new technology products aimed at boosting productivity.

Among those aimed at providing a holistic view of property-casualty insurer performance or improving their business management processes were products from Thazar, INEA Corporation and Systems Union.

Thazar, part of Skywire Software Company, announced INSsight 4.0, the latest version of its business intelligence software for the property-casualty industry.

According to Frisco, Texas-based Thazar, the new product gives insurers “a strategic, enterprise-wide view of their information across all operating units.” This includes actuarial, accounting, underwriting, claims, sales and marketing units.

INSsight 4.0 allows insurance companies to automatically measure performance against goals, identify and track trends, and detect and respond to [marketing] threats, the company said.

“INSsight provides instant access to critical data in one centralized repository for reporting and analysis,” stated Thomas R. Chesbrough, founder and executive vice president of Thazar. “In return, insurers are able to reduce costs, increase operational efficiencies and improve profitability.”

The INSsight system is composed of three areas: information management, Web-based analytical and reporting tools, and implementation and support services, said Thazar. The software is based on ACORD and ISO standards. It supports multiple operating environments, including Unix or Windows.

INSsight 4.0 will be available via the Skywire Software Insurance Suite in the third quarter of this year, the company added. Pricing information was not provided. Details are available at www.thazar.com.

INEA Corporation unveiled its INEA Performance Management Suite, a financial services performance management system.

The company claimed the new software will enable insurance companies to deliver “a holistic view of performance and profitability across the enterprise, easily and cost-effectively.”

The product offers the same features as INEAs software for banks, but adds features that are specifically important to insurers, said Toronto, Canada-based INEA. These features include: sources of earnings reporting; embedded value calculation; key performance indicators; planning and forecasting across multiple dimensions; balance sheet planning; sales performance, compensation planning and scorecarding; investment yield and portfolio planning; pricing/reserving models; and statutory capital requirement reporting.

Pricing for the new product is in the $500 to $2,500 per seat range, with volume discounts available, an INEA spokesperson stated.

More information is available at www.ineacorp.com.

Systems Union Inc. announced the SunSystems Insurance Financial Portal, a Web-enabled service that provides pre-configured key performance indicators and management report processes for “better business management, decision making and increased financial transparency.”

The portal is the result of an alliance between Systems Union and Scruggs Consulting, an actuarial and systems firm in the insurance industry, said United Kingdom-based Systems Union. It can deliver cost savings and efficiencies due to reduced implementation, customization and training time. In addition, the portal is built with technology to streamline financial management functions, such as integrating business processes, consolidating data from multiple environments and delivering real-time information to financial users, the company noted.

“Financial and IT professionals in the insurance sector continue to spend significant time and resources deploying ineffective generic enterprise portal solutions because large vendors are simply selling empty boxes to the masses,” stated Alan Hall, director, Americas Insurance Group, SunSystems. “We have built a specialized portal solution that incorporates the best practices and requirements of many of the worlds leading insurance companies.”

Portal offerings include: a “dashboard” view of the corporation in real time; real-time alerts tied to business goals and activities; pre-configured reports, as well as links to all financial management and analysis software used in the enterprise; and drill down analysis to help identify problems, the company said.

According to a company spokesperson, a “typical” deployment price for the financial portal is $40,000 for new customers. More information is available at www.sunsystemsamericas.com.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, July 7, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Performance Mgmt. Products Debut At IASA

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