WEB ENABLED

With New York Lifes Help, MIB Offers Online Services
MIB has been offering valued data to the life insurance industryfor more than 100 years, but now, thanks to the help of New YorkLife, MIB members can receive secure, Internet-based access to MIBservices. Information acquired through the MIB Web solution willimprove underwriting and speed-to-market issues, according toPierre Bouchard, corporate vice president of architecture for NewYork Life. We worked in a partnership mode to promote this newtechnology, which was right in line with a couple of major projectsat New York Life, he says.

Insurers will benefit from the Web-enabled product by gainingthe ability to make requests for medical information on lifeinsurance customers and receiving that information in a secure andencrypted manner that will reduce any paper transfers and humaninteraction. Its truly machine to machine, says Bouchard. New YorkLife is using the system as part of its New Business 21st Centuryprogram. This allows us, in a very aggressive manner, to enhanceour new-business system, he says. Within that proj-ect we haveautomation of processes such as acquisition of attending physicianstatements, medical EKGs, and all the information for underwritersto be able to perform their work in a new-business situation.

Bouchard believes MIB is providing life insurers with the meansto automate the entire process. When new business is entered intothe New York Life system, the information is generatedautomatically to the proper environment. This is simple dollars andcents, he says. We can reduce the process from about a four-weektimeframe to hopefully a couple of days if it is simpleunderwriting or a little more if we have more complex underwritingrules.

MIB and New York Life found a perfect fit in each other, assertsBouchard. [MIB] is a very crucial partner of ours for theintegration of medical information, he says. One major area ofagreement in the partnership was the use of the ACORD model and thestandards organizations communication principles. Having the rightpeople working with each other also was beneficial. In MIB, we wereable to have access to [the companys] chief visionary, David Olsen,he adds. Whenever a problem was arising, we had access to the toppeople to get the ball rolling and not have to wait by goingthrough an intermediary level.

With the introduction of the MIB Web-enabled solution, MIB willbegin phasing out outdated technologies and has announced effectiveDec. 31, 2006, it will no longer support legacy connectivity forMIB-TERM, MIB-COMM, Fast Track, and MIB-LINK/Plus V2.

Among the features of the new Web-enabled solution are thesecurity model, which has SSL 128-bit encryption and digitalcertificate authentication utilizing PKI technology; easier networkintegration through standard Internet protocols; standardized datatransactions using ACORD TXLife; improved data semantics to enhancesearch accuracy; and improved ability and performance of MIBsystems and communications.
The new MIB solutions include WEB-TERM, WEB-DIRECT, WEB Services,and Insurance e-Nable. WEB-TERM offers MIB data services on asingle-record basis via a Web browser. Among the available servicesare MIB Checking Service, Insurance Activity Index (IAI),Disability Insurance Record Service (DIRS), Alpha Index Service(ALPS), and Security Alert Services.

WEB-DIRECT is ACORD compliant and offers system-to-systemconnectivity for LAN and mainframe server environments. Servicesinclude the MIB Checking Service, IAI, and DIRS.
WEB Services is offered as an adjunct to MIBs security alertservices, linking directly to the Web sites of the Office ofForeign Assets Control (OFAC) and Canadas Office of theSuperintendent of Financial Institutions.

Communication is what everyone wants to have but has the leastof, says Bouchard. Being able to have the nomenclature andstandards, which were set up by a third party, allowed us to bevery straightforward and avoid a lot of miscommunication. ROBERTREGIS HYLE

SURVEY

CEOs Objective: Turn Toward Revenue Growth
After years of trying to bolster profits by making budget cuts,CEOs apparently have come close to reaching bottom and decided thebest way to improve the profit structure at their companies overthe next three years is to increase revenue growth. Some 80 percentof CEOs surveyed by IBM Business Consulting Services agree theprimary objective of their business is to grow revenue. To achievethis growth, 90 percent of the 450 global CEOs questioned say theyexpect to transform their business to become more responsive,particularly to customer demand, within the next five years.

Cost reduction hasnt disappeared completely, though. Over 60percent of survey respondents, nearly 16 percent of whom areinvolved in financial services, listed cost reduction as the secondkey focus area for strengthening financial performance. Assetutilization and risk management were next on the list, each withapproximately 40 percent.

There are roadblocks to expanding growth, the survey revealed.Eighty percent of the CEOs responding to the survey dont believetheir companies are agile enough to identify and chase new marketopportunities. Other barriers and the percentage of responsesincluded: balancing risk vs. reward (25 percent); highimplementation costs affecting return-on- investment periods (21percent); unclear benefits for change projects (18 percent);obsolete technology requiring updating (15 percent); stringentbusiness case requirements (12 percent); short-term planning (12percent); and limited partnering capabilities (10 percent).
The CEOs believe the area offering the greatest opportunity forrevenue growth is in new products or services. This was followed bynew markets, customer intimacy, new channels, anddiversification.

Clearly CEOs are keen to transform their enterprise to improveresponsiveness in order to go after growth objectives and newmarket opportunities, but they feel they are at a crossroadswherethere is strong desire but limited capability, says Ginni Rometty,managing partner, IBM Business Consulting Services. Most CEOs feelsignificant deficiencies in skills and capabilities, both insideand outside their organization, may threaten the growth agenda.

WHOS USING WHAT

Allied Insurance has signed a contract with Castle Data Servicesto provide the insurer with replacement-cost data through Castlesonline estimator.

The California State Automobile Association (CSAA) has launcheda new-business issuance system from Steel Card. The insurer willuse Steel Cards Apogee platform that extends online quoting andprovides the CSAA sales force with the ability to issue and bindnew automobile policies in California.

New York Marine and General Insurance Co. has signed a licensingagreement with Allenbrook Inc. to use the software developersintegrated policy processing and administration system.

The Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund has upgraded its businessintelligence capabilities through the use of the Bladeworkssoftware from Infoglide Software Corp.

Amlin plc, an insurer operating in the Lloyds market, hasselected MicroStrategy Inc. as its enterprisewide businessintelligence platform.

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi has reached anagreement with MD On-Line that will provide the health carrier withelectronic claims submission services.

United India Insurance Co. has reached an agreement with SunMicrosystems to license 10,000 seats of Suns StarOffice officeproductivity software.
Nationwide Life Insurance has licensed the Visual Product/ModelingSystem from Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) to help the carrierdevelop and implement new insurance products. Country Insurance& Financial Services has licensed two CSC products,nbAccelerator and Automated Work Distributor, to streamline itslife, health, and annuity operations. Aviva Life Insurance Co. haslicensed Automated Work Distributor to streamline operations at thecarriers two processing centers.

UnumProvident has selected Good Technology as its corporatestandard for wireless messaging and corporate data access.

Everest National Insurance Co. has implemented CS ClaimSuitefrom Corporate Systems, Inc., as a claims lifecycle management andreporting solution.

Universal Underwriters Group, a part of Zurich North America,has reached an agreement with NAT, Inc., to deploy the NAT SCSAutomotive Platform to streamline and automate Universalsaftermarket products.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association has signed a nationalagreement with Connecture to provide members of the associationwith an insurance sales automation solution to be implemented inWeb-based distribution strategies.

New York Central Mutual has selected ISO HomeValue from theInsurance Services Office to provide the insurer with estimatedresidential replacement values.

ImageRight has signed agreements to install its documentmanagement and workflow solution with the following insurers:Midwest Insurance Co.; Kay Insurance Co.; Stonewood Insurance Co.;Garbor Insurance; Home State Insurance Group; and Mountain StatesInsurance Group.

United Farm Family Life Insurance Co., based in Indianapolis,Ind., has selected Philibert Software Group, part of the COSSDevelopment Corp., to develop an illustration system to be used byUniteds sales force.

Western United Life Assurance Co. has implemented the AquilanGroups Patriot Manager software to manage the insurers USA PATRIOTAct compliance across its insurance operations.

The Regence Group, an affiliation of four leading health plansin the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, has decided to deployMacro 4s application availability software to support thedevelopment and testing of business-critical mainframe serverapplications.

Amica Insurance has implemented the Nexsure agency managementsystem from XDimensional Technologies.

MONY Group has completed its implementation of a new corporatecompliance solution from AXS-One, Inc., a provider of e-businesssolutions.

First American Property & Casualty Insurance recentlyimplemented Tech21 Web-enabling technology from Fiserv to providethe carriers agency force with self-service capabilities using theSpecialty System via the Internet.

Security Mutual Insurance Co. has gone into production with theSURE automated underwriting system from IDP. The system wasinstalled as part of IDPs Acies/one integrated insurance system.Security Mutual is using it to process BOP lines and will addadditional lines.