New insurance policy administration and claims systems were among the technology products debuted by vendors at this year's ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum last month in Las Vegas.

Enhanced efficiencies in quoting and issuance, billing, processing, reporting and other key insurance functions were claimed by several vendors announcing their latest products at the conference.

o CGI Group Inc. announced CGI Edge, the next generation of the company's property-casualty insurance software, using a Web-based service-oriented architecture, based on Microsoft's .Net framework.

According to Andover, Mass.-based CGI, CGI Edge supports the complete insurance policy lifecycle, “providing insurance companies with a competitive advantage in pursuing new growth in profitability.”

At the same time, it “provides agents with an easy-to-use, Web-based interface that allows agents to perform all policy transactions,” CGI noted. These include “quote, new business, endorsements, payments, and creating a first notice of loss.”

The product, set to go live Sept. 30, allows agents to do straight-through processing for all lines, according to Gordon Gaar, vice president of marketing and strategy for insurance at CGI.

The average price for a license covering the entire product offering is $1 million, noted Mr. Gaar. Further details are available at www.cgi.com.

o Guidewire Software Inc. announced the release of Guidewire ClaimCenter 5.0, the latest version of its p-c claims system.

“ClaimCenter enables carriers to improve their claims-adjusting processes, reduce claims costs and enhance customer service,” said San Mateo, Calif.-based Guidewire. The latest release features “more than 25 major enhancements,” including improved claims lifecycle efficiency, with “better claim intake screens and better management of damage and repair assessments.”

Also offered in ClaimCenter 5.0 are a new user interface for better usability, service provider management functionality, fraud scoring capability, subrogation lifecycle functionality and new graphical configuration tools, the company said.

Other upgrades include enhanced first notice of loss, international capabilities for multicurrency transactions, and enhanced catastrophe management, said Guidewire.

The cost range is “$750,000 to $5-to-$10 million” per license, which may be spread over the first five years, a company spokesperson said. Details are available at www.guidewire.com.

o Moore Stephens Business Solutions LLC announced its bIntelligent Insurance Analytic Framework (IAF) for carriers, brokers and managing general agents.

The new product provides a holistic picture of company performance and business by “harmonizing disparate data from throughout the organization to deliver key performance indicators related to premium production, policy performance, pricing and exposure trending, claim activity and reserve forecasts, and operational efficiency,” according to New York-based Moore Stephens.

“Every metric within the framework can be analyzed across a number of key dimensions, allowing executives and managers to understand variations in their business according to region, producer or product, to name just a few variables,” said Seth Rachlin, CEO of Moore Stephens. “By adding context and meaning to insurance data, it is made more accurate, available and actionable.”

The product is capable of integrating with core insurance administration platforms and existing data warehouse, data mart and reporting infrastructures, the company noted. A perpetual license may range in price from $100,000 up to $250,000, according to Mr. Rachlin.

o Skywire Software announced the launch of Ingage, “a Web-based software application that streamlines data capture by allowing insurers to create and configure questions and rules through an intelligent front-end data capture.”

Ingage integrates with Skywire's Insbridge rules, rating and underwriting system, enabling insurers to reduce time associated with maintaining rates, accelerate time-to-market, and improve rating accuracy, quality and compliance, said Frisco, Texas-based Skywire.

Built to support all lines of business, Ingage provides an online data capture front end for the decision-making involved in insurance applications, the company explained. The interface enables producers, customer service representatives, underwriters or applicants to gather information. Ingage then automatically accepts or knocks out the application based on responses to questions.

The company added that Ingage tracks insurance applications for accuracy and completeness, noting that it “provides straight-through processing for common risk types [and] eliminates redundant entry for agents and underwriters.”

Ingage costs between $75,000 and $400,000 to implement, a company spokesperson said. Further information is available at www.skywiresoftware.com.

o SunGard debuted its new policy administration solution, iWORKS POLICY, a configurable system for the p-c industry.

According to Wayne, Pa.-based SunGard, the new product offers flexibility, speed-to-market and total control over the system “without coding,” along with “the lowest possible total cost of ownership.”

It supports service-oriented architecture and can be used with both personal and commercial lines.

The product provides predefined business solution models that can be adapted to the insurer's specific business requirements, the company said, while also addressing issues associated with regulatory compliance, cost reduction, Web enablement, M&A consolidation and integration, and business process flexibility and adaptability.

The product allows insurers to configure their processes and deploy solutions for business processing needs without the use of code generators or lengthy information technology development cycles, according to SunGard. Using this technology, p-c insurers can eliminate or minimize custom coding to deliver systems with externalized, maintainable rules.

Licensing fees range from “$500,000 to $2-to-$3 million,” a company spokesperson stated. Further details are available at HYPERLINK “http://www.sungard.com/iWORKS”www.sungard.com/iWORKS.

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New Policy Admin, Claims Systems Debut At ACORD LOMA Conference

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