Claims administration systems are being replaced at anincreasing pace in the insurance industry according to researchfrom Novarica (www.novarica.com), a research and advisory firm.

While many carriers have already upgraded and others are in themiddle of a claim replacement project, Novarica research shows themajority of carriers are in the planning phase for a core claimssystem replacement.

Novarica's new report, “Novarica Market Navigator:Property/Casualty Claims Solutions 2011” is designed to helpinsurance CIOs navigate the marketplace of standalone claimssoftware providers, profiling over 30 vendors.

“Traditionally, claims handling has been a very labor-intensive process for carriers with lots of paper,handoffs, and relationships to manage.” says Karlyn Carnahan,principal at Novarica. “Today, carriers have a broad choice ofclaims solutions available that support automated processing andmanagement of claims functions.”

Generally, modern claims systems provide integrated workflowmanagement and task or process management and most come with somelevel of document generation and document management, addsCarnahan.

“User interfaces have dramatically improved with easilynavigable screens and easy-to-find contextual help,” she says.“Adjuster portals, wizards to open new claims, scripting, andrecursive questioning all allow carriers to create very intuitiveprocesses and deliver consistent service. With these kinds offeatures, it is no wonder that we are seeing a continuing interestin replacing core claims systems.”

Based on a recent survey of members of the Novarica InsuranceTechnology Research Council, over 30 percent of respondents saythat claims is one of the top three projects they are focusing onfor 2011, reports Carnahan.

“This highlights the degree to which carriers are investing innew claims functionality,” she says.

Companies and products profiled in the report include Accenture,AGO Insurance Software, Aon eSolutions, BlueWave Technology,Brightwork, CGI, CS STARS, CSC Advanced Claims, CSC Exceed Claims,CSC RiskMaster, David Corporation, DRC, Exigen, Fineos, Finys,Guidewire, Innovation Group, ISCS, JW Software, LexisNexis,MajescoMastek, Maximum Processing, Oracle, Paradox TechnologySolutions, PCIS, Ravello Solutions, SAP, StoneRiver ClaimsWorkstation, StoneRiver PowerSuite, Systema, TCS, Tropics SoftwareTechnologies, and Wyde.

An outline of the report is available online at http://www.novarica.com/report_pcclaims_2011/.The report is free to Novarica insurance clients.