Product: ClaimCenter
Company: Guidewire Software
Web site: www.guidewire.com
Guidewire Software, Inc., a developer of claims solutions for property/casualty insurers, has released Guidewire ClaimCenter, a comprehensive claims system designed to help insurers eliminate avoidable claims costs and improve customer service.
Hastings Mutual Insurance is in the process of implementing ClaimCenter as it leaves behind an old DOS-based system that claims manager Ray Rose says had run the course of its lifespan. Our goal was to look at newer technology, newer architecture, Rose says. Something to build on for the future. Having current technology was one important concern for the insurer, agrees Bob Eshelbrenner, vice president information technology for Hast-ings. The other key factor in the decision was the people who work for Guidewire. We had to make our decision based on the people who visited us and the people we talked to when we went to San Mateo [Guidewires California home] to their office, says Eshelbrenner. We developed a high level of confidence they could deliver what they said they were developing.
Rose believes Hastings will see improved performances from its field staff now that better remote access for claims adjusters will be available. Plus, we also had to think long range, he says. Were going to have a lot more flexibility going forward.
Adjusters arent the only group that will have improved connectivity. We needed to take advantage of opportunities to interface with other outside vendors, third-party providers, and independent adjusters, says Eshelbrenner. We were not going to be able to do that effectively [with the old system]. All of these things are directions we felt would give us a product that has a reasonably good life to it as well as one that could take advantage of flexibility.
Guidewire built the system with flexible business rules to implement customer-specific claims-handling practices. This allows insurers to tailor the claims process to their own business requirements. This control and flexibility enable insurers to increase productivity and accuracy, enforce best practices, and reduce the total cost of technology ownership. ClaimCenter currently is being implemented at both midsize and large insurance carriers to support personal and commercial lines, including workers compensation.
Some of ClaimCenters features include:
Automated, rules-driven seg- mentation and assignment based on any claim attributes.
Continuous tracking and management of all activities re-quired for a specific claim.
Real-time, multiparty collaboration among distributed claims handlers.
Automated navigation to external tools such as correspondence as well as damage estimation.
Real-time supervisory visibility into aggregate and individual workload.
Flexible exception flagging and handling rules to identify and act on important claims.
Extension and configuration of the data model and user interfaces using XML.
ClaimCenter is a J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) application, written en-tirely in Java, and runs multiple platforms. All aspects of ClaimCenter can be configured easily using XML instead of custom programming, and business rules can be managed by business end users for maximum flexibility to changing needs. ClaimCenters architecture supports company-specific data models and rules to meet the requirements of individual insurers.
Product: Metaserver 4.5
Company: Metaserver
Web site: www.metaserver.com
Metaserver, Inc., has released Metaserver 4.5, offering new functionality to tackle a wide range of business process integration projects. Among the benefits are enhancements designed to support the type of rapid development that differentiates BPI from traditional approaches to enterprise integration.
Michigan Millers Mutual Insurance Co. began using version 4.4 this spring and upgraded to the new version in August. The carrier is in the process of implementing an e-business solution for its independent agents, says Ralph Sukla, Michigan Millers CIO. The system weve licensed to do that requires a number of real-time and batch interfaces with other systems in order for us to process these transactions successfully in a real-time environment, he explains.
Looking at our options from writing traditional code to perform this integration to writing interfaces to the tools that were available in the marketplace, we believe Metaserver provided us the best long-term solution to meet our requirements, says Sukla. Those requirements include the ability to interface XML streams as well as the ability to interface with agency management systems using ACORD standards. Metaserver provides the capability of interfacing directly with ACORD, which greatly simplified interfacing with our independent agents, adds Sukla. Meta-server 4.5 builds on the products ability to transform complex data from one systems format to any other system. New data transformation and mapping features, such as one-click mapping of complete data structures, aim to make it easier to pass data from one system to another business application in whatever format the application requires.
Other enhancements include improved support for change management. The release incorporates new software configuration management (SCM) features that allow customers to manage change. Updates to the Metaserver administration services include enhancements to the administration application programming interface (API) and new functionality in the Metaserver Management Console. These features make it easier to manage the runtime environment. New security capabilities have been added to ensure control over development, test, and production environments. These functions build on the existing J2EE-based security model and enable support for collaborative workgroup environments and deployment of solutions in an ASP model. Using role-based security, rules can be created to govern access to various features of the product at design time as well as runtime.
Metaserver also has added integrated support for software developer ItemFields any to any data extraction and transformation tool called ContentMaster. Customers can integrate data in any format from common business documents such as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or PDFs; industry formats such as EDI, SWIFT, FIX, HL7, ACORD AL3; as well as any proprietary format. No price was revealed for the new release.
Sukla says the Metaserver tool is most definitely a long-term solution for Michigan Millers. We see utilizing the Metaserver tool not only as part of our e-business strategy, but also in a number of other areas where we need to connect or integrate dissimilar systems, he says, citing existing legacy or back-end systems as examples. We have a fully functional data warehouse, and we have a need from time to time to get information out of that warehouse and into other systems, says Sukla. We see utilizing the Metaserver tool to enable us to do that vs. writing traditional code. The benefit is we will be able to implement new capabilities faster and less expensively.
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Product: InSystems Calligo Doc Services
Company: InSystems
Web site: www.insystems.com
InSystems, a solutions provider for transactional-portal and document-intensive business processes, has introduced InSystems Calligo Doc Services, an enterprise software platform that complements core business systems by managing simple to complex, event-driven document processing. The product allows insurers to respond to evolving market and customer requirements. Changes can be made to documents, content/packaging, and distribution channels without having to make changes to core systems.
InSystems Calligo Doc Services can trigger a range of activities that cover the document life cycle. These functions include: retrieval of documents from repositories such as file systems, FTP servers, or document management systems; assembly of simple to complex personalized documents/packages; rendering to multiple formats; and delivery via multiple channels to multiple recipients. In addition, organizations can define their own custom services.
InSystems Calligo Doc Services integrates with IBM Websphere application server and Websphere MQ to offer enterprise scalability and ease of maintenance. It leverages existing document repositories and industry standards such as Microsoft Word and XML. All business processes requiring document-oriented activities can leverage this product, even if the associated systems are not integrated.
The solution can work well in product development, sales and marketing, fulfillment and underwriting, and customer service. Organizations are looking for modular solutions that enable them to address immediately requirements for personalization and timely delivery of documents, says Rich Medina, principal analyst with Doculabs, an independent research and consulting firm. By being both tactical and extensible, InSystems Calligo Doc Services enables insurance organizations to meet customer expectations for highly personalized, custom-delivered documents today while allowing those carriers to build extensible document infrastructures over time."
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