Technology Decisions

Microsoft previewed the Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for Insurance Forms. The software maker said the product is designed to help insurance industry customers cut processing time and costs and reduce errors associated with data re-entry. It does this by tying standard ACORD forms with XML Web services, making those forms available to participants in any ACORD forms program via Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003.
The Accelerator product leverages the more than 30 years the insurance industry has invested in ACORDs form and data standards, says Bill Hartnett, general manager of Financial Services Solutions at Microsoft, allowing insurance professionals to spend less time focusing on technology and more time where it countswith the customer. The full release of the Accelerator this month will come with the release of the Microsoft Office 2003 Editions Service Pack 1, the company said.

Microsoft also announced a collaborative effort with ACORD to help the insurance industry put in place and maintain security-enhanced en-vironments for business operations. The announcement comes after Microsoft founder Bill Gates remarks last fall at the Comdex computer industry conference that Microsofts most acute focus is security. Its the largest thing were doing. The collaboration will involve developing joint task forces on key areas in the insurance industry, according to Microsoft. These include agent and company workstation security, patch management, identity management, and business compliance. The task forces will produce guidelines and best practices, which will be made available to ACORD members through the ACORD Web site. Microsoft said it also will provide prescriptive architectures for patch and identity management to ACORD for member distribution.
Meanwhile, Itemfield, a provider of data transformation software, announced that it is working with IBM on its Open Path to ACORD initiative.

According to Cindy Maike, market segment manager, insurance, for IBM Software Group, There are a lot of legacy customers who have our mainframe and other technologies. Its important to meet their business needs.

WHOS USING WHAT

Central States Indemnity (CSI) of Omaha has selected the ID3 life, health, and annuity administration system from Fiservs suite of insurance products. CSI will integrate ID3 for annual statement, financial management, and unclaimed property.

Liberty Northwest Insurance Corp has chosen the product management solution from InsBridge, Inc., to support its personal lines rating activities. InsBridge delivers browser-based, multiplatform insurance rating and underwriting technology solutions. InsBridge also announced The Ohio Casualty Insurance Co. and its subsidiaries have picked the InsBridge Rating Solution to support their personal lines rating and product management needs. In addition, State Auto Insurance Companies has put into production the insurance rating and underwriting technology solution from InsBridge.

Hastings Mutual Insurance Company, a Midwest property/casualty insurer, has deployed the Claim-Center solution from Guidewire Software, a pro-vider of solutions to property, liability, and workers compensation insurers.

Manulife Financial has implemented the Field Administration Support and Tracking (FASAT) product from DSPA Software Inc., enabling Manulife to enhance the services it offers to its agents and brokers.

Conseco, a provider of supplemental health insurance, life insurance, and annuities, has reached an agreement with TeaLeaf Technology to use TeaLeaf RealiTea to monitor the real availability of Consecos external and internal Web sites.

Erie Insurance Group, a property/casualty insurer, and BillMatrix Corp., a provider of outsourced telephone- and Internet-based payment services, announced the availability of automated telephone-based payments for Eries policyholders.

Principal Financial Group has deployed NaviSys Front Office application across its enterprise. Principal will use the solution to serve customers through its proprietary customer service and sales channel.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi has picked Captiva Software Corp. to deliver an enterprise input management platform built on InputAccel, Captivas document capture software, and FormWare, Captivas forms processing solution, to capture and process incoming documents and other critical insurance correspondence.

American Reliable Insurance Company has chosen Duck Creek Technologies Example Platform Product Suite. Selected Duck Creek software products include Example Author, Example Server, Example Express, Example TransACT, and Example Forms.

Aetna has contracted with Pegasystems Inc. to use the PegaHEALTH contact center solution as part of Aetnas initiative to provide easy-to-use tools and resources that enhance the value of the companys benefit offerings.