INDUSTRY INTELLIGENCENEWS, INSIGHTS,INNOVATIONS.

NAIC Offers Regulatory Information on National Portal

A single point of entry for insurers and others to access insurance information, services, and tools now is available through the National Portal for Insurance Regulatory Information on the Web site (www.naic.org) of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The NAICs Information Resources Management Committee began demonstrations of the national portal search engine at the NAIC Spring National Meeting in Salt Lake City.

This technology tool is the first step in allowing [those parties] interested in insurance issues to target fully their areas of interest by focusing their online search to find information they need, says Jim Long, North Carolinas insurance commissioner, who chairs the Information Resources Management Com- mittee. Making similar queries on other search engines provides Internet browsers an overwhelming number of choices and sponsored links that may be of little relevance. The national portal search engine cuts through those generic requests and delivers a more refined search of pertinent insurance regulatory information.

At this stage, the portal is a search engine that allows users to retrieve publicly available information from the NAIC and individual state insurance department Web sites. Content from state insurance department Web sites is targeted to increase relevance and assure authenticity and is updated regularly to be timely. To maintain the accuracy of the search engine, the portal is scheduled to check for updates on state insurance department Web sites at weekly intervals.

WHOS USING WHAT

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has upgraded to the 2004 release of The Administrator from LIDP Consulting Services. Thrivent utilizes this version to process universal life and variable universal life contracts in a Java presentation environment.

Muang Thai Life Assurance, one of the largest insurance companies in Thailand and a joint venture company of the Fortis Group, has agreed to use software and services from Eastpro, a global software solutions provider to the life insurance and financial industries.

Farmers Alliance Companies has signed a contract with Connective Technologies, Inc., to supply Farmers with an Internet-based download solution, TEAM-UP Download. Cornerstone National Insurance Company also has signed up with Connective to provide Cornerstone an Internet-based download solution and data translation services.

Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company, Preserver Group, Inc., Maryland Automotive Fund, DTRIC Insurance, Canal Insurance Company, and Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company of Arkansas, Inc., each have purchased the ImageRight document management system. ImageRight will help the companies streamline their workflows in underwriting and claims.

California State Compensation Insurance Fund has licensed the Fair Isaac SmartAdvisor medical bill review system.

Pacific Life Insurance Company has deployed mobile enterprise voice portal technology from iHello in support of the companys sales force automation and customer relationship management solutions.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has signed a contract with Unisys to offer Blue companies outsourcing services for claims administration. The agreement provides the 40 independent, locally owned and operated BCBS companies the option of contracting with Unisys for an end-to-end business process outsourcing solution.

American Fidelity Assurance Company has converted its final block of annuities onto McCamish Systems VPAS Life version 4.0, bringing the total number of contracts on the system to approximately 150,000. Farmers New World Life Insurance Company and McCamish announced they have extended their BPO relationship through 2011. Farmers Life has been outsourcing the call center, policy administration, and claims processing activities for its variable universal life and annuity products to McCamish since 2000.

Firemans Fund Insurance Company and First Notice Systems, Inc., a claims-reporting solutions provider, announced Firemans Fund has implemented Claim-Capture, a Web-based claims-reporting platform developed by First Notice. Firemans Fund also will implement a new management system for agents from BearingPointthe GlobeNet Technologies Firestorm Compensation solution will support agency administration, agency business planning, and incentive compensation management.

Farmers Mutual Protective Association of Texas has chosen the Example Platform from Duck Creek Technologies for the development of a Web-based quoting and submission system.

Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company has approved eTFile for Nationwide document management software for use by its more than 4,000 agents in the United States. eTFile for Nationwide was developed and is marketed by Aprs Systems, Inc.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee has begun to implement applications from Webify Solutions Healthcare On Demand, a suite of service-oriented business applications that enable BCBST to expand the information exchange and process automation with its provider community.

Merastar Insurance Company has selected Steel Cards Apogee point-of-sale and policy administration solutions for auto insurance across 47 states. Apogee will enable Merastar to deploy new products and offer self-service capabilities to its distribution channels as well as its policyholders.

Principal Financial Group has decided on Dialogue software from Exstream Software as the infrastructure for creation and delivery of customer communications.

NJM Insurance Group, The California Insurance Guaran- tee Association, and New Mexico Mutual Group have opted for ClaimCenter from Guidewire Software as their new claims systems. ClaimCenter will support the entire claims organization and all phases of the claim process.