CRM BRIEFS

The Hartford Financial Services Group (Hartford) launched www.mb.thehartford.com, an interactive Web site with tools and resources for business insurance buyers at mid-sized companies, typically with employee number in the range of 21 to 499. The site provides information to assist insurance buyers in decision-making regarding coverage and risk management needs. Resources include an industry jargon glossary, coverage analyzers, guidelines for evaluating insurance proposals and a full library of risk management information.

Internet services firm Molecular (Watertown, MA) introduced a Web-based online insurance quote-generation and policy-binding solution based on Intel (Santa Clara, CA) architecture. The solution, based on Microsoft (Redmond, WA) .NET architecture and optimized for Intel's Xeon processor family, integrates with insurance companies' Web sites to offer independent agents remote instant access to quotes, allowing maximized efficiency and customer service. The customizable solution provides accessibility to agents from a password-protected extranet, an interface wizard that allows agents to minimize data entry errors, and a user-friendly agent interface that minimizes agent training time while providing depth of sophistication for accommodating complex underwriting problems, according to Molecular.

Farmers New World Life Insurance Co., a member company of Zurich Financial Services Group, received the DALBAR seal of excellence for its LifeNet Agency Dashboard Web site. The seal was awarded subsequent to a series of tests that DALBAR, Inc. (Boston), conducted to determine the site's effectiveness in serving the needs of financial services professionals. LifeNet was determined to excel in its design approach, which the marketing and research firm says "parallels the behavior-centric model that focuses on what the Web site must do for the user of the site and considers both online and offline behaviors."

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio