IASA NEWS BRIEFS

Insurance Data Processing (IDP, Wyncote, PA) introduced SURE, a client-configurable intelligent underwriting system. SURE allows users to electronically enter, edit, expire and implement underwriting rules and guidelines. Rules can be multi-transaction-based and custom-configured for multiple lines of business, multiple states and multi-company processing. The product enforces rules stored in its database against incoming application data and automatically decides what rules and guidelines should be enforced. An automatic renewal capability eliminates the need for underwriters to review and process renewal policies that meet all of a firm's rules and guidelines, IDP says.

Component-based solution developer WorldGroup Consulting (Emeryville, CA) launched a new addition to its WG Worx family of products, WG InsureWorx, a J2EE-compliant component library designed for mid-sized to large commercial lines and group insurance carriers. Like all members of the Worx family, this insurance-specific library is built on IBM's WebSphere application server, and delivers a fully integrated, Web-based environment to provide easy access and straight-through processing for anywhere, anytime computing, according to WorldGroup. Claim components are available for immediate delivery; functional point solutions, along with underwriting and billing, are planned for future releases.

Hyland Software, Inc. (Westlake, OH), the developer of OnBase integrated document management software, has formed a partnership with Open Scan Technologies to create an insurance industry solution for processing new business and ongoing commercial premium payments. Hyland's OnBase solutions provide imaging, workflow and document management, while Open Scan's Mail Scan and Open Key products contribute automated capture, routing, recognition and exception handling, which in turn allow for automated import of all captured images and index values. By combining the two firms' technologies, users have the ability to scan premium payment checks and new business applications with automated sorting and workflow processing of the scanned images at the point of entry, minimizing costs associated with paper handling, Hyland claims.

Castek Software Factory Inc. (Toronto) will deliver the first release of its Insure3 ("Insure cubed") claims management system to National Grange Mutual and an unnamed (at press time) US P&C carrier on June 30. Designed for P&C carriers and organizations that self-insure and internally process claims, Insure3 has component-based architecture and was developed on the J2EE enterprise technology platform. It features layered service-oriented architecture designed for multiple user interaction mechanisms, such as browsers and WAP.

AscendantOne (Nashua, NH) released RiskFocus, a unified underwriting/rules engine for automated underwriting and real-time risk decision support across all personal and commercial lines of P&C insurance business. RiskFocus is an element of AscendantOne's RateFocus system, a browser-based P&C rate-management solution. RiskFocus supports business-driven logic, enabling staff to establish automated underwriting, including rules, guidelines, validations and edits. RiskFocus and RateFocus are also integrated with industry-standard risk information from AscendantOne's partner, Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO, Jersey City, NJ). ISO and AscendantOne also jointly announced a new Business Owners Program (BOP), a package policy providing broad property and liability coverage in a single contract for small and mid-size businesses. The BOP 2002 program simplifies the existing policy forms and rating system, expands the number of risk categories eligible for coverage, and incorporates a new business owners-specific classification table into the BOP section of the commercial lines manual. It also introduces new coverages and new optional endorsements.

Whitehill Technologies, a UK-based provider of business infrastructure software, released a suite of software solutions designed to help life, health and P&C insurance companies access and share data more efficiently. Whitehill's insurance solutions provide electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP), electronic document presentment, report presentment and delivery, online account current reconciliation, online list bill reconciliation. Whitehill intercepts information and then organizes it into numerous possible formats. The report or statement is then sent to recipients via e-mail, file, Web page, or printed document.

CGI has debuted GIOS (Global Insurance Open Solution), a customizable enterprise-wide solution that allows insurance companies to automate insurance functions, support a wide range of products, leverage new or existing IT resources and respond to competitive market conditions, the vendor says. The solution links disparate legacy systems enabling insurance companies to improve the efficiency of administrative processes, including policy and quotations management, distribution, claims management and accounting. Toronto-based CGI's GIOS also ties together a customer's insurance interactions to create a complete view, enabling insurers to improve customer service and cross-sell products.

InSystems (Markham, ON), a provider of e-business solutions for financial services organizations, and FileNET Corp. (Costa Mesa, CA), a provider of enterprise content management solutions, have announced the integration of InSystems Calligo with FileNET's Acenza for Insurance application suite. The integrated solution, claim the companies, will allow underwriters to approve and submit policy issuance requests to back-end applications to complete the underwriting of a policy. InSystems Calligo will generate the policy/contract and allow these policies to be stored or printed for the prospect, which will reduce the delivery time to the customer, according to the partners.

Fiserv SIS (Orange, CA) released Tech 21, an upgrade to its Specialty System that it claims satisfies all data processing needs of underwriters from policy rating and issuance to management and statistical reporting. Tech 21 operates in an n-tier application model to support Internet and intranet activities utilizing the functionality of the Specialty System. Tech 21 consists of an all lines processing system, insurance billing system and claims management system.

Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC, Austin, TX) introduced a new OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) offering to help insurers follow the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. CSC's offering includes consulting services to help insurers establish internal OFAC auditing procedures and compliance policies, identity-search technology to match customer and claimant names against the OFAC list of blocked names, and system integration services to quickly deploy the technology.

Sirius Financial Systems (Englewood, CO), which provides component-based and Internet-capable solutions for the global insurance and financial services markets, and Align360, a Richmond, VA-based consulting firm, announced a partnership that makes Align360 Sirius' preferred North American implementation partner for the Sirius4Broking and Sirius4Underwriting products.