From Resource, May 2003 
Copyright by LOMA

In an environment filled with uncertainty and increased complexity, insurance companies are facing more challenges than ever. Finding the systems tools and partners to make business vision a reality is not always and easy proposition. It takes dialogue, understanding, and partnership. Even more it takes looking at many different companies and solutions to make sure you have the best possible fit for your organization.

At this year’s LOMA System Forum in San Antonio, Texas, attendees had the advantage of talking to exhibitors at over 100 booths in the Forum Exhibit Hall. They were able to see live product demonstrations and network with exhibitors and other attendees to develop relationships and look for partnership opportunities. These professionals left the Forum with a better comprehension of the products and partners that are available to help them meet their needs in the current climate of uncertainty—understanding which ones might have solutions that would help ensure future safety and success.

Some exhibitors took the opportunity provided by the LOMA Systems Forum to unveil new products, introduce partnerships, or make announcements. Here are some of those announcements, along with highlights of the many products demonstrated.

InSystems Launches Correspondence Application
InSystems, Markham, ON, announced the availability of InSystems Correspondence and InSystems Tracker 5.2 Enterprise.

InSystems Correspondence is a Web-based correspondence management solution that automates and accelerates the creation and management of personalized correspondence, and supports its distribution through multiple channels including print & mail, fax and e-mail.

By deploying InSystems Correspondence, organizations can increase productivity, reduce operating costs and improve customer and channel satisfaction.

InSystems Correspondence automates ‘ad hoc’ correspondence including personalized letters or letter packages. Each department or workgroup either selects an appropriate pre-defined letter, builds a letter using approved content (letters, paragraphs, graphics, and attachments), or creates a free-form letter online "from scratch" using InSystems Correspondence and Microsoft Word®.

InSystems Tracker 5.2 Enterprise tightly integrates InSystems Tracker with InSystems Calligo, a solution for the creation, management and distribution of complex, highly personalized documents. Designed for high-volume, multi-user environments, InSystems Tracker eliminates product development bottlenecks by automating the product development and state compliance filing process, monitoring and tracking approvals and providing Web access to the status of rates, rules, and forms to authorized users throughout the organization.

InSystems also announced the availability of InSystems New Business eXterity (NBX), an insurance e-application software enabling the automation of traditionally paper-based manual processes for creating and submitting new insurance applications. Using InSystems NBX carriers can reduce errors, accelerate processing times, improve placement rates, and, increase agent retention.

Offering out-of-the-box insurance functionality and integration with industry standards such as ACORD XMLife, InSystems NBX makes it easier for a carrier’s distribution channel to write new business, even when in disconnected mode. NBX’s reflective, interview-style data capture facilitates a natural dialog between agents and applications electronically capturing required data based on business rules. Agents are not required to re-ask for information that is already known. Interview data and data from complementary systems are easily integrated with underwriting and third party systems, accelerating processing times across a carrier’s front and back offices resulting in faster delivery of policies, and commissions.

For more information, call 905-513-1400, email  jbendonfabri@insystems.com or visit the InSystems Web site at www.insystems.com


Munich Re Selects SAP
SAP AG, Walldorf, Germany, announced that Munich Reinsurance Co., Munich, Germany, will implement the reinsurance capability of mySAP Insurance to handle its core business processes, replacing various legacy systems with a single comprehensive solution. The reinsurance capability of mySAP Insurance will enable Munich Re to cut costs and time spent administrating reinsurance processes, and reduce maintenance and development costs typically associated with maintaining disparate systems.

The reinsurance functionality of mySAP Insurance was developed with the assistance of Germany-based IT consulting and system integration company msg systems AG to help insurance and reinsurance companies integrate processes and remain competitive. In addition, the capability enables companies to comply with ever-changing legal requirements and carefully analyze the polices in which they participate in order to more effectively manage risk and protect themselves from potentially devastating financial effects. To calculate their exposure to loss, insurers and reinsurers need to complete transparency throughout their portfolios. The reinsurance capability of mySAP Insurance offers this visibility, giving companies detailed evaluations of all reinsurance-related risks.

Reinsurance capability with mySAP Insurance will provide Munich Re with a powerful tool for efficiently managing portfolios while complying with such legal requirements as International Accounting Standards (IAS) and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US-GAAP).

For more information, visit the SAP Web site at http://www.sap.com/insurance/

MIB Demonstrates Security Alert  Services
MIB Group, Inc., Westwood, MA, offered live demonstrations of its Security Alert Services at the LOMA Systems Forum. MIB’s Security Alert Services offers an ASP outsource solution, or an enterprise software solution for compliance with the USA PATRIOT Act, OFAC and Canadian OSFI anti-terrorist regulations.

MIB’s outsource solution provides transactional filtering and sweeps of customer names in an ASP model. MIB’s proprietary name search technology delivers pinpoint accuracy. Outsourcing offers a low total cost of ownership, no hassle with upgrades, no maintenance costs, and no additional burden on staffing.

MIB’s partnered enterprise software delivers a comprehensive, centralized solution to the OFAC and OSFI compliance mandates. Its client-server software is currently deployed in over 100 leading insurance and financial institutions worldwide. Fully scaleable, it is capable of concurrent processing of real-time filtering and interdiction of EFT transactions, anytime batches, and high-volume sweeps of customer records, ensuring consistent compliance across multiple and disparate business systems.

For more information, visit the MIB Web site at  www.mib.com

MONY Selects UCT
Following the LOMA Systems Forum, Universal Conversion Technologies, Dallas, TX, announced that the Annuities Division of MONY Life Insurance Company (MONY) has selected UCT as their partner for the data conversion of the division’s annuity contracts from three legacy systems to their new contract administration system—AdminServer’s AL &A System.

Dan O’Hara, president and CEO of UCT, says, "This proposed solution provides MONY with an XML-based platform which reduces time-to-market for its annuity products. We expect to see continued interest and migration to XML as other companies realize the reduced cost of ownership and ease of implementation and continue to embrace this new direction."

For more information, call 214-348-2000, or visit the Universal Conversion Technologies Web site at www.uctcorp.com

Fiserv Offers a
Variety of Solutions
Fiserv Life Insurance Solutions, Cedar Rapids, IA, showcased several solutions at the LOMA Systems Forum. According to the company, Fiserv AIS, Fiserv FREEDOM, Fiserv LIS, Fiserv PDS and Fiserv SIS offer insurers one-stop shopping with solutions for policy administration, claims management, billing, reinsurance, statutory reporting, outsourcing, finance and regulatory compliance.

For more information, e-mail Solutions@Fiserv.com or  visit the Fiserv Web site at www.fiserv.com/insuranceadministration

 
TCi Consulting & Research Offers TCiToolkit
TCi Consulting & Research, Cresskill, NJ, announced the availability of its proprietary TCi Toolkitsm for the selection of insurance application systems.

During the past 14 years, TCi Consulting & Research has assisted numerous insurance carriers in the evaluation, selection and implementation of mission-critical application systems and processes using TCi’s proprietary tools.

TCi is now opening its TCi Toolkitsm and making it available as a TCi Tested Processsm to make important decisions in life insurance and annuity policy administration systems, distributor compensation systems, and business process outsourcing (TPAs).

TCi also announced that its three flagship benchmarking survey reports from 2002 are now available for sale.

The three surveys are Annuity Contract Expense Survey (ACES) covering new business and customer service operations for the individual annuity life of business; Life Insurance Operations Survey (LIONS) covering new business and customer service operations for the individual life line of business; and Life Insurance Information Technology Expense Survey (LIITES) covering both individual life an annuity lines of business.

TCi has conducted these three surveys for the past seven years. The number of participating companies ranges from 8-13, depending on the survey. Reports contain from 245 to over 360 detailed data tables in addition to an executive summary and multi-year trend graphs.

For more information, e- mail info@tciconsult.com,   or visit the TCi Web site at www.tciconsult.com


Group1 Presents DOC1
Group1 Software, Lanham, MD, presented its DOC1® Archive to Systems Forum attendees. DOC1® Archive provides high-speed search, retrieval and delivery of Web and printed documents for improved customer services.

DOC1 Archive enables real-time indexing, storage, compression, and retrieval of high-resolution business documents regardless of age or size. With DOC1 Archive, CSRs can access customer documents instantly enabling faster response to inquiries. DOC1 Archive also allows customers to view billing documents online with option to pay.

According to Group1 the results are increased first call closure, shorter wait times, faster resolution, fewer callbacks, improved collections, and reduced labor costs for optimal customer service.

For more information, visit the Group1 Web site at www.g1.com

 
Callidus Offers Look at Enterprise Incentive Management
Callidus Software®, San Jose, CA, offered Systems Forum attendees an inside look at its Enterprise Incentive Management (EIM) solutions for insurance and financial services companies.

According to Callidus, it enables enterprises to align the behavior of sales people, employees, distributors, retailers and channel participants to corporate objectives and shareholder value. Callidus’ product suite, led by TrueComp and TruePerformance, extends the benefits of EIM from sales and channels to all employees, resulting in a dramatically increased return on investment. Callidus’ EIM suite is easy to access, use and manage, allowing the right people to be paid the right amount, on time, every time.

For more information, visit the Callidus Software Web site at www.CallidusSoftware.com

SOLCORP Presents SOLCORP/INGENIUM
SOLCORP presented SOLCORP/INGENIUM® and SOLCORP/ProductXpress™ at the LOMA Systems Forum.

SOLCORP/INGENIUM® is a fully integrated, online, real-time system for administering individual life insurance and investment/annuity products. The system supports the entire policy lifecycle, from application to final settlement and claims.

SOLCORP/ProductXpress™ is a common actuarial calculation platform that enables product manufactures to reduce overall time and cost associated with product development.

For more information, visit the SOLCORP Web site at www.solcorp.com


Equitable Life Selects Whitehill Technologies
Following the LOMA System Forum, Whitehill Technologies, Moncton, NB, Canada, announced that it signed a software licensing agreement with Equitable Life of Canada. Equitable Life will utilize Whitehill’s Enterprise software to enhance the way system-generated policyholder documents are produced and distributed to policyholders, independent producers, and internal customer service representatives.

The insurance industry is widely known for being paper-based and document-intensive. Whitehill’s product eliminates the time, printing and postage costs associated with producing copies of the policy documents and internal records. The software reduces the total cost of ownership for Equitable’s technology infrastructure, improves their ability to deliver accurate information on time, and delivers a unified data repository for all stakeholders.

For more information, visit the Whitehill Technologies Web site at www.whitehilltech.com

MFX Presents WriteNow
MFXchange Holdings, Inc., Toronto, ON, provides the framework for a comprehensive range of products offered to the insurance marketplace including WriteNow, a real-time Internet solution that allows you to qualify, rate, quote and bind insurance products in minutes instead of weeks. WriteNow makes selling even small premium and low limit products worthwhile for agents.

Contact Resource:
resource@loma.org