Solutions
Insurance Networking News, January 2008
WOLTERS KLUWER INTRODUCES NILS INCOMPASS
Minneapolis, Minn.-based Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced the release of NILS INcompass, a workflow tool designed to help compliance and legal professionals monitor and implement ongoing regulatory changes within their insurance organizations.
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According to Wolters Kluwer, NILS INcompass enables users to monitor an organization’s progress in applying new industry laws and regulations, and also provides detailed information about the changes to help users determine how these regulations apply to their business, and the action steps that need to be taken.
CUSTOM RISK-SCORING MODELS
Insurance Industry Characteristics, a set of predictive variables from Chicago-based TransUnion LLC, is designed for insurance carriers to use to streamline the development of custom risk scores and subsequently manage risk, price policies and identify prospects more effectively. Insurance Industry Characteristics comprise singularly focused credit attributes and, according to TransUnion, reduce model development and implementation time by as much as 75%.
The variables follow the Troy, N.Y.-based National Conference of Insurance Legislators’ (NCOIL) guidelines to help streamline the regulatory approval process. After implementation, TransUnion says it works with the insurer to help identify when a change in regulations may impact the score, determine what variables in the insurer’s score are affected and identify what changes should be made to help make the insurer’s score compliant.
RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PORTFOLIO ITV ASSESSMENTS
AIR Worldwide Corp. (AIR), Boston, Mass., is offering a service to assess insurance-to-value (ITV) of U.S. residential property portfolios for reinsurance contract renewals. Available for insurers, reinsurers and brokers, the service is designed to draw upon AIR’s residential property database to estimate the replacement value of properties within a portfolio. AIR says its assessment of insurance-to-value enables insurers and reinsurers to make better reinsurance decisions and improve their overall catastrophe risk management.
Insurers take different approaches to estimating insurance-to-value, but often use valuation tools only for underwriting new business. Significant increases in re-build costs over time and improvements to individual properties that are not reported may negatively impact the overall ITV of the insurer’s portfolio. AIR says that its ITV analyses are an ideal solution for an insurer to assess the level of underinsurance in its portfolio and to provide evidence of an adequately valued portfolio to a reinsurer.
AUTOMATED SPREADSHEET RISK DETECTION
Compassoft Inc., Scotts Valley, Calif., a provider of spreadsheet discovery, validation and control solutions for the enterprise, released Compassoft Enterprise v3.5, an automated, policy-based software framework that is designed to continuously assess risk factors in every spreadsheet on every laptop, desktop and database within the enterprise.
Compassoft asserts that large companies and organizations can cast a much wider net to find and prioritize sources of risk as it emerges in new or changed spreadsheets, and implement continuous monitoring controls within their most mission-critical spreadsheets.
With Compassoft Enterprise 3.5, CFOs, controllers and internal auditors can set risk policies based on their business, the company says. The solution is set up to use these policies to continuously flag potential problems within spreadsheets down to the cellular level. By automating spreadsheet quality control, auditors can immediately detect violations to company spreadsheet policies in new or revised spreadsheets to mitigate financial risk from honest mistakes or fraud. More than 70 rules reflecting the standard industry practices of the Big Four accounting firms are packaged with the 3.5 version, and additional custom rules can be created to reflect corporate policies and industry requirements, Compassoft says.
MAPINFO’S NEXT-GENERATION DEMOGRAPHICS RELEASED
Pitney Bowes MapInfo, Troy, N.Y., released its next-generation demographics solution designed to provide financial services and insurance organizations with reliable, consistent and timely data to support site selection, marketing, distribution, product development and other key business decisions. By integrating MicroBuild, a household geodemographic product from Little Rock, Ark.-based The Gadberry Group LLC, Pitney Bowes MapInfo says that it now provides clients with more dependable and up-to-date household-level information to support more insightful business decisions.
By leveraging Gadberry’s MicroBuild data as a primary source for residential household and population trends, Pitney Bowes MapInfo says its next-generation demographics help organizations analyze their existing business and answer questions, such as what customers are most profitable, where are more of these “best customers” located and how to reach, influence and locate near them.
ERM PRODUCT ADDRESSES SOX CHANGES
Boston-based LogicManager Inc., a provider of enterprise risk management (ERM) software, released LogicERM v3.0, a product enhancement designed to help companies take advantage of the new top-down, risk-based audit standard referred to as ‘AS5’.
The LogicERM v3.0 release provides five levels of decision support methodology to qualify and quantify scoping activity not currently included within current SOX solutions, the company reports. These levels address entity-wide controls, significant accounts and disclosures, prioritization of process risks, comprehensive risk assessments by process owners and risk-based scoping of IT general and application controls.
According to LogicManager, activities determined to have low significance in each of the successive five levels within LogicERM suggest where the internal and external scope of work can be reduced while providing systematic and objective documentation to justify the decisions made.
LogicERM’s scoping capabilities also are designed to link controls to root causes of risks and document the full chain of dependencies across the enterprise.
BUSINESS OBJECTS LAUNCHES PERFORMANCE MGT SUITE
Business Objects SA, San Jose, Calif., a provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions, announced the release of BusinessObjects EPM XI, a fully integrated suite of enterprise performance management (EPM) applications. The offering delivers a range of performance management solutions designed to address real business challenges for the CFO and operational decision makers throughout the organization.
BusinessObjects EPM XI integrates all EPM data and processes, enabling CFOs, finance departments and business managers to close their books faster and better forecast costs (via The Close and Forecast & Cost Control solutions from Business Objects), the company asserts. Business Objects also says its solution addresses the most critical EPM areas, including: planning, budgeting and forecasting; profitability analysis; consolidation and financial reporting; governance, risk and compliance management; scorecards and dashboards; industry and vertical analytical applications; and query, reporting and analysis tools with BI.
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