Who’s Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services
Insurance Networking News, January 2008
HARLEYSVILLE ROLLS OUT POLICY ADMIN PLATFORM
Harleysville Insurance, Harleysville, Pa., is rolling out a new AQS/advantage commercial lines policy administration system that facilitates rating, quoting and policy issue processes in a real-time mode, and integrates predictive modeling for risk assessment with an underwriting rules engine. The deal with AQS Inc., Hartland, Wis., consists of AQS/advantage the policy administration system; AQS/advantage Integrator, a tool to manage the ETL process; and AQS/advantage Transaction Gateway, a means to administer unattended processing.
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The new platform offers the company’s independent agency partners flexibility in doing business with Harleysville, while improving the insurer’s underwriting consistency and productivity. It also enables the company to add enhanced products to its portfolio, and will eliminate the expense of supporting multiple mainframe rating and policy administration systems, the company says.
The new commercial lines system was introduced in Pennsylvania, one of Harleysville’s largest commercial lines states early this month. The rollout will continue in 2008 throughout the remainder of the 32 eastern and Midwestern states in which Harleysville does business.
AML, ADVANCED DETECTION
AXA Financial Inc., a New York-based provider of financial protection and wealth management products, will use anti-money laundering and watch list management software from Norkom Technologies to detect, investigate, manage and report suspicious activity. The deal supports AXA’s enterprisewide anti-money laundering compliance strategy across diversified business lines throughout the United States.
Norkom’s product is designed to reduce costs and improve productivity by providing advanced detection of suspicious activity using best-in-class analytics and comprehensive case management capabilities that deliver greater efficiencies to the investigation process. The system also will screen all transactions against industry watch lists to guard against business being carried out with high risk entities such as known terrorists, criminals and politically exposed people. Located in Dublin, Ireland, Norkom counts HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, DTCC and Western Union among its clients.
In related news, IBM and AXA Financial subsidiary AXA Group, announced an outsourcing services contract extension for IBM to provide services through 2012. As part of the extended agreement, IBM will provide IT infrastructure services to AXA’s global operations. Key to winning this deal is IBM’s strong relationship with AXA Group, its deep industry expertise and massive global delivery network, reports the company. AXA Tech, the technology arm of AXA Group, will consolidate, standardize and automate its IT infrastructure to reduce operating costs and improve service quality for its customers. Under terms of the contract, IBM will provide on-demand mainframe, server and storage services and consulting to help AXA Tech transform their data center and processes. By utilizing an IT infrastructure with variable cost structures, AXA Group expects to achieve significant savings and respond more quickly to changing market conditions.
ARROWHEAD SELECTS RATING TECH FOR WORKERS’ COMP
San Diego-based Arrowhead General Insurance Agency extended its use of Decision Research’s (DRC) DecisionMaker Rating product to support the processing of Arrowhead’s workers compensation programs. An independent national program manager for commercial, personal and specialty lines, Arrowhead provides workers’ compensation benefits through its Cypress Point-Arrowhead General Agency Inc. division. Currently, Cypress Point is writing in more than 30 states. Arrowhead selected DecisionMaker Rating, a solution designed to quickly model and publish rate premiums as a callable Web service, for its ease of use, flexibility and speed to market capabilities, reports the company. In addition to the 10 personal lines of business, Arrowhead also completed the integration of DecisionMaker Rating to six commercial lines of business within their online portal and policy management systems.
“By leveraging our rating technology ease of use and rate publishing features, we are able to help our customers launch new lines of business quickly and affordably,” says Karen Yamamoto, VP of Product Development at DRC, Honolulu. “Once we have the requisite data sets and rates, our clients’ products can be in production in less than a month, even when the launch involves a new line of business.”
GARDEN STATE ENHANCES E-SIGNATURE CAPABILITIES
Silanis Technology Inc., an e-signature solution provider in Washington, D.C., reports that Garden State Life Insurance Co. (GSL) has extended its ApproveIt Web Server contract to allow continued and expanded use of the e-signature solution.
GSL, a League City, Texas member of the American National Family of Cos., uses Silanis electronic signatures, an ESIGN-compliant solution that enables regulated business and e-contracting processes to be replicated online or in a point-of-sale environment, to enable its customers to electronically sign life insurance applications and their corresponding payment authorizations online, making straight-through processing possible.
According to Silanis, e-signatures help organizations such as GSL maintain tight control and quality by providing strong electronic evidence, with a secure record of the signing process that includes information on document routing, delivery, presentation, authentication and storage.
ENHANCED CUSTOMER METRICS
Aon Reed Stenhouse (Aon) is adding Net Promoter Score (NPS) to its ResponseTek:CEM solution. NPS is a measure of customer advocacy, based on customers’ likelihood to recommend a business. Measuring NPS is part of a global initiative by Aon Reed Stenhouse parent Aon Corp., a Chicago-based provider of global risk management services.
ResponseTek Networks Corp., New York, a provider of on-demand customer experience management software, reports that Aon Reed Stenhouse already uses the CEM solution to garner customer intelligence, measuring experience at critical stages in the customer lifecycle. Adding NPS as a high-level indicator, and combining it with specific experience information, Aon can identify how experiences influence the overall advocacy score. Because the scores correlate to specific experiences, the brokerage can make decisions about business priorities and individual employees receive information to help them improve the experiences that they deliver, reports the vendor.
SUPPORT FOR AGENT NETWORK
Following a 2005 request for a proposal that focused on addressing business challenges rather than a specific technology solution for its agent portal application infrastructure, Hallmark General Agency, a subsidiary of Fort Worth, Texas-based Hallmark Financial Services Inc., is deploying a mix of insurance management technologies. The company will use Oracle Database and Oracle Application Server, a component of Oracle Fusion Middleware, as the IT foundation for its new insurance management system. Hallmark, which provides standard commercial insurance products through the independent agency system, is using Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, Calif., infrastructure software to provide its agents with added resources to streamline business processes and enhance customer service by providing online visibility into claims status and other activities, the company says.
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