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Who’s Buying What: Recent deals for technology software and services

May 1, 2008

CHUBB IMPLEMENTS HORNBILL SUPPORTWORKS ITSM

Chubb Insurance Company of Europe upgraded to Supportworks ITSM, the comprehensive ITIL-compatible service management software from Hornbill Systems Inc., which has locations in Texas, New York and worldwide. Chubb is a long-standing user of Hornbill’s Supportworks IT Helpdesk software, providing centralized support to internal users worldwide.

“Upgrading to Supportworks ITSM has allowed us to embrace best practice methodology in our working processes,” says Keith Brewer, IT support manager for IT infrastructure at Chubb Insurance. “The transparency of our operations has enabled us to provide a much more efficient support service that directly benefits the end customer.”

The service desk provides a frontline service to support the company IT infrastructure, servers, networks and Lotus Notes. Calls are logged and may be handled immediately, or passed on to second- or third-line support. Particular bugs or issues are passed onto the in-house development teams who have written the business specific applications used to issue policies.

The team also is piloting Supportworks’ Web self-service option, which allows end-users to log calls, view call status and search the support knowledge base themselves. This is designed to further transparency and improve communication between IT and the customer.

WESTERN & SOUTHERN EXPAND PRODUCT PORTFOLIO Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), El Segundo, Calif., announced that Western & Southern Financial Group licensed CSC’s Wealth Management Accelerator and Visual Product Modeling System (VP/MS). Cincinnati-based Western & Southern will use the two systems to support annuity payout product development and administration initially at three of its member companies: The Western & Southern Life Insurance Co., Integrity Life Insurance Co. and Columbus Life Insurance Co.

The companies will use CSC’s software to introduce new wealth management products, including an immediate annuity for retiring baby boomers. In the future, they plan to move their existing annuity payout processing to Wealth Management Accelerator to take advantage of the system’s benefit payout capabilities. They will use VP/MS as their external rules and calculation engine for Wealth Management Accelerator, and will assess using VP/MS for other existing policy administration systems.

Wealth Management Accelerator is designed to enable annuity providers to support both wealth accumulation and distribution in a single administration system. It manages group and individual, qualified and non-qualified, and fixed and variable products.

In addition to supporting a full range of payout options, Wealth Management Accelerator also automates life and annuity processes, including general ledger accounting, premium billing and collection and customer service.

ESURANCE INKS DEAL TO USE AUTOWATCH

San Francisco-based Esurance Inc., a direct-to-consumer personal auto insurance company, announced the signing of a six-year agreement to use AutoWatch, a Web-enabled system designed for monitoring auto repairs.

Esurance launched AutoWatch, provided by See Progress Inc., Brighton, Mich., in January 2007. Gary Tolman, Esurance president and CEO, says, “Our customers use the Internet to manage their lives, so they really appreciate the ability to monitor their vehicle’s repair online. In one of our claims surveys, policyholders who used AutoWatch showed increased satisfaction with the claims process because AutoWatch helps expedite vehicle repair.”

According to Esurance, its AutoWatch customers see a 16.5% reduction in repair length, totaling approximately two days. This results in a 6% increase in customer satisfaction among Esurance’s AutoWatch users, based on the auto insurance company’s internal claims surveys.

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