New Products Aim To Enhance Workflow Technology offers answers to automating insurance processes



SurePower Innovation

The new product features improved modularity, enabling integration across insurance departments while still allowing each function to stand alone, the company noted. Innovation allows automation of departments and individual functions, including underwriting, claims, receivables, Web portal services, document management, management vision tools, accounting and payables.

Other features include point-of-sale policy management and customer service, online quotes, rules-based underwriting, real-time policy issuance, automated reinsurance, reserve tracking and average reserving, lawsuit tracking, CAT tracking, fast-track processing, agent sweep, lockbox processing, and out-of-sequence endorsements, the company stated. The product's Web Portal Module allows insureds to make online payments and report claims information.

SurePower Innovation is available on all platforms and databases, said ISCS. Pricing starts from about $75,000 annually and may range into the millions, depending on the size of the company and the extent of usage, a spokesperson noted.



PowerComp Remote Auditor

Taliant Software announced the release of PowerComp Remote Auditor, an audit system for use in the workers' compensation insurance marketplace.

According to Jim Haley, chief marketing officer of Denver-based Taliant, while the auditing product "was built synchronized to Taliant's PowerComp product, the new audit system can be used stand-alone or bolted onto other policy administration systems with interface modifications."

Remote Auditor captures details such as classified payroll, covered individual payroll, or subcontractor payroll, the company said. Auditors can add new insureds, risk locations and class codes based on audit observations, sending them to underwriters for acceptance or rejection. "Rejected items return to the auditor with an explanation," Taliant explained. "The auditor then reviews endorsements and computes a billable exposure summary used to calculate new premium."

The system allows auditors to track time spent on an audit, at the home office or at an insured's site, said Taliant. It also prints reports to give to the insured at audit completion.

Remote Auditor is sold at $5,000 per seat as a stand-alone item, said Mr. Haley.



PremiumBill

Allenbrook Inc. announced PremiumBill, a stand-alone .NET-based billing product that was due out in August.

According to Brunswick, Maine-based Allenbrook, the new product will streamline billing for any insurance lines into "a single Web-based system." It eliminates the need for multiple billing systems and integrates with multiple policy systems, "while providing cost-savings and efficiencies to carriers," the company noted.

Chuck Peck, president of Allenbrook, claimed that in one case the product was able to combine 16 billing systems into one, "eliminating redundant data and business logic."

Benefits, according to Allenbrook, include reduced operations, maintenance training costs due to fewer billing systems, improved efficiency, ability to change billing options for the user at a moment's notice, and adaptability to changing business needs.

Licensing for the system begins at $250,000, a company spokesperson said.



ISO Rating Service

Insurance Services Office introduced ISO Rating Service, an automated rating system and rate management product for the property-casualty industry.

"ISO Rating Service is an operational rating platform with built-in access to ISO-validated rating information and automatic electronic rating updates for insurers to manage their programs more cost-effectively," said Jersey City, N.J.-based ISO.

The rating service is loaded with the contents of ISO circularsloss costs, standardized policy language and rules based on state regulations, the company explained. It includes ongoing validations and updates for each ISO line of insurance. It can also be customized to administer independent, company-specific insurance programs and non-ISO lines of business.

ISO said its turnkey automated rating platform will help carriers improve their use of up-to-date advisory prospective loss costs and manual rules. It is designed to integrate into "existing infrastructures."

The service is expected to be available by the end of this year for these ISO lines: commercial property, commercial auto, commercial umbrella, commercial multi-peril, commercial inland marine, general liability, business owners and crime, said ISO. Personal lines will be available at a later date.

Pricing was not available.



PREMIA and PREMIA CrossRoads

Edison, N.J.-based ICICI Infotech showcased two new products for the U.S. P&C industryPREMIA and PREMIA CrossRoads. PREMIA is an insurance company management system that manages the entire insurance process, including rating, policy administration, claims administration, billing, reinsurance, and MIS and statutory reporting, the company said.

PREMIA CrossRoads is an enterprise relationship management product that allows secure, multi-channel interaction among agents, brokers, customers and insurance companies, said ICICI.

Both products help eliminate "the pains that insurance companies face when processing business transactions from multiple legacy applications," said Vivek Sethia, vice president of ICICI Infotech.

The company declined to provide pricing details.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, December 3, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.