Delivery Strategies Briefs

--> Baltimore Life selects NaviSys Front Office suite to accelerate the sales cycle and improve productivity. --> AIG Life of Bermuda deploys iManage WorkSite to securely manage documents, as well as facilitate collaboration among its offices and distributors. --> New York Life implements new software from Autonomy that will gather, retrieve and connect information on the company's Web site.

By Diana Garber

Baltimore Life Insurance Co. selected Edison, NJ-based NaviSys' NaviSys Front Office suite to accelerate the sales cycle by bringing new business processes online, and to improve productivity by automating workflow and eliminating manual tasks. According to Garry Voith, assistant vice president at Baltimore Life (Baltimore), the company "is expanding distribution channels, lowering overall cost of sales, slashing the time from application to issue and increasing the satisfaction of both producers and consumers." A browser-based solution, NaviSys Front Office manages quotation, illustration, application entry and underwriting processes using reflexive questionnaires, a rules engine and configurable workflow, according to NaviSys. The software is available as separate components or as a comprehensive suite.

American International Group (AIG, New York) subsidiary AIG Life of Bermuda has deployed iManage WorkSite to securely manage its documents, as well as to facilitate collaboration among its offices and outside life insurance distributors. According to iManage, Inc. (San Mateo, CA), iManage WorkSite is a comprehensive, integrated application suite that delivers document management, collaboration, portal access, workflow, knowledge management and business process automation in a single solution on a scalable and secure Internet platform.

New York Life Insurance Co. implemented new software from Autonomy Corp. plc (New York), which will automatically gather, retrieve and connect information on the company's Web site. The software allows the site to offer a natural language search function that enables customers to submit queries in conversational phrases. The new software also gives consumers the ability to modify the number of results, to change the way results are displayed and to view and perform frequently requested searches. Launched in 1996, New York Life's Web site features include financial calculators, online retirement and estate planning tools and information about the company's core life insurance products and services.

Pivot/Info-One (Campbell, CA) is expanding its VARDS platform to include what it says is the annuity industry's first real-time reporting and display capability. To make this possible, the company also has entered into a strategic partnership with Seritis Corp. (Milwaukee) for the use of its FlexChannel framework. Seritis FlexChannel will provide the VARDS platform with a rapid time-to-market reporting solution for the aggregation of myriad real-time data streams, according to Pivot. FlexChannel will allow customized, real-time views of consolidated data to be distributed to all VARDS customers in a variety of formats.

Applied Systems (University Park, IL) has produced a new service called The Agency Manager (TAM) that will prevent the critical data of a company's business from being lost of destroyed. Business data can now be stored and transmitted via a secure Internet connection as part of an automated weekly utility within TAM. The service is now available to customers on TAM 6.3 or higher for a monthly fee.

AgentSecure, a division of InsureZone (Fort Worth) that provides agents with single-entry, multiple-carrier interface (SEMCI) online access to P&C and life products, has received exclusive endorsements from five more state-based organizations affiliated with Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA). There are now 29 IIABA affiliates, a majority in the field, that have endorsed AgentSecure for their collective 16,000 smaller and rural agents. The new groups that have endorsed AgentSecure are Professional Independent Insurance Agents in Colorado, the Independent Insurance Agents of Maryland, the Independent Insurance Agents of Nebraska, the Independent Insurance Agents of Ohio and the Utah Association of Independent Insurance Agents. Using AgentSecure, agents can gain access to small commercial markets from carriers including AIG, CNA, The Hartford, SAFECO, the St. Paul and Zurich North America Small Business. Participating agents are excused from carrier premium volume commitments but are still able to earn commissions.