DELIVERY STRATEGIES BRIEFS

By Diana Garber

Allstate Financial Group (Northbrook, IL) introduced AccessAllstate.com, a new Web site that provides Allstate workers with online financial and administrative transactional capabilities. Available online are features that will make transactional capabilities for financial representatives more accessible. These features include servicing accounts (including pending/in-force status and statements and premium allocations), forms and product support, and sales support. With the launch of the Web site, customers of Allstate Financial will be able to do online business 24 hours a day.

Empire Fire and Marine Insurance Co., a property/casualty insurer based in Omaha, and Docucorp International (Dallas) have reached an agreement for Docucorp, an enterprise information solutions provider, to provide its electronic forms library for commercial automobile to Empire's managing general agents (MGAs). Empire wants to reduce costs for MGAs, simplify workflow, improve customer service and provide the framework for data and image interchange from MGAs to the carrier. Docucorp's library services are helpful for carriers that have invested in the vendor's policy production system. Docucorp's staff manages and distributes the electronic forms library, which enables customers' resources to focus on insurance and internal workflow.

An improved version of a price-and-policy comparison service on the Internet (www.itcq.net) has been released by Long-Term Care Quote (St. Petersburg, FL), a consumer resource center and national broker best known for its long-term care insurance business. The Web site gives a free assessment of an individual's need for long-term insurance and explains a variety of options that would be available to the customer. The Web site offers personalized comparisons and quotes from plans including John Hancock, GE Financial and Prudential. There is also an interactive net-worth calculator available to help potential consumers decide if they need insurance coverage.