DELIVERY STRATEGIES BRIEFS

Financial Keyosk (Carpentersville, IL) will formally incorporate on Dec. 31, 2002, spinning off as an independent entity from its parent company, Schaumburg, IL-based Zurich North America. At the same time, Financial Keyosk will round out its channel strategy as a choice provider of personal and small commercial financial services products by creating a joint venture with the Internet portal e-Insure, Inc., according to John Dawson, the firm's CEO. "Research indicates purchases through the Web will represent 10 percent of the $50 billion insurance market by 2005," Dawson says. "Today, as much as $3.5 billion worth of insurance already is purchased using the Internet. That's a growing market we intend to tap." Dawson adds that the company's agent network and portal customers will be fully supported by Financial Keyosk's Customer Care Center staffed with fully licensed professionals using "virtual call center" technology. Customer care agents reside in multiple regions of the country, which means Keyosk-connected agents and online customers receive information and assistance from licensed professionals trained in local business practices, standards and regulations.

IVANS Networking (Greenwich, CT) announced the availability of IBM Application Hosting-Business Exchange Services as part of its EDI services portfolio for the insurance and healthcare industries. Using the Internet and open standards, Business Exchange Services offers IVANS customers an affordable, flexible solution for data transport. "The addition of Business Exchange Services to IVANS Networking's portfolio of services gives life and health insurers more freedom of choice in transmitting critical data and forms-based documents with all of their business partners, whether through a traditional value-added network or real-time, Internet-based data transport," says Clare DeNicola, senior vice president, networking solutions and sales.

Senior Market Sales, Inc., (SMS) an Omaha-based national insurance marketing company focusing on the senior markets, and Insuractive, Inc. (Alexandria, VA), an Internet solutions provider, have announced a new Web site, www.MatureHealthCenter.com (MHC), in which Mutual of Omaha Companies is the featured senior market insurance provider. MatureHealthCenter.com provides clients, independent insurance agents and agencies with information and instant quotes for Medicare supplements, long-term care, life insurance, annuities and other specialty products. Prescription drug benefits, discounts and other affiliate programs are offered to create a privileged relationship for participating agents and their clients. Through MHC, agents can register at MatureHealthAgent.com to access sales and marketing tools, as well as electronic forms and instant insurance quote services.

CT Insurance Services (New York) introduced Rxeconcile, a new producer database reconciliation service. According to the vendor, the service helps insurance carriers proactively manage their compliance efforts by ensuring that their producer data mirrors the state's data, thus reducing market conduct exposure. Rxeconcile also facilitates an expeditious renewal process, because it ensures that relevant data will be in synch with that of the state's, prior to receiving appointment renewal lists from the state. The service electronically compares an organization's producer database to the official state records, and once the comparison is complete, CT will provide the organization with electronic match and exception reports, which pinpoint the updates required. CT's Producer Licensing Services provides an array of producer licensing, appointment and renewal outsourcing services, which may be customized to meet specific client requirements, the vendor adds.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio