IBM, Mercator HIPAA Partners

Recognizing that enterprise application integration (EAI) technology will be an important tool for insurance companies looking to consolidate customer data for CRM and also to comply with next year's HIPAA transaction standards deadline, Wilton, CT-based Mercator Software, Inc., is partnering with IBM (Armonk, NY). (Editor's Note: For more on IBM's EAI strategy, see related article News Analysis in this issue)

The combined solution will initially focus on HIPAA, with Mercator providing its Integration Broker and HIPAA for Healthcare products, and IBM providing its WebSphere Application Server and MQSI, along with consulting services from IBM Global Services.

"We have built this relationship one customer at a time," says Jeff Paul, director, IBM account management, Mercator. "We helped Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island with HIPAA. They had a difficult problem and we helped them quickly.

"The partnership was formed because our customers brought us together," Paul adds. "The proliferation of EAI is getting strong in insurance. HIPAA touches all parts of an organization and integrating systems will make complying with the HIPAA guidelines much easier."

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio