Fireman’s Fund Taps Itemfield

Novato, Calif.-based Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. has selected Itemfield ContentMaster data transformation software to enable modernization of multiple mainframe applications, including loss notification and quotation generation, and to enable ACORD compliance.

Fireman's faced the common industry challenge of rendering mainframe-based core processes securely accessible by its independent distributors. "We support thousands of independent agents today, so our ability to provide access to and automate business processes is a key source of our competitive advantage," says Roger Cottman, senior director of IT, Fireman's Fund. "Exposing mainframe applications through service-oriented architectures and adoption of industry standards such as ACORD are key enablers in this strategy."

Itemfield ContentMaster simplifies business integration by allowing all forms of enterprise data to be translated to any other form in real-time via XML, according to Joe Schwartz, the vendor's vice president for marketing. Itemfield provides an alternative to laborious efforts for many kinds of data transformation undertaken by insurance carriers, Schwartz argues. "Our major competition for complex data transformation is in-house IT," he says. "There are niche tools for various types of data, but we do 'any-to-any' transformation."

According to Schwartz, ContentMaster features a comprehensive visual design environment that reduces development time by up to 90 percent and an embeddable execution environment optimized to run within a variety of EAI, B2B and middleware platforms. The vendor also provides libraries for a variety of industry standards, including ACORD, HL7, SWIFT and EDI.

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