Tech Companies To Watch

A growing number of start-ups and dot-coms are building innovative systems specifically for insurance.

ASP

Application service providers (ASPs) are popular becausecarriers are looking for partners to help them shoulder the IT burden, in essence becoming extensions of their organizations, according to Jon Santa, vice president of sales and marketing for Dublin, OH-based ASP, Results International Systems (RIS). RIS combines software applications, round-the-clock project capabilities and collaboration. Thirty years in the P&C information systems business has taught Santa that ""there's no such thing as two 'standard' insurance companies."" With that in mind, he adds, ""We don't sell shrink-wrap; we sell customization.""

RIS helped one of the nation's top 10 P&C carriers automate a specialty portion of its business that resisted automation. ""About five percent of our book had to be produced manually,"" the firm's systems manager reports. The key to success was RIS's table-driven software, SIS, which allowed the carrier to avoid the cost of modifying its mainframe to cope with nearly 300 conditions that forced specialty policies to be processed offline.

RIS also offers a data warehousing product that allows carriers to download an entire database—maintained at its site—to a server at a client site. ""It's a unique product in that it allows you to take files, compress them, and yet still access them in compacted form,"" Santa says. RIS maintains a partnership with Dusk Valley (New Delhi, India), allowing a 24x7x365 project schedule with a thoroughly trained workforce. IT professionals from the subcontinent are trained for a minimum of six months in the US.

CLAIMS WEB HUB

A successful central industry hub for claims processing in the P&C realm would be ""an extraordinary achievement,"" because of the potential tremendous efficiencies, says Deloitte Consulting's Schneider. Carriers traditionally have created their own internal hubs to manage the claims handling process. But recently CLAIMPlace (Wilmington, MA) launched an ASP-model suite of business solutions designed to serve as an industry-wide exchange.

""CLAIMPlace provides a claims e-marketplace that can reduce claims expenses and loss costs by allowing our customers access to solutions on an unbundled basis,"" says Ellen Wilcox, president and founder of CLAIMPlace. The firm, she adds, ""represents an opportunity for carriers, brokers and third-party administrators to increase revenues and earnings because claims and claims-related expenses are where 70 percent of every premium dollar is spent.""

""As we look downstream, we see a disintermediation of the claims-handling process,"" says Cal Hudson, group senior vice president for claims for worldwide property and casualty at The Hartford (Hartford, CT, $171.9 billion in assets), which is a founding investor in CLAIMPlace and has committed to using the firm's capabilities. ""Somebody is going to do it, and we would certainly like to be in the driver's seat.""

Claims handling, Hudson says, ""is a complex process involving multiple players, both inside and external to the carrier—such as service providers, regulators, legal professionals, medical professionals, and auto and home repair technicians. Just about everybody has an interest in how the claims process works, both from a financial and an operating perspective.""

A disintermediating hub will mean ""you can bring the best providers of the various services together in a cost-effective way,"" Hudson says. As things stand, instead of a fluid coordination of the claims handling process, every distinct operation that needs to be accomplished creates what Hudson calls a ""friction point."" CLAIMPlace, he says, is designed to eliminate those. When that is done, ""ease of business becomes much more of a reality.""

""Many carriers do business with similar service providers,"" adds Hudson. ""The CLAIMPlace hub potentially allows, across the industry, the aggregation of purchasing power, which drives down costs of services, and could be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums. I think there's a huge opportunity to leverage purchasing power across the industry,"" Hudson says.

Another way CLAIMPlace can ""take the pain out of the process,"" according to Hudson, is through its subrogation application. If, for example, two carriers participate in CLAIMPlace, they could respectively handle losses and then use CLAIMPlace technology to resolve their differences.

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TECHNOLOGY UP-AND-COMERS

724 Solutions—Infrastructure software provider, wireless (www.724solutions.com)

Artificial Life—eCRM provider (www.artificial-life.com)

AscendantOne—P&C systems (www.AscendantOne.com)

Autonomy—Infrastructure technology provider (www.autonomy.com)

BenefitPoint—e-business benefits infrastructure provider (www.benefitpoint.com)

Blue Martini—Customer interaction software (www.bluemartini.com)

BroadVision—e-business solution provider (www.broadvision.com)

Chordiant—eCRM provider (www.chordiant.com)

Cognet—Software distribution (www.cognet.com)

Communication Intelligence Corp.—Biometrics, e-signature (CIC, www.cic.com)

ClaimPlace—Web hub for claims (www.claimplace.com)

ClaimsDesk.com—Internet-based claims event management (www.claimsdesk.com)

Digital Lighthouse—Customer relationship consulting (www.digitallighthouse.com)

DigitalPersona—Biometrics, security (www.digitalpersona.com)

DWL Inc.—e-business solutions (www.dwl.com)

Hyperwave—Intranet and Internet infrastructure software (www.hyperwave.com)

iBenefits—Web-based benefits ASP (www.ibenefits.com)

Iguana Interactive—multimedia presentation systems (www.iguanainteractive.com)

Impact Innovations Group—Comprehensive consulting services (www.impactinnovations.com)

Insure HiTech.com—risk management and insurance purchasing marketplace (www.insurehitech.com)

InsureTrade—Commercial lines insurance marketplace (www.insuretrade.com)

iWix—Internet wholesale insurance exchange (www.iwix.com)

LANovation—Software distribution (www.lanovation.com)

MTW Corp.—Legacy integration, policy administration (www.mtwcorp.com)

OneShield—e-business insurance infrastructure provider (www.oneshield.com)

Parascript—Intelligent character recognition engine (www.parascript.com)

PlumTree—Corporate portals (www.plumtree.com)

ResQNet—Screen conversion for Internet and wireless access (www.resqnet.com)

Results International Systems—Application service provider (RIS, www.resultscorp.com)

S1—Account aggregator (www.s1.com)

Searchspace—Intelligent systems (www.searchspace.com)

Vignette—Personalization platform, services and application software (www.vignette.com)

Yodlee—Account aggregator (www.yodlee.com)

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

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