New IBM Solutions Help Insurance Companies Speed Claims, Transform Outdated Infrastructure

IBM Adds 850 Insurance Partners in One Year


ARMONK, NY -- May 12, 2005 -- IBM today announced two new offerings that will help insurance companies transform complicated, manual processes into Web-automated business components that can dramatically improve and simplify the performance of their operations.

In addition, IBM said that in the past 12 months, 850 companies have joined its PartnerWorld Insurance Network -- software vendors and technology companies that have aligned themselves with IBM’s insurance-industry infrastructure offerings, middleware solutions and consulting services.

“Insurers continue to leverage internet-based technologies to enable core business process transformation, such as claims management and to be more responsive to their agents and customers,” said William Pieroni, general manager for IBM’s Global Insurance Industry. “Legacy IT and outdated business processes are two of their biggest obstacles. We are investing heavily in solutions to help insurers remove these significant strategic and tactical constraints.”

“Fast Path” Automates Majority of Claims Processing
IBM’s new Fast Path capability can help insurers create more low-touch/no-touch claims to reduce cycle time, lower costs, and groom a more satisfied customer base through prompt fair-claim settlement. IBM surveys show that a significant portion of customer satisfaction is driven by how quickly the claim is settled, not simply the dollar amount.

IBM’s Fast Path links IBM building blocks -- WebSphere and Workplace for Insurance Claims -- with applications from leading suppliers of industry solutions in areas such as first-notice of loss, core claims handling and subrogation. Fast Path uses componentized models of the claim value chain to easily automate common elements that form core claims-processing capabilities. This approach can allow up to 80 percent of claims to be handled in a low-touch/no-touch fashion. The new component models, along with IBM’s Insurance Application Architecture (IAA), provide the functionality to implement a complete claims solution. IAA is a framework used by 70% of the world’s leading insurers to build common business processes around an Internet-based computing model known as service-oriented architecture. IAA is the result of nearly 20 years of insurance-specific intellectual property development in collaboration with 100 leading insurance companies around the world.

THE IBM BIG PICTURE:
IBM’s Fast Path Claims capability includes:

Enhanced claims intake and immediate resolution
Streamlined coverage verification
Automated claims triage and assignment
Workload balancing technology
Real-time dashboards for control and visibility
Scripted interactions with accelerated training
Rules-based subrogation and fraud identification
Electronic claim file and content management
In one engagement -- A national insurance provider with over US$1 billion in assets and more than US$600 million in premiums -- use of Fast Path resulted in a 15 percent spike in profitability and a productivity-per-employee ranking 46 percent higher than the national average for insurance companies.

Legacy Transformation Services Provide Pathway to Flexible Infrastructure
IBM is also announcing new legacy transformation offerings to help its insurance clients transform to a computing model that can reduce costs, spur innovation, help achieve regulatory compliance and improve customer focus. Legacy Transformation Services for Insurance help customers transform hard-wired legacy systems to a flexible infrastructure that integrates new technology and legacy investments.

Management of legacy applications consumes the bulk of an IT budget, which limits the ability to develop new solutions in response to changing business needs. To address the many different needs of a wide range of customers, IBM has created a set of services to help insurance companies evolve their IT infrastructure to a services-oriented architecture that can achieve both short- and long-term business goals. These new services allow IBM’s insurance clients to renovate, consolidate, migrate, web-enable and integrate legacy applications into a service-oriented architecture.

These new IBM offerings will be highlighted by IBM and partners during ACORD/LOMA Insurance Systems Forum 2005, the insurance industry tradeshow that takes place May 22-24 in Orlando, Fla.

Also at ACORD/LOMA, IBM, together with its business-application partners, will demonstrate an early-stage solution that shows how straight-through processing of a variable universal life policy can be achieved using services-oriented architecture and componentized process models. IBM has automated the typical, often manual processes that go into issuing a life policy, including: policy quote, selection, automated underwriting, policy delivery and administration.

About IBM
With more than 15,000 employees globally dedicated to insurance, IBM maintains the largest services organization serving the insurance industry. Over 1 billion insurance transactions per day are handled and processed by IBM data management products and IBM zSeries™ server platform. IBM has received more than 25 insurance-specific patents since 1999 applying advanced technology to areas such as fraud, electronic signatures, usage-based insurance and data mining. IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate.

Contact Information

Michael Corrado

IBM Media Relations

IBM

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