By Ara C. Trembly
San Antonio
While 2003 marked the swan song of the LOMA Systems Forum as a stand-alone conference, vendors here were exhibiting a variety of wares designed to help insurance offices enhance workflow and tweak the bottom line.
In its final year, the conference attracted roughly the same number of attendees as it had in 2002, according to one source at Atlanta-based LOMA. In 2004, the Systems Forum will be combined with Pearl River, N.Y.-based ACORDs annual technology conference in a joint conference to take place May 22 through 25 in Las Vegas.
Meanwhile, on the show floor at this years event, Genelco Software Systems, a division of Liberty Insurance Services Corporation, announced version 2.0 of its front-end portal, Genelco LifeView.
According to St. Louis-based Genelco, LifeView 2.0 “includes functionality to streamline back-office workflow, enabling agents and home office personnel to respond more quickly to specific requests.”
Version 2.0 includes a pending underwriting requirements function, designed for agents who need to know where a policy is in the underwriting process, the company explained. Agents can review a checklist with comment fields to see what steps have been taken and what steps remain to finish the underwriting.
A feature called Activity Alert is designed to enhance communication between the home office and producers, the company noted. “Activity Alert allows all those who touch a particular policy to notify each other when a task is complete or when a new task needs to be handled,” said Genelco. “While working in Genelco LifeView, agents and administrators will post alerts and see real-time messages indicating how many unread alerts are waiting for their response.”
“This new release enhances workflow by telling the team of people what tasks need to be done and who needs to do them,” stated Susan Wagy, sales support and marketing director for Genelco. “It adds to the ability to communicate changes within back-office processing.” She added that the product helps link the back end to the front office.
More information is available at www.genelco.com.
Two new technology products designed to help insurers “streamline business processes, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction” were introduced by New York-based Accenture LLP.
The first product, the Accenture Insurance Solution, is a multi-language software that insurers can use to help manage a variety of functions, the company said. The product includes components for product development and policy administration, as well as rating, billing, processing, financial reporting and customer acquisition management.
The second introduction, Accenture underwriting components, “comprises diagnostics and rules-based technology to help support more consistent underwriting decisions and automates routine administrative processes,” said Accenture. The result, the company noted, can be lower costs. This product can also provide data for customer segmentation and “more tailored products and services.”