In this issue...
GBM Rewards Participants of Customer Satisfaction Survey
GBM Participates in Smartcard Virtual ' Roundtable'
IBM Announces New Software to Dramaticaly Simplify Information Integration
GBM Provides Linux System Administration Training for GCC Professionals
Linux Technical Enablement Session held at GBM Dubai
Gulf Business Machines Sponsors and Takes Part in Futurs IT 2005
GBM Employees Attend Professopnal Selling and Communications Skills Training Course
Khorafi Business Machines Host Kuwait English School Work Shadowing Programme Students
IBM Offers Mainframes Solutions to its Customers
IBM's Rational Software Tours the Region
Participants Upgrade Skills at GBM
GBM Launches Latest Tivoli Offerings
GBM Showcases WebSphere Software
Top Analyst Firm Positions IBM in Leaders Quadrant for Storage Services
New IBM Solutions Help Insurance Companies Speed Claims, Transform Outdates Infrastructure
Zasvata Reinforces Design Innovation With IBM PLM Solutions Implemented by CAD - CAM Data
IBM Designers to Help Create Breakthrough Products and Business Opportunities
Main GBM stories
New Horizons (pdf)
New Horizons (zip)
GBM home page
New IBM Solutions Help Insurance Companies Speed Claims, Transform Outdated Infrastructure
IBM Adds 850 Insurance Partners in One Year
manual processes into Webautomated 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 "Legacy IT and outdated business processes are two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 lowtouch/ 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 componentised 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 lowtouch/ 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 serviceoriented architecture. IAA is the result of nearly 20 years of insurancespecific 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
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
into 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.
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 componentised 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.
Contact your nearest GBM branch for more information on insurance industry solutions.