Metaserver Inc. is preparing software that the company says will solve IT development problems specific to insurance companies by providing a template for business process integration.
The iConnect product line, which the New Haven, Conn., company will introduce this week, provides templates that enable integration of remote brokers into an IT architecture, officials said. The software initially will be geared toward a segment of the insurance industry but will branch out into banking and financial services.
iConnect Agency Interface for Property and Casualty Carriers is Metaservers first industry-specific packaged integration offering. The company plans to introduce several more iConnect solutions for the insurance industry this year, officials said.
iConnect sits on top of Metaservers process integration software to enable companies to automate processes that interact with a number of business applications.
In the case of Agency Interface, iConnect extends and connects the capabilities in insurance software from providers such as ChoicePoint Inc., Computer Sciences Corp., Duck Creek Technologies Inc. and IVANS Inc.
Agency Interface culls information from rating engines, policy administration systems and claim applications that handle outside data in different formats. It then enables carriers to access information and combine that with information from outside sources—Department of Motor Vehicle records or credit reports, for example—and with information from other software. Once the information is aggregated, it is passed between the end users applications and systems from other vendors in real time, Metaserver officials said.
“The difference with iConnect [versus similar industry-focused integration packages] is its ability to deliver a return on a relatively small investment,” said Donald Light, an analyst with Celent Communications LLC, in San Francisco. “Theyve taken an area that is critical, with independent agents on one hand and providers of external data on the other hand,” and brought them together, Light said.