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The Microsoft Insurance Value Chain

Since its inception in 1995, Insurance Technologies has been using Microsoft technologies deploying ForeSight™ first on a windows platform, and then on the web. ForeSight™ is now a single code base that can be deployed as both a web and desktop system.

Advanced Sales Tools
ForeSight™ 5.0, built on the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 using Windows Workflow Foundation, simplifies and streamlines the selling of life, health, annuities, mutual funds, critical illness, disability income and long-term care while giving agents the advanced tools they need to customize offerings to customers and producers across multiple distribution channels. It supports all the steps in the selling process, including needs analysis, asset allocation and sales concepts, hypotheticals, forms generation, application processing, and group or multilife cases.

Increased Productivity and Reduced Costs
The ForeSight™ application manages all point-of-sale activities from a single platform, increasing the productivity of producers, improving agility and speed to market as well as reducing expenses. Its native .NET Microsoft Framework provides high performance on a mobile platform while providing users with a familiar style and a fast, flexible, and secure operational environment.

Seamless Functionality for Connected and Disconnected Users
Disconnected desktop users are supported through the ForeSight™'s "Console" application which delivers the exact same functionality found in the web service without requiring Internet connectivity. This is done using the same codebase so the user sees the same behaviors whether on the web or on the desktop.

Case Synchronization and Updates
Two-way case synchronization is supported for user data and automatic software updates are handled through ClickOnce. Rich integration options to related systems such as application processing, underwriting, and administration are provided through ACORD transactions and web services.

The Microsoft® IVCAF is an industry-standards-based approach delivering prescriptive guidance on the development of straight-through processing, enabling workflow across multiple insurance applications. Insurance Technologies straight-through-processing from point-of-sale through policy issuance for an annuity contract is just one example offered through its IVC use. Pre-integrating applications has the potential to reduce millions of dollars of post-purchase integration pain on the part of insurance customers.

“Insurance Technologies participation in our IVC program and contribution to our very first IVC labs showcases its commitment to delivering straight-through processing for the insurance industry,” said Kevin Kelly, managing director for the U.S. insurance industry at Microsoft. “We look forward to working with Insurance Technologies to assist insurance companies in developing service-oriented architectures (SOAs) and deploying pre-integrated software applications around core insurance business processes.”

The Microsoft IVCAF promotes integration among best-of-breed software applications through Microsoft .NET web services and industry standards such as ACORD. The architecture is the result of integration labs that have been held monthly since the beginning of 2006 on Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus. The IVCAF features a library of production-quality integrations and composite applications, business narratives, Visio® process models, XML and Web services messaging recommendations, and platform-specific implementation guidance in major business areas.