Optical Image Technology, Inc., Ascendantone and Document Sciences Join Forces to Provide End-to-End Quote and Policy Production Solution for Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company
~ Solution Significantly Enhances VFBMIC’s Front and Back Office Functionality and Provides Highly Personalized Service ~
STATE COLLEGE, Pa.,NASHUA, N.H. and CARLSBAD, Calif. – June 24, 2003 – AscendantOne, a builder of next generation property and casualty insurance technology, Document Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ: DOCX), a proven leader and innovator in automating creation and delivery of enterprise business communications, and Optical Image Technology, Inc. (OIT), a leading provider of electronic document management solutions, today announced that they are nearing completion on a joint end-to-end quote and policy production solution for the Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (VFBMIC). VFBMIC, under the umbrella of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation (VFBF), is the largest property and casualty company domiciled in the state of Virginia, with more than 100 offices in 88 counties.
The new solution consists of three parts, one from each contributing vendor. The AscendantOne suite of components acquired by VFBMIC consists of QuoteFocus - rate/quote/issuance capabilities for 10 lines of personal and commercial lines business; RateFocus - comprehensive, one-stop rate maintenance for all P&C lines; PolicyFocus - real-time policy administration, including notes, diary, and role-based security; and ClientFocus - insurance-specific customer relationship management. VFBMIC has chosen AscendantOne's Internet-ready front office suite to strengthen its market engagement capabilities across a wide captive agency network and a growing on-line distribution channel, as well as to consolidate membership-driven service and client retention priorities.
Document Sciences’ xPression™, a universal content processing suite for the enterprise, will give VFBMIC sales representatives a more effective way to enter, retrieve, and use customer information by enabling them to design, create and deliver customized insurance policies and proposals using approved regulated content, processing thousands of these documents in seconds rather than hours. The solution gives s VFBMIC powerful, flexible business communications capabilities, and allows the organization to fully leverage enterprise data and content, delivering policies and proposals through both print and electronic channels.
The solution is being further enhanced with OIT’s award winning DocFinity® Suite of Products. VFBMIC is capturing policies generated from xPression, and will license OIT’s DocFinity COLD-ERM, IntraVIEWER® Web Client, HSM, AutoARCHIVE and Print/Fax Server to capture policies from their mainframe, for easy indexed document archiving and retrieval. VFBMIC is also capturing AFP print streams, which will be fed to the DocFinity Suite by Document Sciences’ xPression software, and processed in PDF format to generate high quality documents for its clients. This component will be fully implemented later this year.
"This new system improves the way VFBMIC conducts business with our customers by eliminating manual steps and enabling us to respond more quickly to our clients' needs and market demands," said Jeff Fehn, Director of IT for Virginia Farm Bureau. "We're very pleased with the way Document Sciences, OIT and AscendantOne have joined together to provide us with this integrated solution."
According to Don Chase, Executive Vice President of AscendantOne, "This collaborative effort has highlighted the value of leveraging XML and Web Services in delivering end-to-end real time processing for insurance companies."
"We are very pleased to work with our partners to provide this comprehensive solution to VFBMIC," said Jack McGannon, President and CEO of Document Sciences. “The speed to create and generate regulated documents on demand will really help the VFBMIC staff to gain flexibility by using an industry standard-based, open-architecture solution, and will ensure that VFBMIC continues to thrive in the face of escalating customer expectations.”
“As organizations experience growth, they are often faced with the challenge of managing large volumes of documents associated with their day-to-day operations,” said Scott Buchart, President and CEO of OIT. “We are very pleased to provide our DocFinity Suite of Products to complete this solution for VFBMIC, and allow them to accurately and efficiently capture and retrieve documents.”
About Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company
Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (VFBMIC), under the umbrella of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, is the largest Property and Casualty Company domiciled in Virginia. Approximately 250 captive agents located in 88 counties throughout Virginia, including 23 agency managers, write property and casualty business in the mutual company and two other insurance companies. The company writes 22 lines of business, which includes both personal and commercial lines with Auto being the largest line. All three companies combined generate around $180 million dollars of total written premium annually from approximately 240,000 in-force policies.
The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation currently employs 673 individuals, of which 589 work for VFBMIC. The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation (VFBF) is the state's largest farm organization, representing more than 140,000 farmers and rural families around the state. Created by farmers, VFBF supports its members through legislative lobbying, leadership programs, commodity associations and rural health programs. VFBF is a non-governmental, non-partisan, voluntary organization. It is wholly controlled by its membership.
About Optical Image Technology
Since 1986, OIT has been developing award-winning integrated document management solutions, including COLD-ERM/EBPP, Document Imaging, Workflow/Process Management, Browser Access/E-Business Enablement, HSM, Print/Fax Server, and Enhanced Index Extraction. OIT’s DocFinity Suite of Document Management Solutions has gained prominent industry recognition by organizations such as AIIM International, Transform Magazine, Doculabs, and Kinetic Information.
OIT serves customers throughout the world and across all major industries, including insurance, financial services, pharmaceutical, education, healthcare, government, manufacturing, retail, utilities and publishing. By dynamically coordinating and managing the transfer of content, OIT enables organizations to realize increased profitability, improved productivity and enhanced customer satisfaction by empowering enterprise wide business processes. For more information, please visit www.docfinity.com.
About AscendantOne
AscendantOne, a unit of ISO based in Nashua, NH, features the Solution Suite -- comprehensive, browser-based property/casualty rate-quote, underwriting, policy and account management capabilities powered by ISO's manual rules, advisory loss costs and forms. Our scalable, XML-driven solutions complement existing IT infrastructures, delivering new, network-based economic value to insurers. With distinctive and leverage-able business methodologies, the Solution Suite facilitates efficient pricing and policy service for all commercial and personal lines. AscendantOne’s best-of-breed web services architecture enables highly collaborative and cost effective new-business-to-renewal workflows -- anytime, anywhere, and for any property/casualty distributor or demand chain participant. For more information, go to www.AscendantOne.com.
About Document Sciences
Document Sciences Corporation delivers real-time, interactive content processing services that content-driven organizations depend on to realize productivity benefits, cut costs, and increase competitiveness. Approximately 650 customers worldwide use Document Sciences products in insurance, banking and financial services, managed-care, telecommunications, utilities and commercial print service bureaus. Customers include more than 60 Fortune 500 companies. Based in Carlsbad, Calif., with regional locations across the U.S. and a European subsidiary in Paris, Document Sciences also markets its products in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico and China. For more information about Document Sciences Corp., visit www.docscience.com.
Release Date: June 25, 2003
