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Conference 35.181::insurance

Title:	Insurance Industry Conference

Moderator:	ICPSRV::DOVE

Created:	Thu Feb 18 1988
Last Modified:	Wed Feb 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	136
Total number of notes:	551

109.0. "1991 LOMA SYSTEMS FORUM" by CSG002::BAKER () Wed Oct 10 1990 09:02

    LIFE OFFICE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION SYSTEMS FORUM
    MARCH 10-13 1991, ORLANDO FLORIDA
    
    Digital plans to be a major participant in the 1991 LOMA Systems
    Forum, offering speakers and a major suite of demonstrations. Plans
    are currently being developed for our activities, and over the next
    few months additional information will be released and made available
    in this conference.
    
    Our thrust at LOMA this year will be to speed up the sales cycle
    for customers who already have interest in Digital offerings, and
    to attract new customer opportunities for Digital sales.
    
    	WATCH THIS SPACE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

T.R	Title	User	Date	Lines
109.1	OCTOBER UPDATE ON LOMA SYSTEMS FORUM	CSG002::BAKER	`Fri Oct 19 1990 10:28`	530
	LIFE OFFICE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (LOMA) SYSTEMS FORUM MARCH 10-13 1991 ORLANDO, FLORIDA PRELIMINARY INFORMATION ON DIGITAL ACTIVITIES OCTOBER 23 1990 THE 1991 LOMA SYSTEM FORUM A MAJOR OPPORTUNITY FOR SALES I INTRODUCTION WHERE WILL MANY OF YOUR KEY INSURANCE CUSTOMERS BE ON MARCH 10-13 1991? WHAT WILL THEY SEE AND DO? WHY WILL THEY COME BACK INCREASINGLY ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT DIGITAL AND THE OPPORTUNITIES IT OFFERS TO THEM? HOW CAN YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT? The answers: WHERE: The Life Office Management Association Systems Forum, in Orlando Florida. WHAT: Read on and find out. WHY: Because Digital will be heavily represented in the forum, and they will return with a better understanding that not only are we are committed to the insurance "for keeps", but we have solutions, services and technology that can make a major difference to their bottom line. HOW: Talk to your customers about LOMA, position Digital's activities in advance and encourage them to meet with Digital executives and experts. More details are included in the attached materials. o WHAT ARE "LOMA" AND THE "SYSTEMS FORUM"? The Life Office Management Association is viewed by many as the most prestigious and respected association in the Life & Health Insurance field. Certain Blue Cross/ Blue Shield plans are associate members, and often attend LOMA activities such as the Systems Forum. LOMA's concentration is on Operations, Systems, Training, Human Resources, Finance and research in the Life (and to a lesser degree Health) Insurance field. One of the key foci of the Association is on business issues and the way that technology can be used to enhance the operation of an Insurance company. In view of this, LOMA attracts both business and systems management participants, with almost all life insurance companies (regardless of size) as members. Every two years, LOMA holds a "Systems Forum," which focuses on the way that systems (and technology) can be used to enhance the performance and profitability of the LOMA membership. This forum is typically attended by 1,200 - 1,500 key executives and decision makers in the Life & Health Insurance Fields. The majority are CIOs (or their direct reports), but a significant percentage are business managers with specific problems to solve. Because of the quality of the Systems Forum it also attracts participation from some Property & Casualty companies. The LOMA Systems Forum is the premier systems event of the premier association in the Life Insurance Field. Because of this, we expect that most of the other key vendors for the insurance industry (IBM, Filenet, Unisys, TRW, etc.), consultants (Anderson, Price Waterhouse, etc.) and a myriad of software vendors will participate in the exhibits. o HOW DO I FIND OUT MORE? Additional information will be made available through Electronic Mail to interested sales representatives. In addition, at periodic intervals information will be posted to the insurance notes conference (FACT01::INSURANCE). If you are looking for a personal contact, call Jim Lawrence at the Farmington ACT (DTN 383-4523). II WHAT DOES DIGITAL PLAN TO DO AT THE LOMA SYSTEMS FORUM? The LOMA Systems Forum is an important opportunity to speed up the sales cycle, to identify new sales opportunities and to enhance our credibility within the industry. With that in mind, we plan to undertake four complementary sets of activities around the event: Speaker placement; Exhibits of solutions & technologies; Advertising & PR; Executive meetings. a. Themes LOMA's theme for the event is "TECHNOLOGY TAKES YOU THERE." Digital's theme is "BEYOND THE EXPECTED". This year we are going to show those applications and technologies that prove Digital is a business and technology leader. We go "beyond the expected" in areas including image, NAS, client server, work flow control, multivendor operations, white collar worker productivity ... Going beyond the expected addresses the expectations not being met by IBM... b. Messages o Digital is committed to providing innovative solutions and technologies that help you improve your bottom line results - now and in the future. o Digital solutions are based on innovative uses of proven technologies. o Digital's ability to implement solutions on systems of any size (Desktop to Data center) permits the business needs to drive the system acquisition strategy, rather than be constrained by it. o Digital provides unique (office-business function) capabilities that enhance and integrate your operations improving efficiency and productivity levels across your company from the agency to the executive office. For example - DECImage, LANworks consistently supporting a wide range of different desktop devices, electronic publishing, integrated imaging, voice & data services, VTX for electronic distribution of manuals. o Digital's ability to provide distributed processing (through our client server model) gives you the ability to instantly access information - no matter where that information is in the enterprise, or what system it resides on. Digital's flexibility also allows you to add functionality without disrupting your business operation or the underlying technology. o Digital's abilities to operate in a multi-vendor environment provides your business with investment protection. Digital's NAS capability provides you with the ability to integrate your applications and multivendor computer systems so you can share information across applications no matter what the platform, no matter where they are, or what format the information resides in. o Digital's unique technical and industry expertise in Insurance, coupled with a 20-year heritage of services, provides you with competitive systems integration. c. Speaker Placement Speakers already on the LOMA agenda for the forum include a number who are favorable to Digital's approaches and who can be expected to support (directly or indirectly) the messages that we have and are sending. These include: Michael Treacy from MIT Mike Hammer, a well respected consultant Kelly Butt, CIO for London Life Bill Sawyer, SVP from Phoenix Bill Carlisle, Marketing Manger for Digital's EDI product As this list changes we will keep you informed. d. Exhibits We have reserved one of the largest exhibit areas on the floor (20' X 50'), positioned near the entrance to the exhibition area, so that anyone entering will see the Digital name prominently displayed. Technologies we will show are expected to include Image, Voice, RdB, Workstations, Warehousing, PCSA, as well as the "base" technologies. Visitors to the exhibit will be met by industry experts who will guide them through the sections of the exhibit that may be of interest to them. For active customers, we expect to have an "information sheet", completed by the sales representative, outlining specific areas of interest, current sales opportunities, concern and issues. These will be used by the industry experts to supplement discussions and activities, and will provide valuable insights into the perspective of the customer and the areas of sensitivity. Details on the process for creating these "information sheets" will be released shortly. Plans are still in the formative stage for specific exhibits, and further information on the demonstrations will be released in November. The following outlines current thinking: IPW (Insurance Professional's Workstation) The Insurance Professional Workstation is an application and custom solution platform for building insurance end-user systems. It provides a framework to develop a custom solution for each insurer, and thereby reduces the of time needed to develop solutions. The key functions provided in the IPW platform include: Folder Management; Document Management; Checklist management; Image; Work Tracking and database management. IPW also allows insurers to integrate new technologies such as image, expert systems, work in process, CIT and voice. It was designed to interface with mainframe, distributed information access at the desktop. These capabilities assist insurance professional;s by providing tools that facilitate the performance of their jobs. IPW was designed to maximize the benefits accruing to insurance companies by conducting business in remote field offices. It forms the basis for automated work group computing. It facilitates the flow of mail, new and renewal business or claims through the field offices. Incoming mail is scanned, indexed and routed to the appropriate group. Applications for coverage are tracked through the various stages of approval and passed to the home office policy issue and administration systems. Claims can be tracked through the claims process. IPW can provide enhanced productivity and more consistent and timely decision making, while at the same time providing improved service to customers. We expect to show select components of IPW (Index, Life Underwriting, Law and Executive), with the the potential for demonstrating DECvoice and Computer Integrated Telephony (CIT) as integrated components of an IPW Customer Service Capability. EDGE (Event Driven Goal Environment) The one of the key messages at the last LOMA conference, and a message likely to be reinforced at this one, is that the insurance industry has an urgent need to "re-engineer" all the process in the company, not just "pave the cowpath" as it has done in the past. Some major insurance companies are already moving in this direction. One of the key challenge in this process lies in creating a systems environment that not only permits swift and economical process re-engineering, but at the same time offers a way to make quick and simple operational and process changes required to meet new product needs, unforeseen government requirements and unexpected challenges in the marketplace. EDGE offers such an environment, and provides our customers with the opportunity to meet the requirements of today while preparing for the true (and unknown) needs of the future "..Beyond the Expected". EDGE is a generic workflow or business process control system, independent of any application or database. EDGE allows customers to define, simulate, execute, track, monitor and control their business (workflow) processes. EDGE workflow control employs client-server architecture for local and remote control of business processes. EDGE accommodates both very small and very large, enterprise-wide workflow control services to Digital applications and links for non-Digital applications. Users can, therefore bridge between new workflow applications and existing ones. EDGE uses a graphics interface to allow the non-technical user to define, model, simulate, execute and control complex workflow systems. It is designed to allow users to rapidly change process flows with minimal impact on application component programs. Demonstrations of EDGE are currently in the planning stage. Further information will be released shortly. INVESTMENT SOLUTIONS In today's uncertain financial environment the key decision-makers in investment management (researchers, portfolio managers and traders) are demanding faster access to the insurance company's internal investment accounting data. Critical data are locked in the mainframe-based investment accounting system in the "Back Office" (usually the OSCARS package from ISA). Digital has developed several approaches to enhance the ability of management and operations to manage investments either without major changes in the Back Office or with replacement of outdated mainframe systems. We plan to show the capabilities of these offerings emphasizing how Digital's architectural approach appeals to both business and systems management. THIRD PARTY ACTIVITY Work is currently underway to identify all the Digital third parties (either CSOs or companies that use the Digital platform) that will be at the event, and to provide them with signs and reference materials. In addition, it is possible (but not yet confirmed) that some third parties will be with us (in our booth) on the exhibit floor. OTHER DEMONSTRATIONS Because the demonstration suite has not been finalized, there are a number of additional opportunities being reviewed. The possibility exists of showing one of the "attention grabbing" demonstrations from DECworld, as well as key technologies (such as Image and CASE) in the form of "generic" demonstrations. d. Public Relations Activities Digital will be placing advertisements in all the targeted Information Services and insurance publications before, during and after the Systems Forum to heighten awareness of Digital's strengths. A full page Digital advertisement will appear in the in the "LOMA Resources" magazine which will be released at the event. In addition, we plan to release copies of the magazine to all participants with a "Belly Band" that identifies Digital. A Digital reception is also planned during the event. Over the next few months, various supplemental activities such as development of formal invitations to the exhibits and reception, etc. will be announced. Other public relations activities may be undertaken as the opportunities emerge. e. Executive Meetings It is anticipated that a number of Digital executives (Sandy Thomas, Dan Harrington and possibly others) will be present at the event as well as experts in the specific areas being shown and discussed. Arrangements can be made for private meetings. Details will be released shortly. f. Availability of specialists in specific fields Specialists in IPW, Image, EDGE and select other technologies will be available at the event for private discussions. III. SALES ACTIVITIES a. General Discussion Given the commitment that Digital is making to this event, you should make every effort to maximize the sales effect of the event. There will be assistance available for this process through the track consultant assigned to the event. Further announcement on names and locations of track consultants will be forthcoming shortly. For sales representative and others who are NOT supporting specific Digital activities at the event, obtaining passes for the event, hotel rooms and transportation will be their own responsibility. b. Customer Focus Our activities will be focused on Information Services executives, who are typically charged with the development and support of technology solutions for the business segments. While companies of many different sizes and sales potential will be present, focus will be on the large and mid sized companies (who are more likely to ultimately invest in Digital's offerings). c. Specific Sales related Activities While the relationships that you have with your customers and prospects will define the exact strategy adopted, the following are examples of the activities that will improve your opportunities with your Life & Health Insurance customers: 1 Discuss Digital's Participation in the forum with customers. Informally point out that Digital will be at the forum, and that we will be showing a few of the key solutions that we offer to todays business problems. Before holding this discussion you should research the issues that your customer is attempting top solve, and position our demonstrations and capabilities in that context. Customer service, improved white collar productivity, investment management are key to most companies. In addition, overriding issues are the cost of solutions and the notion of evolving into a new environment (rather than having to do a dramatic disruptive shift) are all key to most customers. Our solutions in Investment, Professional workstations and Work management play well to all these issues, especially when supported by our flexible, open, architectures and our exceptional base technologies. 2. Plan to accompany your customer through the exhibit. Most customers will prefer to visit the Systems Forum unaccompanied by representatives of specific vendors. In spite of this, where you have a good relationship with your customer there may be opportunities, to meet with your customers at the event and accompany them through the Digital exhibit area. This will require careful positioning and planning, using the track consultants. c. Track Consultants Track consulting will be available to assist in determining the appropriate strategies and areas of interest for key customers. The track consultant will also advise on visit procedures, appropriate demonstrations for unaccompanied customers and (possibly) some of the LOMA Presentations etc. that will be of interest to the customer. PRELIMINARY DESCRIPTION OF THE LOMA SYSTEMS FORUM (ABSTRACTED FROM A LETTER RECEIVED BY ALL LOMA MEMBERS) When it comes to travel budgets, it helps to plan ahead. So we're letting you know early about LOMA's next technology conference. SYSTEMS FORUM AND EXHIBIT 1991 WILL BE HELD MARCH 10-13 AT THE MARRIOTT'S ORLANDO WORLD CENTER. Those of you who attended the 1989 Systems Forum are familiar with the hotel. We're returning because attendees told us it is an excellent conference site; also, the Exhibit Hall is large enough to accommodate our planned expansion of technology exhibits. The theme for the 1991 Systems Forum is "Technology takes you there." We are planning an exciting program. Our general session speakers -- Alvin Toffler, Michael Treacy and Dennis Waitley -- have received excellent ratings at past LOMA conferences. * Toffler, the world-famous author of Future Shock and The Third Wave, will open the 1991 Systems Forum as he did in 1983. He is currently working on another book, Powershift, that analyzes global change. * You heard Hammer speak at the Partnership conference in Toronto. The former MIT scholar and president of Hammer & Co. continues to shape strategic use of technology in the 1990s with his penetrating insights. * Treacy, a consultant and lecturer with the Index Group, spoke at Systems Forum '89 and at the 1987 Inevitable Partnership in New Orleans. He is an advocate of radical innovation in technology use. * Waitley, author of the best-selling cassette The Psychology of Winning, will discuss "the challenge of change" at the closing session. He delivered a powerful message at LOMA's 1982 Annual Conference. LOMA staff members and a task force of industry executives are currently putting together sessions on new and evolving technologies, trends such as re-engineering and system downsizing, and technology applications in different parts of the company. The following figures should help you plan for Systems Forum and Exhibit 1991. The registration fee will be $600 or less for members, and $900 or less for non-members. The special hotel rate will be $142 per day for single and double rooms, and Delta will provide air fare from U.S. cities for Systems Forum attendees.
109.2	LOMA 91 EVENT GUIDE - JANUARY 91 EDITION	CSG002::BAKER	`Wed Jan 16 1991 15:32`	2781
	LOMA 91 EVENT GUIDE "BEYOND THE EXPECTED" I. INTRODUCTION NOTE: This guide is an internal digital document, and must not be left with customers or third parties. The Purpose of this Guide This guide is intended for use by those officially supporting Digital's activities at the 1991 LOMA Systems Forum, and by Sales personnel who will use it as a source of information for their customers. For those who are supporting the event, it should be considered as the 'Bible', and should be studied so that all support staff can provide appropriate information to our customers, and can determine their roles and responsibilities. The Theme The theme of the LOMA Systems Forum is "Technology Takes You There". Digital's theme for the event is "Beyond the Expected...". "Beyond the expected.." is intended to excite customer interest and to provide a base from which we can explain our vision for the industry. We are "Beyond the expected.." technology that the insurance industry has become used to over time. We have the combination of flexibility, scalability, interoperability, innovation, products and skill sets that exceed the expectation set by other vendors. Conducting our demonstrations and talking about the things we are doing frequently elicits the reaction: "I didn't know that was possible." This is what we mean by "Beyond the expected..", since it is beyond the capabilities that the customer previously believed were available. What is LOMA? The Life Office Management Association (LOMA) is viewed by many as the most prestigious and respected association in the Life & Health insurance field. Certain Blue Cross/Blue Shield Plans are associate members and often attend LOMA activities such as the Systems Forum. LOMA's concentration is on Operations, Systems, Training, Human Resources, Finance and Research in the Life (and to a lesser degree Health) insurance field. One of the key foci of the Association is on business issues and the way that technology can be used to enhance the operation of an insurance company. In view of this, LOMA attracts both business and systems management participants, with almost all Life insurance companies (regardless of size) as members. What is the LOMA Systems Forum? Every two years, LOMA holds a Systems Forum which focuses on the way that systems and technology can be used to enhance the performance and profitability of its membership. This forum is typically attended by 1,200 - 1,700 key executives and decision makers from the Life & Health insurance industry. The majority are CIOs (or their direct reports), but a significant percentage are business managers with specific problems to solve. Because of the quality of the Systems Forum it also attracts participation from some Property & Casualty companies. The LOMA Systems Forum is the premier systems event of the premier association in the Life insurance Field. Because of this, most of the other key vendors for the insurance industry (IBM, FileNet, Unisys, TRW, etc.), consultants (Andersen, Price Waterhouse, etc.) and a myriad of software vendors will participate in the exhibits. Sales Potential During the Systems Forum, we will be be focusing our efforts on customers, and Sales. The goal is to support the Sales force with a focused set of activities and demonstrations that will excite our customers and will move current sales cycles forward. Joint activity between the Sales representatives and the tracking team will focus on providing the industry specialists on the floor with information that will be used in discussions with customers to focus on their 'hot buttons', and add credibility to Digital's positioning. "What Are You Showing"? One of the most common questions asked on an event floor, and by customers in discussions, is "what are you showing". The following is a summary answer to that question, designed to elicit a request for further information or action: We are showing just a few of our business and technology solutions that can help you improve the profit and productivity of your company, while at the same time protecting your current huge investment in systems. They include: * An integrated platform that permits you to significantly enhance the productivity of white collar workers. This platform includes the integration of imaging, database management, mainframe access and a number of other technologies. It is being shown as it can be applied in many different business settings; * An environment that will substantially improve the effectiveness and economy of your customer service operations; * A worksystem for actuaries, similar to one under development for one of our customers; * In the technology area, we have Image, workflow management and Computer aided systems engineering, as well as other technologies that will help you improve your companies' ability to succeed. In addition, we will be hosting a cocktail party, to which you are invited. We would be pleased to set up an appointment for you to meet with some of the Digital Executives that will be present. Products, Capabilities & Solutions to be Shown NAME COMMENTS Actuarial Worksystem A worksystem designed for use by actuaries, based on our data warehouse architectures, and integrated with third party products. The worksystem includes access to the information and the tools normally required by actuaries. APL Digital's APL (A Programming Language), much loved and used by actuaries, will be shown on the Actuarial Worksystem. BARRA BARRA is the world's leading global investment consulting firm. Their expertise is in applying scientific methods to all aspects of the investment industry. BARRA's Equities Optimizer and the new US Fixed Income Optimizer will be shown in the Investment demonstration. BASISplus (R) IDI Legal support software - shown in the III demonstration suite at the Legal Station. CASE TOOLS A full suite of Digital CASE tools will be shown in the COHESION demonstration. CIT Computer Integrated telephony will be shown as part of the III demo suite in the Service Demonstration. COHESION Digital's new CASE environment shown and discussed at the COHESION demonstration station. Corporate From CompInfo - shown in the III Lawpack (R) demonstration suite at the Legal Station. Data Interoperability Data interoperability will be demonstrated in the IA-LINK, III and Actuarial areas. Data Warehouse This is an underlying technology in the IA-LINK and Actuarial worksystem demonstrations. DECvoice Voice response services shown at the III demonstration suite in the Service Demonstration. DS333 One of Digital's PC offerings - shown as an integrated component of the Investment and Actuarial areas. DS5000 ULTRIX system - used in the DIDDLY demonstration. DECimage Application Image services and capabilities are shown Services extensively in DIDDLY and the III demonstration suite. The III demonstration will include the ability to add 'post-it' type notes to images, which will be shown at the Claims and Legal stations. DECwindows DECwindows will be shown in the III demonstration suite. Electronic Mail Shown at the III Claim station and Legal station. EPVS Portfolio record keeping and management system from Computer Aided Decisions (CAD). Provides an up to the minute picture of a portfolio to an investment manager. This will be shown as part of IA-LINK demonstration. Expert Systems A Nexpert based application will be shown as part of the III Underwriting station. III (Insurance Image III will be a major focus of the Indexing) demonstrations, with many examples of specific applications that can be built through the use of EIS services and the III offering. IA-LINK The Insurance Accounting Link will be shown through a series of demonstrations emphasizing the ability to provide key investment business operations with full services and current information previously held captive in the mainframe. KBMS from AICorp, provides expert system capability for reporting from and querying the portfolio database. Shown in the IA-LINK area. Lotus 123 Shown (running in a DOS environment) in the Actuarial worksystem. MAC (integration) Shown in the IA-LINK and III areas, integrated with the VAX4000 using NAS. MD410 New mid-range scanner shown in the III demonstration at the scanner station. Microsoft Windows Shown in the Actuarial worksystem linked to the VS4000 through PCSA. NAS Network Application Services - shown as a networking and integration capability throughout the demonstration suite. Special focus on the PC (IA-LINK and Actuarial) and the Mac (III and IA-LINK) which emphasize the interoperative message of NAS. PATHworks PATHworks will be shown in the III and IA-LINK demonstration suites, and is the basic technology used to integrate Macs and PCs into the overall integrated environment. PC (integration) Shown in the IA-LINK and Actuarial worksystem demonstrations. VAX Notes Shown and discussed at the COHESION demonstration station. VAX Rally Shown and discussed at the COHESION demonstration station. VAX Rdb Used as one of the base technologies in III and IA-LINK, and shown in detail at the COHESION demonstration station. VAX4000 Used as a server in the III demonstration. VS3100 Shown as a workstation for III, COHESION and IA-LINK. VT1200-I The newly announced Image Terminal (with image accelerator) - shown in the III demonstration suite. VTX Videotex - shown in III demonstration suite at the Claims Station. VR 297 A new monitor offering, which will be shown in the IA-LINK demonstration. II. LOMA SYSTEMS FORUM AGENDA SUNDAY, MARCH 10 1 - 8 p.m. REGISTRATION BOOTH OPEN 6 - 8 p.m. RECEPTION 1 - 8 p.m. EXHIBITS OPEN MONDAY, MARCH 11 7 a.m. - 5 p.m. REGISTRATION BOOTH OPEN 7 - 9 a.m. BREAKFAST WITH EXHIBITORS 9 - 10:30 a.m. OPENING SESSION The 1990s: The Powershift Era Alvin Toffler, Author of "Future Shock", "The Third Wave" and "Powershift" 10:30 - 11 a.m. COFFEE BREAK 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. CURRENT SESSIONS (CHOOSE ONE) Exceeding Customer Expectations John Douglas, Senior Vice President, Operations, USSA Leonard Stecklein, Vice President-Policyowner Services, Northwestern Mutual Marvin Swanson, Vice President, Individual Client Services, Principle Mutual Technology to Achieve a Competitive Edge Jack Crawford, Vice President, Information Management, The Hartford William E. Simms, Senior Vice President & Reinsurance Line Manager, Transamerica Occidental Systems as an Asset/Investment Reinhart Jeck, President and CEO, SwissRe Services Kerry Severin, Vice President, Operational Strategic Planning, Citicorp 12:15 - 2 p.m. LUNCH WITH EXHIBITORS 2 - 3 p.m. CURRENT SESSIONS (CHOOSE ONE) Using Technology to Advantage in Worldwide Expansion Hajo Fritz, Allianz Researching Advanced Technologies John J. Alexander, Jr., Senior Vice President & CIO, UNUM John J. Pajak, Executive Vice President, Massachusetts Mutual Managing the Investment Kelly Butt, Senior Vice President, Information Services, London Life Frederick W. Sawyer, Senior Vice President, Phoenix Mutual 3 - 3:30 p.m. COFFEE BREAK 3:30 - 4:45 p.m. CURRENT SESSIONS (CHOOSE ONE) The Agent/Home Office Link Richard Nelson, Vice President, New York Life Ray L. Reuter, CFP, Director, Financial Planning Strategy, IDS Financial Services Client Service Success With Today's Technology Jennie Ayers, Senior Vice President, Client Services, Fidelity Union Carmine V. DeGennaro, Vice President, Distributed Systems; Paul Morales, Manager, Technology Development, Common Front End System; and Michael Tittman, Manager Business Analysis & Testing, Common Front End System, The Equitable Financial Companies Cooperative Processing and Expert Systems to Develop an Automated New Business Environment June Drewry, Senior Vice President, Mutual Benefit Andrzej Kuhl, Senior Principle, American Manage- ment Systems Russ Suever, Vice President, Lincoln National Risk Managememt Migrating to a Relational Database Linda Tredupp, FLMI, Manager - Technical Systems & Data Base Administrator, Northwestern Mutual Larry Imes, Assistant Vice President & Director of Information Systems, Lafayette Life Strategies for Effective Deployment of Communi- cations Technology Terry Johns, Vice President, Data Processing, Jackson National Life Dave Miller, Division Vice President, Commercial Insurance, EDS Open Systems in the Financial Services Industry Neil Barrett, Director of Data Processing, Providence Capital Life Assurance, London, England Mary Gibbons, Assistant Vice President, Systems and Programming at Standard Insurance of Oregon 3 - 7 p.m. EXHIBITS OPEN 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. RECEPTION WITH EXHIBITORS TUESDAY, MARCH 12 7 - 9 a.m. BREAKFAST WITH EXHIBITORS 9 - 10 a.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS (CHOOSE ONE) Using Technology to Address Human Resources Problems David M. Herold, Professor of Organizational Behavior, College of Management, Georgia Tech Establishing Networked Electronic Publishing L. Scott Perry, Vice President, Marketing and Strategy, AT&T Computer Systems W.R. Willard, Vice President, Information Systems, Standard Insurance of Oregon The Evolution of Software Development Automation Vaughan Merlyn, Chairman, CASE Research Corp. 10 - 10:30 a.m. COFFEE BREAK 10:30 - 11:45 a.m. BUSINESS APPLICATIONS (CHOOSE ONE) CASE Tools: Current Realities Ron Kuznicki, Manager, Automated Systems Environment, USAA Vaughan Merlyn, Chairman, CASE Research Corp. EDI Applications and Solutions William Carlisle, Marketing Manager, Digital Equipment Corporation Richard Lanpher, Second Vice President, Employee Benefit Systems, The Travelers Technologies to Link Home and Field Offices Van Campbell, President, Laurier Life David Munro, Managing Director, ORIGO Services How to Keep EIS Up and Running Craig S. Barrow, Vice President, Comshare Rich McGeary, CFO, Information Systems, Connecticut Mutual Outsourcing: Options for the Systems Executive Thomas J. Skelly, Managing Partner, Insurance Practice, & William E. Warren, Southwest Regional System Management Partner, Andersen Consulting Donald E. Pollard, Assistant Vice President, Management Information Systems, Allstate Career Pathing/Retraining Challenges Ann T. Dehner, Vice President, Information Systems, and David Purushotham, Assistant Vice President, Connecticut Mutual Terri Pawlowski, Director Information Management Education, ITT, Hartford 11:45 - 1:30 p.m. LUNCH WITH EXHIBITOR 11:45 a.m. - 5 p.m. EXHIBITS OPEN 1:30 - 3 p.m. GENERAL SESSION Reengineering: From Concept to Reality Michael Hammer, President, Hammer & Co. 3 - 3:30 p.m. COFFEE BREAK 3:30 - 4:45 p.m. CONCURRENT SESSIONS: BUSINESS APPLICATIONS Ensuring Quality in the Software Development Process Raymond G. Falkner, President, Quality Solutions Marilyn Smith, Vice President, Retail Information Services, John Hancock Using Expert Systems/Al Creatively Nancy Marrow, Officer, Micro Development, Mutual of Canada A Speaker from Prudential Image Processing Technology: Pros and Cons M. Theodore Eshenour, Director, Pension Systems & Programming, Nationwide Mag Francis, Assistant Vice President, Group Division, CIGNA Paul Maillet, Technical Coordinator, John Hancock Disaster Recovery: Business and Systems Resumption Rodney G. McCrary, Vice President & Director, Applications Development, American National Steve Regenye, Vice President, Information Resources, Aetna of Canada Electronic Publishing in the Insurance Industry William C. Hard, Manager, Insurance Industry Marketing, Xerox Patrick Gee, Senior Analyst, The Travelers Developing a Re-Engineering Solution Neil Cooper, Vice President of Strategic Direction, NETRON Maxine Glassberg, Senior Systems Manager, Merrill Lynch WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13 7 - 9 a.m. CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST 9 - 10:30 a.m. GENERAL SESSION Repeating the Benefits of Technology: An Update Michael Treacy, President, Treacy & Company 10:30 - 10:45 a.m. COFFEE BREAK 10:45 a.m. - Noon CLOSING SESSION Challenge to Change Denis Waitley, Author, "The Psychology of Winning" III. Discussion of Demonstrations 1. COHESION Messages * Digital, and its CSOs, support extensive CASE tools for the multivendor (including IBM) environment. These tools make the development of software for mainframe, workstation or PC, faster, less expensive and more likely to result in applications that meet the needs of end users. * COHESION has the following key characteristics: Support of software deployment on multiple platforms from a unified development environment; a framework that integrates the entire software development life cycle, beginning with enterprise planning through maintenance and ongoing management; flexibility of a development environment that works across all industries and businesses; Linkage of the business planning process with software development supporting the goals of the entire organization, as well as individual departments. Speed to market, systems development backlogs, effective management of resources, cost of systems development & maintenance and developer productivity are all key concerns for the insurance industry. Over the past ten years there has been an increasing focus on the need for better tools for the development of insurance applications. Digital is now offering an entire integrated CASE (Computer Aided Systems Engineering) environment, known as COHESION. The COHESION environment is built on Network Application Support (NAS). It supports development of NAS applications as well as software for IBM mainframes, a range of microprocessors and super computers. Equipment and Software The demonstration will consist of the components of our COHESION offerings, demonstrated on a 3100. Multivendor development capabilities will be supplemented by a 3100 at the Netron booth, which will show ways that COBOL source code can be developed and created on an economical VAXstation 3100 to run on VAX, IBM mainframes and PCs. The COHESION demonstration will highlight many of the Digital software products. Customers will be able to see how Digital software can help them manage their application development environment, automate code generation and testing, and use COHESION to control the intricacies of software versioning. In particular, Code Managment System (CMS), Module Management System (MMS), Digital Test Manager (DTM), Performance and Coverage Analyzer (PCA), Language Sensitive Editor (LSE), VAX Cobol Code Generator (VCG), and the Digital Project Management System (PM) will be shown. Flow of the Demonstration The demonstration itself will show each of the tools available under COHESION, and will be 'ad hoc', based on the customer's interest. Once your customers needs are identified, the COHESION demo can be used to show how Digital products can be used to help solve their problems. So, if your customer is most interested in code generation technology, and testing, then we would demonstrate the VCG, LSE, DTM, and PCA products. We would first discuss the major features of these products, along with the benefits derived from using them. We would then demonstrate the products. If the customers have an interest in using a VAX to develop IBM production systems, then at the COHESION demo we can discuss how COHESION, along with a third party product such as Netron/CAP from Netron, can be used to develop and test the application on a VAX, prior to moving it to an IBM mainframe. We would then send the customer over to the Netron area to see an actual demonstration of the capabilities. At the Netron station, they will see the Netron product running using some of Digital's complementary tools. In particular, the customer will see the use of LSE with Netron/CAP templates, and DTM. In addition, Netron will discuss the overall benefits of using a Digital workstation environment. What Can Be Sold COHESION may be sold as a service, product set or a combination of the two. Specific CASE capabilities included in the COHESION portfolio include: * Enterprise Integration services supporting CASE from Digital's CASE customization and resource centers, including consulting to link software development with business strategy and planning; * VAXset V10, a packaged offering of CASE tools with new capabilities for working a vector environment such as the VAX 6000 and 9000; * VAX RALLY V2.2 - Digital's fourth generation application tool for the MIS/DP professionals in application development and information center environments. This tool has new transaction processing options. * Individual CASE tools, including: VAX Software Project Manager - Digital's project management tool that assists development organizations in the planning and managing of software development projects. * VAX Notes - Digital's conferencing tools that increases communication among team members, development staffs, and the user. Using VAX Notes, the development team is able to communicate effectively with all members of both the development and user teams. * VAX COBOL Generator - Digital's COBOL code generator creates 100% error free syntax COBOL. The VCG is icon based and allows developers to design an application online without ever having to write native VAX COBOL code. Who is the Competition, Why is Digital Best? Competitors Digital's strongest competitor is IBM with their AD/CYCLE offering. The major differences between the COHESION and AD/CYCLE offerings, can be summarized as follows: COHESION AD/CYCLE Inter-enterprise Intra-enterprise Multivendor (through NAS) IBM only (SAA) Here today Not yet fully available Cost effective 3100 development Costly mainframe development Same environment for Separate environment for IS and technical development IS and technical (SAA vs. AIX) Object oriented tool Object services not integration defined & defined or delivered implemented Different computing styles Designed around (centralized vs. centralized computing distributed) Flexible Rigid approach Why is Digital Best? Digital's COHESION environment allows customers to develop applications that target many vendors - VAX, IBM mainframe, and PCs. Many insurance customers today, have a mix of IBM mainframes doing the bulk of application processing, and VAXs doing departmental processing. With COHESION, an IS organization need only train their development staff in ONE environment and from that environment they can target both IBM and VAX. This will then allow an IS department to best utilize their resources, since specialization is reduced. Digital's COHESION environment is not based upon a centralized repository that must reside on an MVS system. Instead, the repository can reside on either the desk or at the team level, if a team development VAX is used. By not running at the mainframe level, the development team will not be impacted by production system issues. With workstations hooked up via a local area network, the development team will not be impacted by test file limitations that exist on a PC. Using this environment they can do substantial system testing in the development arena. Digital's COHESION environment is available TODAY, and can be installed in the customers organization immediately. Unlike the IBM solution, which is still not available to all IBM customers. Digital Strategy Digital's COHESION strategy, is to provide an application development environment built on NAS, that can support customers that need to build complex worldwide distributed multivendor applications. Our strategy is to provide an environment that is OPEN and adheres to industry standards. It is Digital's intent to support standards where they exist, and to be actively involved in those CASE areas where standards are being developed. The Opportunity Digital's COHESION solution should be of interest to any company that is suffering from application backlogs. However, those insurance companies that currently have both IBM and Digital systems will be most interested. The opportunity size will clearly vary among various companies. However, the ideal COHESION environment will involve selling a workstation to each developer, along with some VAXs that would serve as development team machines. In addition to the hardware, each sale would consist of a minimum of VAXset, and often times include other software products, depending on the issues that your individual company is trying to solve. In addition to hardware and software, it is critical to include services. That should be both educational courses and consulting services. A major problem with CASE sales in general, is that organizations will purchase them and then not really know how to use the tools to their advantage. To ensure success, it is imperative, to assist them in employing the COHESION environment. When pursuing a CASE sale, the most important thing is to first understand the customers problems that are most important to them. Once that is understood, then COHESION should be presented to them from the context of how it will help them solve some of their application problems. It is easier to convince a customer to invest in a solution that can be demonstrated through a pilot project. This approach allows a customer to minimize their investment, while being able to evaluate the proposed solution. 2. ACTUARIAL WORKSYSTEM DEMONSTRATION Messages * In today's competitive and swiftly changing product and profitability environment, actuarial knowledge workers need fast access to wide ranging information, integrated analysis tools and the ability to communicate their recommendations and decisions quickly. Digital, and its third parties, provide these capabilities in an environment that is economical, robust, reliable and proven. * NAS + CSOs provides superior s/w integration over SAA + CSOs. * Digital supports Actuarial DSS software market leaders. * Third parties are increasingly committing to Digital and NAS. * Digital's Data Warehousing and PC Integration solutions, enabled by NAS, are multivendor, integrative and standards-based, not proprietary. Equipment and Software The Actuarial Worksystem combines a VAX Data Warehouse with PC integration services and a windowed client workstation. Actuarial solutions will be demonstrated in an integrated Digital and CSO products environment. Digital layered products include Rdb, PATHworks for DOS, DOS Client and VAX APL. CSO application products include MS Windows (3.0), Lotus/VMS, dBaseIV/VMS, SAS, STSC APLPLUS, Harvard Business Graphics and KBMS (AICorp). The demonstration will show how actuaries and their support organizations can be freed from I/S dependency and costly, inflexible mainframe environments by down-sizing to a departmental VAX/Rdb Data Warehouse. A key component of the demonstration is the integration of PC's into a data, information and application sharing workgroup. The specific focus of the demonstration will be loss reserving, although the Actuarial Worksystem supports all actuarial functions. Flow of the Demonstration The Actuary performs loss reserve analysis based on data available in the warehouse, and shares results through E-mail. An important dimension of the demonstration is the ability to do iterative modeling, simulation, 'what if' and sensitivity analyses in a friendly, controllable VAX environment. The Actuary will access a previously downloaded mainframe extract file, select a subset of the information through relational query, use the subset to model/analyze the data, graphically represent the results, cut numerical and graphic data from different application windows and paste into an E-mail message for distribution. What Can Be Sold Digital Data Warehousing solutions (data, desktop and application integration); * NAS capabilities; * The Digital/CSO partnership model; * Enterprise Integration Services (Data Modeling, PSS, etc.). Who is the Competition, Why is Digital Best? In many insurance companies, actuarial support currently requires I/S to create extracts from one or more master files (some data is on tape) to run 3GL (FORTRAN, COBOL or PL1) pricing and loss reserving applications in an MVS/TSO environment. Many actuaries use STSC APLPLUS or VS APL (IBM) and/or a 4GL/DSS (SAS, FOCUS) to model and perform various analyses in that same environment. However, end user computing in MVS/TSO is expensive, inflexible and often slow or unreliable. I/S responsiveness and general support is often unsatisfactory because actuarial priorities muust compete with other priorities for IS services. In other companies, actuaries may download extracts into a less expensive, more flexible and more responsive PC applications (STSC APLPLUS or Lotus) environment. This approach simply replaces one set of problems with another. Physical limitations in PC storage confine the amount of information the actuaries can use. Data security on PCs is not of mainframe quality. Consistency, currency and sharing of data all become issues. Digital offers mainframe quality data security and consistency in office size (and cost) systems. Actuaries in different segments of the insurance industry have developed different tool preferences. Life and Health Actuaries tend to prefer APL (often STSC APLPLUS on a PC). Casualty Actuaries tend to use more mainstream DSS tools like SAS and Lotus. Both Digital and IBM support APL, SAS and Lotus. There are differences in the implementations of these products on each vendor's platform(s). Decisions on point implementations of such software/hardware combinations is usually made on technical features and price/performance. The consideration of tools is really less of an issue than the true actuarial problem: access to and flexible use of data at various levels, application integration, and end user computing costs/support in a mainframe environment. IBM, our major competition in actuarial functions, offers SAA as a solution. Digital's Data Warehousing and desktop/application integration capabilities represent a superior solution on the basis of cost, solution, time-to-market and risk. APL is preferred in the Life and Health segment of the insurance industry. The APL market leader is STSC with mainframe, PC and now RISC workstation versions. The RISC solution has recently been getting a great deal of attention. In this arena, our competition is Sun SPARCstation and IBM RS6000. If all that is wanted is a single standalone RISC workstation with STSC APL, SUN and IBM are tough to compete with. But this approach misses the fundamental point that broad data access, application and effective integration of current non-RISC desktop device are important for a cost effective solution. When viewed from this standpoint, Digital is the superior answer. Digital Strategy Provide more comprehensive, non-proprietary, integrative Actuarial Worksystem solutions which result in measurable cost-savings, faster solution time-to-market, and lower risk by: Acknowledging different functional needs of users; * Providing customers with choices; * Supporting standard services . communications (mail, routing, VTX, Voice) . data access . application interoperability . Desktop devices through PCI (PC, Mac,); * Leveraging increasing third party application support of NAS; * Sell advantages of a Digital solution high to expose SAA and penetrate IBM accounts. The Opportunity There are about 10,000 actuaries in the U.S., but the number of people performing actuarial functions for insurers is far greater. Many of them are currently undergoing the long process of qualifying to become actuaries. Many others are actuarial support analysts who carry out the analyses and studies that actuaries specify. There are a great number of people in insurance companies doing actuarial work which, by definition, is very data and software tool intensive. Taken together, these people constitute a substantial end user community whose unmet information system needs are quite compatible with Digital's strengths. The insurance industry is data rich and information poor. Virtually every major function within a company struggles with data access, quality of information and I/S support issues. Many functions are only interested in vertical slices of the data. Actuaries, the engineers of the insurance industry, are chartered with creating, pricing and monitoring the profitability of products and with financial and regulatory year-end reporting. To do that, they need all the data: premiums, losses, expenses and investments. Actuaries experience the 'data problem' most acutely. Digital can liberate the data from the mainframe with mature data access and integration products and stage it for actuaries in an Actuarial Data Warehouse. The desktop device of choice, typically a PC running DOS, can be integrated and turned into a networked actuarial workstation. Software of choice can run in the VAX or PC (or both) environment. Such a a solution combines the strengths of both the mainframe and PC environments and eliminates the problems related to each. 3. INSURANCE INVESTMENTS DEMONSTRATION Messages Digital delivers investment management capabilities beyond the expected. * Digital offers a cost-effective and flexible way to link investment management and investment accounting systems for direct, effective information access by front-office professionals. * Digital's industry-leading multivendor integration capabilities can make all your computing systems work as one. Digital's IA-LINK enhances the value of your investment accounting data by making it directly available to non-technical investment professionals in a flexible, immediately usable format. Digital's multivendor and multitechnology integration capabilities enable investment professionals to readily use investment accounting data in front-office analytical tools for sounder and faster decision-making. Digital's IA-LINK and integration capabilities let you work with your existing systems, improving productivity without changing the way you do business. Digital, through its Cooperative Software Organizations (CSOs), offers a wide range of proven production-level solutions for investment managers. Digital has provided a broad spectrum of products and solutions for insurance companies worldwide - from extensive networks of insurance branch offices (AGF in France, London Life in Canada) to executive information systems (Aetna, Liberty Mutual) to large investment management projects (Aetna and Transamerica). Digital brings to insurance investment management relevant experience as a leading supplier of solutions to major financial institutions around the globe, including Bankers Trust, Citicorp, and Union Bank of Switzerland. Equipment and Software The hardware used in the demo is a mix of desktop devices: a MacIntosh, a VAXstation 3100 and a Decstation 333. The mix of devices is a good illustration of Digital's NAS capabilities. The centerpiece of Digital's solution set is a unique product, the IA-LINK (Investment Accounting Link), that addresses many of today's key insurance investment information needs in a simple, elegant, and cost-effective manner. Digital's investment management product strategy is to: 1. Sell the IA-LINK as our flagship investment management solution. The new Investment Accounting Link is a carefully architected solution for information transfer between existing back-office accounting systems and the analytic tools used by front-office professionals. The IA-LINK makes critical internal information available on-demand; in a flexible, usable format; without the need for IS support; and without requiring customers to change the way they currently work or discard the computer equipment they already have in place. 2. Sell PCSA as a way of integrating existing front-office PCs on a local area network. 3. Sell third-party software tools as production-level point solutions for the front office. As part of the LOMA demonstration, two examples of the broad range of CSO products will be integrated: a portfolio management solution (EPVS) from Computer Aided Decisions (CAD), an expert system capability (KBMS) from AICorp for reporting from and querying the portfolio database and a portfolio analysis and balancing tool from BARRA. 4. Sell support services for integrating front-office tools with the IA-LINK. Flow of the Demonstration The demonstration 'tourguide' is the Chief Investment Officer of a major (fictitious) insurance company which is heavily involved in managing its own money through an Investment Division and other people's money through various wholly-owned subsidiaries. During the demonstration, two major transactions are tracked at various stages of completion: the first is the unwinding of a complex investment position in a declining company (Easy Money, Inc.). The second is the proposing of a plan to segment the General Account of the Investment Division into segmented portfolios for each of the major investment-oriented life insurance products. The Story Players 1. Executive Vice President (Narrator) 2. Equities Manager 3. Bond Manager 4. Investment Assistant Scene The Players are all employees of either the Investment Division (ID) or the Wholly-owned Investment Subsidiary (sub) of an imaginary insurance company. The Executive Vice President is the head of both operations. The Equities Manager has recently taken responsibility for all the stock portfolios in both the ID and the sub in an effort to streamline operations and cut costs. The Bond Manager controls several fixed income portfolios in the ID. The Investment Assistant supports several Bond Managers. All activities and transactions during the scenario are examples of a broad range of activities and transactions within the ID and the sub. Plot The EVP has just returned to his office from a meeting of the Investment Steering Committee (ISC). He reports to the audience that one of the issues discussed at the meeting was the plan of the Corporate Management Committee to segment the General Account. The segmentation is to be by line of business and product line within the line of business, and the goal has been set to achieve segmentation as soon as possible. At the ISC meeting, orders were issued to the various senior investment officers that they are to prepare for the next ISC meeting a series of reports analyzing the current holdings and illustrating (hypothetically) what the new Segment Portfolios would contain given the objectives of each of the new Segments. The EVP plans to meet with one of the key Bond Managers later this morning to discuss this issue. The other major issue covered at the ISC meeting was an internal research report that forecasts the bankruptcy of Easy Money, Inc. (EZM). At the meeting, the EVP was able to use a terminal to access portfolio information that showed the current holdings of EZM. He recreates that access now (for the audience), showing that the holdings are spread among some customer portfolios in the sub and an index fund managed in the ID. He reports that the firm is already beginning the process of unloading these holdings, trying not to disrupt the market. At this point he receives an alert message from the Equities Manager requesting approval for the sale of some EZM shares, and he says he will move down the hall to visit the Equities Manager. The Equities Manager displays the portfolios that hold EZM; he examines the gain/loss from various selling scenarios (FIFO, LIFO, lo-cost, etc.) He notes EZM is part of an index fund. He reports that he sent the alert to the EVP because his approval is specifically required to sell shares out of the index fund. After receiving approval from the EVP, he moves the holdings of the index fund to an application that rebalances and maintains the index fund product. EVP mentions that he has an appointment and leaves to go to the Bond Manager's office. The Bond Manager is viewing liability estimates from Actuarial for the new Executive Compensation Annuities (ECA) product. He reports that he will be the manager of the newly created ECA Segment Portfolio which will match its assets with the ECA product liability. He displays a message from an actuarial analyst which lists suggested attributes for the new portfolio. To build the hypothetical ECA Segment Portfolio he begins by examining the overall characteristics of the holdings in the General Account (yield, duration, convexity, etc.). He then 'drills down' (according to the actuary's suggested attributes) to determine the appropriate individual holdings to transfer into the new ECA Segment Portfolio. These holdings are marked with a note that they are set aside for the ECA portfolio. He then sends a mail message to the Investment Assistant saying that he has completed the process for the ECA Segment Portfolio, and suggests that the audience visit the Investment Assistant to see the process continue. The Investment Assistant runs portfolio holdings reports to determine what issues are contained in what portfolios. She examines notes attached to various issues which contain instructions on moving issues to new portfolio packages based on the segmentation requirements. She then uses the portfolio management system to construct a new (hypothetical) ECA Segment Portfolio. She analyzes the portfolio to determine if any adjustments would be required to meet investment objectives. For presentation purposes, graphics are also developed. The ECA Segment Portfolio presentation package is then sent to the Bond Manager for his review. The EVP borrows the workstation from the Investment Assistant to show the management information reports available to him in real time. He again looks at the EZM holdings to see what changes have already shown up. Then he talks about how easily the segmentation analysis has been progressing and forecasts that the committees will make better decisions due to the quality of the staff work. Competition ISA OSCARS/PRISM OSCARS and PRISM are investment accounting systems from ISA that operate on IBM mainframes. Vendor claims notwithstanding, OSCARS and PRISM remain primarily accounting systems that are optimized for back-office functions. Their data is organized in a manner that is not conducive to easy access. Auditors would be inclined to raise flags concerning any changes made to serve the needs of the investment management function. Additionally, vendor modifications - whether new reports, functions, or interfaces - are driven by what is worthwhile in the marketplace. If an ISA client requires a feature that is low on their vendor's priority list, they would have to start up a project from scratch to handle that request. Digital's Strategy Focuses expressly on solutions designed for the investment management function; and provides tools that make it relatively easy for customers to do their own modifications. Internally Developed Solutions The main arguments against homegrown solutions revolve around time, money, and understanding of business requirements. Building solutions internally would involve a major systems development project. This would mean assigning investment professionals to the project team. The investment people would have to successfully communicate the rich functionality required to non-investment IS personnel. Minimum requirements would probably be 3-4 people full-time with a like number part-time for at least 12 months. At a fully loaded average of $50/hr., the estimated people costs would approximate a minimum of $500,000. Equipment costs could easily more than double that figure. If your customer maintains that the system could be built on existing platforms (timesharing or mainframe with download to PC), stress performance issues. And be sure to point out that maintenance costs would probably be in the range of $100,000 - $200,000 per year. PC Solutions This category includes attempts to solve back-office/front-office data transfer problems by various patchwork solutions, or by implementing IBM's PC-Focus product, which purportedly eases investment accounting data access. The main points to make here are: * Installing an array of heterogeneous investment packages only complicates integration problems in terms of both function and data. * Installing a PC LAN with PC-Focus is installing a tool, not a solution. Moreover, this approach only perpetuates all the problems associated with IS intervention: FOCUS REQUIRES AD HOC PROGRAMMING FOR EACH AND EVERY DATA SEARCH. * Digital's comprehensive, architected solutions are designed BY investment professionals FOR investment professionals. They provide for fast, easy access to investment accounting data without IS support. And they enable that data to be easily integrated in the analysis tools that investment professionals use every day. The Opportunity Key Decision-Makers, Purchase Influencers, Approvers The most important decision-maker is likely to be the head of the target account's investment division or subsidiary. Other key people you'll be calling on include other managers within the investment management operation, as well as the heads of the investment accounting and IS departments. Qualifying Questions Use these qualifiers to help determine whether your customer is a likely prospect for Digital's investment management solutions: Business-Related Qualifiers * Does customer have a distinct, active investment organization? * Is customer in the group pension business? * Is the customer's investment operation treated as a profit center or as corporate overhead? * Are there complaints about the ability to generate investment reports? At what level in the organization? * Is the customer an active or passive investment manager? * How much of an investment professional's typical day is spent on non-investment activities? What are those activities? * How many investment products/strategies are offered? What are they? Are others desired but not yet implemented? Why not? * What is the investment decision-making process? How many people have decision-making authority? To do what, specifically? * What is the expected growth rate (overall; by asset; by product)? * How does the investment division relate to the rest of the company? Is it responsible for providing information to other parts of the organization? What information, and to whom? Business qualifiers are used to determine: * Status of the investment operation within the overall organization. * Overt level of satisfaction with the current informational environment. * Unspoken level of satisfaction with the current information environment (professionals spending a significant portion of their day collating data, products on hold due to inability to handle underlying investments, etc.). * Dispersion of decision-making, which might imply need for added flexibility in data access and reporting. * Expansion of needs (and perhaps problems) because of aggressive plans for asset and/or product growth. Technology-Related Qualifiers * Does the customer have existing Digital equipment? Where? * What are the existing investment systems and their primary functions? * What is the current backlog? What projects? How long? * What organization supports the investment operations? * Is there a strategic architecture? Hardware or software? * What is the current budget for supporting investment management? * What is the current PC penetration? * What is the investment operation's overall computer literacy? * What external solutions packages are utilized in the front office? How were they obtained? Technology qualifiers are used to determine: * Extent of support given the investment operations: dollars and people. * Key information-related issues from system manager's standpoint. * Potential resistance to a Digital solution. * Package purchasing philosophy. * Ease of acceptance of new technology by investment user community. * Level of acceptable technical interaction among end users. 4. INSURANCE PROFESSIONAL'S WORKSYSTEM Introduction The Insurance Applications Business Unit's (ABU) goal is to establish Digital as a strategic vendor in the insurance industry by delivering high-value, multivendor solutions that are directed to insurance professionals, regardless of where they are located. Our mission is to support all Digital and CSO products and services worldwide, while investing in strategic products and alliances to improve Digital's position over time. Image and workflow management systems represent our biggest opportunity to show the difference and value of Digital's products and services in this industry. In fact, image and workflow management systems could easily become the cornerstone of the insurance industry. We need to invest here, and are doing this now. The Insurance Professional's Worksystem (IPW) was developed to demonstrate the application of Digital's emerging technologies in solving key problems in the industry. IPW was demonstrated at SERVE-NET, DECworld and DECville and has generated a tremendous amount of customer interest. This positive response and demand have led the Insurance ABU to begin the process of making the IPW platform a standard EIS offering on which we will build and package specific solutions. The first offering will be an Insurance Image Index System (III) because of the high level of interest and demand for Image in the insurance industry. This will result in a fully supportable and extensible core offering which will form the basis of projects with insurance customers here and abroad. A key strength of III is that it leverages Digital's existing software and hardware architecture. More importantly, III can clearly be differentiated in the market by its consistent user interface, Application Programmer Interface (API), and a flexible server interface capability that has been designed for the client server environment (where appropriate). III takes advantage of Digital's existing Image capabilities and has built additional capabilities where insurance industry requirements dictated. These include high performance server capabilities that allow large volumes of documents to be processed in a timely manner and that permit the III system to be configured to support work groups of 20 to 100 users. Components of III EIS projects available include: * A highly functional, consistent user interface service; * A flexible application programming interface; * A fully featured folder management service, designed to provide access to images, data, voice, text and functions executed on external systems; * A relational and customizable database service; * A user check list generation service; * The ability to integrate DOS based systems, workstations, image capable terminals, and mainframes into the system environment; * A work tracking and management service (which may be based on one of a number of work management packages); * Various scanner services, linked directly to the foldering capability; * Components (such as 3270 emulation, FAX, Nexpert linkage, etc.) that can be incorporated into applications built on III. * We offer development, support and implementation services to assist customers in implementing the III capabilities. III is positioned as follows: It is a user oriented integrated work station project base, designed to provide users with uniform (location independent) access to the information and functions required to execute their responsibilities. It is designed to front end for the current mainframe systems and to provide a uniform way for the end user to access and manage the services available on the mainframes. Use of the III permits our customers to maximize the productivity and effectiveness of their white collar employees, while at the same time protecting the investment they have made in computer systems. The benefits of using III as a foundation for EIS projects are: faster development time, and reduced cost of creating final customer applications. Messages Digital has the platforms and development resources necessary to implement flexible, robust, mission critical, image capable, integrated foldering and work management systems for the insurance industry today. The capabilities being shown can be implemented with very little change (if any) in the mainframe systems already installed. Through NAS and our commitment to standards, the capabilities shown can be presented on a variety of workstations and PCs and can integrate the systems of many vendors (including IBM). Today, and in the future, we are committed to protecting our customers' investment in technology. The capabilities being shown can be implemented for your company through use of III in combination with our Enterprise Integration Services. Independent elements of the demonstrations (such as foldering, image management, workflow control) can be used as functional components of your own unique business solutions. The demonstrations shown are examples of the types of systems that can be created using III. Many of the base components (e.g. Imaging, VTX, Expert Systems, etc.) are available as separate products. Flow of the Demonstration The demonstrations being shown at LOMA are designed to display different ways in which Digital's capabilities can be used in insurance. It is not our goal to show a consistent Life insurance demonstration, but rather a suite of independent (but integrated) demonstrations that bring the power of III to the attention of customers and prospects. The flow will emphasize the unique capabilities of each station and its desirable business benefits. The Demonstration Suite Story Our model insurance company will be positioned as an international company in the Life and Property/Casualty businesses. Our opening will be to say that we will be showing how the capabilities of III could be used in either of these environments, and demonstrate the way that the UK subsidiary of the company is deploying III. Underwriting will focus on Life insurance. Litigation will focus on the P&C Claims operation. This demonstration suite is intend to show different ways that the capabilities in III could be implemented for customers, and NOT position the capabilities as solutions in themselves. For those customers who are 'dropping by' (which will be most of the people), specific features will be shown in less than 5 minutes per station. These features will include folder management, imaging including multi-page capabilities, sticky notes, expert systems and VTX. Index Station At the index station we will receive a letter about a workers compensation claim from a lawyer, scan it and file it in the customer folder, creating a work item for the Claims operation. In addition, (from our database) the work list for the index station will include a faxed claim form (P&C) which will be indexed to the P&C operation. Finally, we will receive a letter from the insured regarding an underwriting condition on a Life policy - which will be scanned and a work item sent to the underwriting station. We will talk about the data recording process (translation of forms to ASCII data), but will only show it when requested by customers, and then only on a P&C Claim. Underwriting Station Underwriting of a Life policy will be shown, using the UK version of the demonstration, with some limited modifications. This demonstraton will include the use of expert systems, imaging and the option of accessing a mainframe (which will not be implemented at LOMA). The letter filed at the index station will be brought up to show its transfer and foldering. This will be shown as an example of one implementation of III capabilities, as they might be applied in the United Kingdom. Claims Station This will be the full ACT P&C Claims processing demonstration. Included will be access to the litigation manual (VTX) process and transfer of the messages to the Legal station. It is intended that this will include the use of sticky notes as the message is being transferred to the Litigation department. Legal Station This will be the same demonstration shown at the ACT, and will be linked to the P&C demonstration through the use of a mail message. All layered products included in the ACT demonstration will be shown. Customer Service Station This will be a customer service demonstration based on the use of DECvoice and CIT integrated into the III environment. It will be focused on the Customer Service Station, P&C Claims and Life Underwriting areas. Two calls will be simulated: 1. A call on the status of a Life policy in the underwriting process. This call will initially be responded to by the DECvoice system, and will then transfer directly to the underwriter working on the policy. 2. A call from a lawyer, requiring connection to the Claims Station through the CIT control station (the Grubb policy). This call will go through the CIT control station, and will be connected to the Claim Processor working on the specific claim. Each call with be initially intercepted by DECvoice, which will provide the direction for the call and will respond to initial inquires. What Can Be Sold? As noted earlier, the demonstrations themselves are not salable products, and intended purely as a way to display the flexibility, functionality and opportunities for III and component software. III Project Sales The following can be offered as a basis for EIS contracts: * Research and analysis to determine and document the customers requirements, needs and expectations. * EIS tailored capabilities which provide application level functionality. These services will be quoted on a special project basis, and will only be subject to estimating after the customer's requirements are clearly understood. Cost of EIS services will be in addition to the cost of the various product components. Examples of EIS tailored capabilities include: * Mainframe interface services, * Implementation of mail services, * Implementation of FAX services, * Implementation of VTX, * Implementation of expert systems, * Implementation of image services, * Development of specific application envelopes for the customer. Specific product sales III, as demonstrated at LOMA, consists of four different types of products: 1. Digital (Q numbered) products, which may be sold separately. 2. The III (Image Index Solution) standard offering that can only be sold as a base for applications developed by EIS (this consists of the integration layer, unique software and layered products). 3. Application software that cannot be sold as part of III, but may be available to EIS as a base for projects to create the unique capabilities customers require. Examples are the expert system integration linkages, the specific database organization, specific screen designs and flow, workflow, etc. 4. Third party products that are integrated into the demonstration, and may be sold as separate components. Who are the Competition, Why is Digital Best? IBM is still the major competition in this industry. They are aggressively going after third party software vendors and recruiting them to become SAA compliant. However, greater than 50% of the 50 largest US insurance companies satisfy their own data processing requirements through in-house development. This picture may change with the emergence of SAA which is intended to provide a framework of systems software that will make it possible to port different software applications among IBM's major hardware families. In addition, there are a number of Image vendors selling point solutions and image technology like IBM, Wang, Hewlett-Packard, FileNet, and Kodak. The major software vendor on the IBM platform is Policy Management Systems (PMS). In 1989 IBM paid $117M to by 20% of the company. PMS sells more than 60 software products to automate virtually every aspect of the insurance business. PMS can provide the total back office and front office application solutions for Claims Processing, Underwriting etc. They have released their newest product, the Series III which is similar to III in that it offers customers a model on which they can develop their own applications. The Series III revolves around a central DB2 based customer database, uses SAA cornerstones such as OS/2 Extended Edition and MVS/ESA, and strategic IBM products such as Office Vision, ImagePlus and CallPath. A development framework called the Insurance Application Platform (IAP), acts as a link to SAA. The specific competitors providing Image Solutions are as follows: FileNet is the market leader for image processing systems in the US and is Digital's only major competitor that is not a computer systems vendor. FileNet's Document Image Processor is a dedicated image management system designed for high performance transaction processing. To optimize performance, FileNet created a proprietary hardware and software platform based on a modified version of UNIX and Oracle's DBMS, its own OSAR library unit, high performance workstation, various scanner and printer options, and a modified Ethernet LAN. FileNet's major weaknesses are that it is not a full systems supplier, and that multivendor implementation is only on a per project basis. IBM ImagePLus is a set of image processing software modules which manages electronic folders of images, routes folders to designated users, automates the storage management subsystem for handling geographically distributed images, and manages digitized data on FileNet's magnetic or optical storage devices. The system's dedicated image workstations are PS/2 based. ImagePlus fits with IBM's strategy to own the corporate data repository and control the information network. ImagePlus is a point solution whose weaknesses include a lack of integration, two non-compatible versions, and IBM's compound document architecture doesn't include a public data type. Wang's Integrated Image System (WIIS) is a fairly complete line of proprietary hardware products, including processors, scanners, optical and microfilm storage devices, printers and workstations. To address concerns around proprietary platforms, Wang now offers Open Image, a new software platform which extends WIIS beyond the VS hardware. This architecture allows Wang VS computers to work with IBM mainframes and industry standard PCs and LANS. WIIS weaknesses include the fact that is limited to mid-sized offices, does not have a compound document architecture, and current financial problems have created concern among Wang prospects. Hewlett-Packard is OEMing Plexus' Extended Data Processing (XDP) system, a UNIX based image server and SQL database with image extensions. The XDP system runs on HP's 9000 series, it supports HP NewWave, and integration with HP peripherals. Third party software vendors are developing applications to run on the HP image system. HP is marketing its image system through system integrators such as Grumman and TRW. HP has been slow in getting started and they are having difficulty explaining New Wave. Sun Microsystems is not selling an image processing system, only tools for integrating third party applications with their products. Sun has become a popular platform for third party UNIX based imaging applications, and vendors supported by Sun's Catalyst third party program includes FileNet, Image Business Systems, Genesis Imaging Technologies and Grumman. The Opportunity While the insurance industry is desperately seeing ways to improve its profitability and customer image through innovative uses of technology, it remains mired in the old systems (some more than 20 years old) that were developed for a different era in the industry. Innovative companies are turning to workstations and PCs of various types as the solution. Their strategy is to "integrate in front of the mainframe", and use that process as a starting point to move into distributed systems architectures. This approach, which is consistent with Digitals skills and product set, protects the customer's investment in current systems, while at the same time swiftly increases the productivity and professional service delivery capabilities of employees. Through the Insurance Imaging Indexing approach, Digital is providing project development and the base platform required for the industry to undertake this strategic direction. The value of undertaking an III based project with Digital lies in the availability of the proven platform coupled with the services of skilled developers. These solution components: * Provide the functional capabilities customers need; * Reduce development time; * Reduce development costs; * Ensure success in a project that, for most insurance companies, is beyond their current capabilities. From a practical standpoint, because of the intrinsic multivendor capabilities Digital offers, actual end user implementation of the system may be on any of a number of devices (3100s, PCs, Macs and windowing terminals). The focus of current sales is on mid sized projects in large (top 50) companies that can be expected to proliferate the platform after the first successful installation. Companies that are most interested in these capabilities can be expected to include those that: * Are already exploring the fundamental issues of white collar worker productivity, and are running into roadblocks with their old systems and architectures; * Are experiencing serious customer service and productivity issues, and are seeking ways to recover from a resulting downturn in business; * Have reached a technical deadlock with their current installed base of hardware and software, and are looking for a way out of it; * Are known to be innovative, but who have only been innovative in the past within the constraints of the other vendors' architecture and offerings. ELECTRONIC MAIL ROOM STATION Messages The Electronic Mail (index/scan) station enables insurers to tie diverse incoming communications together, positively control them, index them, and key in information contained in them to company databases bringing order out of chaos. Image technology allows insurers to manage both image and text documents in an electronic folder that can be accessed by all users to provide timely and effective work management. This demonstration, which is a key component of the entire processing environment, shows the way that documents can be scanned (or submitted through FAX), attached to a specific folder, tracked, and the appropriate workstation alerted to the need to take action on the document. We can configure our scanning process to use many different (Digital and non-Digital) scanners depending on the customer's needs and environment. The platform includes the filing, foldering, indexing and access components required to operate this key element of the process. Hardware and Software * The III capabilities * VS 3100 * Digital MD410 scanner The Story The Electronic Mail room is the station which receives paper mail materials from the post office. The responsibilities include opening the mail, scanning it, applying it to a specific folder and forwarding it to the appropriate workstation. The details of operation are flexible, however in our mail room letters, forms and other documents are separated and batched to ease the recording process. As soon as a document is scanned into the system, a work record is created - with the first workstation to receive the document being the indexing station. Note that this means that as soon as the document is entered into the system it is under positive and close control - nothing gets lost!! Further, the way that the work management Two documents will be scanned and indexed: * A letter from a lawyer regarding a specific property & casualty claim. This letter will create a work item on the P&C claim station; * A letter from a customer regarding the underwriting status of a particular piece of business. This letter will create a work item for the life underwriting station. One document will be (simulated) as a FAX input from an agency: * A claim form on a piece of casualty business. This document will create a work item for the P&C claim station. UNDERWRITING Messages Insurers are seeking ways to gain better control of the underwriting process to assure that nothing falls through the cracks, increase underwriter productivity, and improve consistency of underwriting decisions. By providing access to both internal and external information at the desktop, professionals can be more effective in performing their jobs. The demonstration station shows an example of the way that this these services can be given to underwriters. They include the integration of many technological capabilities. Key integrated technologies are expert systems, image, indexing, work management, potential mainframe service access and a uniform presentation environment. Underwriting often represents the first contact that a customer has with the insurance company operations, and can either get the relationship off to a good start or a bad one. The underwriting process today, particularly for 'non standard' business, is often constrained by the need for paper documents, waiting for reports, lack of instant access to internal records and loss of information. Speed and accuracy (selection of good business and appropriate rates) are critical to success; speed because customers can find better options unless locked in quickly; good business and appropriate rates because these are the bases of the entire rate structure and underlie profitability. Servicing customers is a board responsibility of all employees of an insurance company. With the integration of CIT and Voice into this demonstration example, underwriters (and others) can effectively service calls, that would previously have totally disrupted their activities, easily and quickly without moving from their desks. The information available to the underwriter is also available to others who have the authority to access it. Hardware and Software * The III platform * VAXstation 3100 * NEXPERT AI software The Story The demonstration will be positioned as an example of the way that III could be implemented for a life underwriting environment. It is positioned as following a preliminary review of the data by a 'filter' system, which screens out policies and situations that it is unable to underwrite automatically, and forwards them to the professional underwriter. As part of the screening process, requests for information from the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) will be issued (and responded to) as well as requests for information from the insurance company database. The underwriter example, therefore, is designed for use on cases which are complex, and exceed (in one way or another) the parameters that have been set for 'expedited underwriting' (also known as automatic underwriting). At any point in the demonstration process, a flashing window may appear on the underwriter's screen, indicating that there is a call from a customer seeking information. When that occurs, the underwriter uses the call window to access the files referred to in the window (cut and paste), answers the call and services the customer, notes the call in the activity log, closes the window for the call folder and returns to the work that was underway. Underwriter activities will include the following: Case 1 * Underwriter accesses the Work Management window, and selects one of the cases to work on. * Clicking on the specific work item brings up the folder and the case activity windows. * Underwriter accesses the policy, flips through some of the pages and then goes to Mainframe Access (which will not be activated). * Underwriter then activates the expert system - discussing the interaction of expert system with database and explaining the steps involved. * Underwriter then approves the results of the expert system (after reviewing the policy once more). Different policies will result in different recommendations. The demonstrator will have to be able to work through these and make sensible comments based on the expert systems results. * Underwriter shows the fact that the requests for information have resulted in work items that will be resolved when the reports come back in. Case 2 * Underwriter locates the work item which relates to the customer letter scanned in at the index station and opens the folder. * Letter indicates additional information (regarding the customer's hobbies) which doesn't impact the underwriting of the case. * Underwriter reviews the letter, and the application, concluding the letter requires no action. * Underwriter goes back to the work list for next item. CLAIMS Messages A key goal of most insurers is to improve customer service and retention by increasing the speed and ease of claims processing through the integration of and access to enterprise wide information. The result is improved responsiveness to customers and overall enhanced quality of service. The ability to instantly access all information (policy documents, claim documents, mainframe databases and other) on a claim, and to easily electronically communicate with suppliers and agents, significantly improves the way the business can operate. This translates to profitable competitive advantage. The ability to easily interrupt what is being done and respond to calls, the returning to exactly where you were in a process, adds a great deal to the ability of personnel to respond to customer service requests. The Claims demonstration is integrated with the other activities being demonstrated. Examples are the Service and Litigation functions. This is a significant capability, and uniquely differentiates Digital from other vendors. Custom EIS projects can be undertaken which will closely couple current claim processing systems with the workstation functionality - thereby providing all the information AND functions the claims examiner requires at the desktop. Hardware and Software * The III platform * VT1200-I terminal * VTX * DECwindows Mail * SNA Gateway (not shown) The Story The station story will consist of two components, one of which will be shown continuously and one of which will be shown only when the customer is especially interested in the features included. At random intervals during the flow of the claim demonstration, the operator will be interrupted by a flashing window indicating a call (transferred from the CIT station). The operator will halt what they are doing, open the file folder for the caller (using a cut and paste from the call alert window), respond to the call, bring up the information requested by the caller, close the caller's folder (after recording a note about the call) and then resume the work that was originally underway. Demo Flow 1 A letter arrives from a lawyer, and has been filed in the correct folder by the index station. At that time a work item has been created for the claim station. The claims operator activates the work item, and reviews the lawyer's letter. Other documents in the folder (claim form, death certificate) are reviewed. The operator mentions that the mainframe could also be checked, but we don't have connections to our mainframe on the floor. The operator opens VTX and determines the action to be taken. The operator records a note on the lawyer's letter. The operator goes through 'referral selection'. During this process, the fact that this capability can be applied to outside vendors (such as investigation services) is mentioned. A work item is generated by the referral, and an entry is automatically made in the action log. The claim is closed. At this point, it is logical to go on to the legal station. Demo Flow 2 At slack points in operation, the index station scans in claim forms on a P&C claim, generating work items. The claims processor activates the claim work item, and reviews the claim form. At this point, the processor is acting as a supervisor. The supervisor reviews the document and examines the automatically attached check list. The supervisor assigns the claim to a specific individual. The demonstrator 'changes hats' and becomes a claim processor. The processor opens the work item for the claim. S/he examines the check list. S/he looks at the policy document itself, and activates the CICS access, alerting the viewer to the fact that we are not connected to the mainframe from the event floor. The operator activates an investigation activity, and creates an automatic investigation request via MCI mail. The operator activates the customer letter capability and generates a letter to the customer and agent (which is said to be faxed out). The operator activates the 'reserving' process, and talks about the reserve information going up to the mainframe. S/he closes the claim, after showing that the work being done (investigation) is on the work tracking register and that the activity log for the claim has been updated. SERVICE STATION Messages The insurance industry now views exemplary customer service as a key issue, not only because customers are expecting it, but because their competition is stressing it. The challenge is to provide high quality, accurate and effective customer service while at the same time maintaining economical and efficient operations. The demonstration example shows how Digital's CIT and voice products can be integrated into an operation (in this instance based on the III platform) to provide effective service while at the same time containing expenses. Implementation of CIT and voice has the following immediate benefits: Reduction in service cost and improvement of quality as a result of: * The ability to successfully service many customer calls without human intervention; * Maximizing the ability of service personnel to provide quality service to customers; * Making all information needed to service a customer and a definition of the customer service request area available to service personnel at their desk, thereby reducing wasted time and motion. * The ability to automatically record the fact that a call has been made, in the customer folder, provides an audit trail on the customer and significantly improves subsequent understanding of customer service levels. * Increasing customer satisfaction, since everyone who is servicing them had access to all the information on their case (including prior phone calls). Hardware and Software * The III platform * Mitel PBX * Microvax II/GPX * DECVOICE * Digital CIT (CTX) The Story One of the key issues for the insurance industry is the ability to service customers quickly, efficiently and economically. At this station we will show how customer calls can be handled through automatic responses on conventional information requests, and through automatic computer supported switching of data and calls on special requests for service. Our model insurance company has implemented underwriting and claims applications and has established a voice/CIT system using an 800 number. They have issued customer ID codes, with confirmation numbers, to all their customers who wish this service. While the company could also have (technically) taken advantage of the calling number identification process available through some phone companies, it elected not to until it was in wider use and some of the privacy issues had been resolved. Call 1 will be a call by a customer to determine the status of a policy being underwritten. * The DECvoice system will answer the call and welcome the caller; * The customer will key in their ID code; * The systems will respond with the customer name and will request a confirmation code from the customer; * The system will speak a menu which includes "Information on policy applications"; * The customer keys the policy application request code; * The system presents a list of the customer applications in process; * The customer selects one application, and the system speaks the status of the application; * The system records the fact that the phone call took place and the information supplied is in the appropriate folder; * The customer wants more information, and requests that the system transfer to an underwriter; * The system automatically transfers the call to the next available underwriter; * A flashing window appears on the underwriter's screen with the customer name and ID of the application; * The underwriter acknowledges the call; suspends the current operation; brings up the customer information and responds to the call. * The call is automatically noted in the activity log for the customer. Call 2 * A lawyer calls the company for information on the status of a claim for one of his clients (P&C); * The lawyer doesn't have a customer identity number; * The call is automatically transferred to the CIT operator; * The CIT operator answers the call and locates the customer records; * The CIT operator notes in the comments section of the client information window - "customer lawyer calling"; * The CIT operator then pulls up a list of claim personnel available for discussion and transfers the call to the next available claims processor; * A flashing window appears on the claim station with the customer information and a note; * The claim operator acknowledges the call; suspends current processing; pulls up the customer records and responds to the call; * The call is automatically noted in the activity log for the customer. The underlying benefits of these capabilities include: The ability to successfully and economically service the vast majority of customer calls in one session (regardless of where the experts or the information are); The elimination of time consuming, expensive and frustrating telephone tag; Maximizing the effective use of service personnel; Providing information for the majority of calls with no personnel time expended; The ability to create and analyze reports on telephone use and call response, for better service management; The ability to quickly develop a service support system (through EIS) employing the III and CIT/Voice platform base. Digital CIT and Voice capabilities may be integrated with applications built on the III platform for any type of insurance function where the quality of customer call service, and the cost of doing it right, are issues. The Digital CIT and Voice technologies can be independently integrated into corporate operations to achieve the benefits shown. 5. DIGITAL'S INTEGRATED DISTRIBUTED DATABASE LABORATORY (DIDDLY) Messages * Digital's ability to integrate diverse technologies is second to none. * Digital has high quality database, imaging and voice capabilities. * Digital has a commitment to UNIX (ULTRIX). * This demonstraton shows our commitment to capabilities "Beyond the expected". Salable Products ULTRIX Used as the development platform due to the availability of the audio hardware/software. ULTRIX pipes were used for inter-process communications. X-windows Used for image/graphics/text presentation on the workstation. DECnet Used for X-windows and/or inter-process communications. TCP/IP Used for X-windows and/or inter-process communications. C, C++, and MODULA3 programming languages Most of the programs were written in C. CDA tools (e.g. DECwrite) Used to prepare and process some of the graphics images. Image Services Library (scanning, rendering, conversions) Used for scanning documents, and rendering and converting images. Neural Network Simulator (NeurDS, an 'asset') Used to detect the word "DIDDLY" in isolation. This identifies the next sentence as a command. Digital Tools in Field Test or Under Development Motif Used for window management and X-window application development. ZZ-Buffer (SRC/WSE) Used for ray tracing some images. Software Motion Pictures (SMP/NESTOR project, Karlsruhe, W. Germany) Used for animation/movie playback. Digital Non-Products Internal research database Used due to the limited development time, but any relational DBMS (e.g. Rdb) could be easily interfaced to the package. Virtual Network facility (DBSR) Used for inter-process communications via DECnet, TCP/IP, and UNIX pipes. Audio (WSE/WSL) Workstation Systems Engineering (WSE) provided the DS5000 audio I/O hardware and Western Software Lab (WSL) provided the ULTRIX audio driver. This was the only special purpose hardware in the system, and performed only D/A and A/D conversions. IFF image tools (WSE) Used for some image preparation and conversion. DECtalk in software Used for text to speech. Under development by CRL. Non-Digital Tools Speech Recognition (CMPSL, CMU/Jeff Rosenfeld) Used for continuous speech recognition after the keyword "DIDDLY" to determine the command to be performed. Flow of the Demonstration The demonstration, which will appear on a large screen monitor, is based on voice and keyboard activated access to a series of hospital information databases. The scenario involved the demonstrator acting as a neurosurgeon, preparing for surgery on a brain tumor. Responses include CAT Scan information (both still and animated), heartbeat (graphically presented), DECvoice reading an admission form, dental and other forms. There are independent demonstrations of high resolution (color) image presentation, still and full motion video. The Story The story is focused on enterprise integration of multi-media data, all driven from the database and presented in many different modes. The demonstration starts by showing DIDDLY in a hospital setting where a neurosurgeon is reviewing the condition of a patient in preparation for surgery on a brain tumor. The surgeon reviews cat scan information (both still and animated), heart performance information, medical records (as an image and using DECvoice to 'speak' the record), etc. prior to operating. The physician demonstration is followed by a more generic set of demonstrations which show high resolution imaging (pictures of the mill and of one of the nebula), still and motion video played both forward and backwards (a football game), and different compression and decompression approaches for high quality images (the mandrill). What Can Be Sold DIDDLY is not a salable product. It is an example of the direction Digital technology is moving in, and our unique capabilities to bring it all together. Many, but not all, of the components (listed separately) can be sold individually and can be integrated through special project work. Who Are the Competition? In individual product fields (Image, Voice etc.) we have many competitors, some of whom are identified in other sections of this guide. To our knowledge, no one is demonstrating the kind of integration that DIDDLY shows and few have the capabilities to do so. Digital Strategy While customers are expected to be impressed, amused and interested in this demonstration, it is not something that we are selling as a 'product'. DIDDLY represents a demonstration grounded on an integrated combination of Digital products and third party capabilities. Its goal is to show a new dimension of technology, to attract attention and to bring customers into our booth. From a sales standpoint, it is important to emphasize that we are only in a position to sell some of the components, rather than the entire package or all of the components. The Opportunity The opportunities arising from DIDDLY are basically credibility and a customer appreciation that we are in the forefront of companies in creative thinking about technology. Use the attention and interest developed from DIDDLY to focus customers on the components that are being shown as salable. 6. BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS Discussion Many knowledgeable observers view business process management as the next frontier for major software offerings. Digital is an active player in the field. This is an important development for the insurance industry. Given the business stresses the industry is experiencing in profitability, personnel, competition and customer expectations, change is endemic. As a result the flow of work, activities and resource requests in the industry are in constant change as companies attempt to respond to these pressures, and no work process is likely to be static for any appreciable period of time. New products or services are likely to be grafted on to old ones, new teams will be created to address specific issues, new distribution systems will be built and new ways will be found to serve customers. Today, most work management and tracking is manual, embedded in the software of application programs, or most frequently a combination of the two. The application programs supporting current work management and tracking activities are typically elderly and most are difficult (and expensive) to maintain and update. Modifications in workflow, and re use of parts of old workflows and systems are difficult, expensive and very time consuming. As a result, the ability to dynamically manage the flow of work in an insurance company, changing as business conditions and needs change, is becoming a key focus of study and action by forward thinking companies. As object oriented programming becomes more embedded in operations, a dynamic method of sequenced execution of object oriented software modules is seen as a necessary component of new multivendor architectures that will withstand the test of time. Interest in business process management has recently accelerated, stimulated by the business issues, the maturation of image processing, and the need to manage the flow of documents through a process or enterprise. The current market for business processes management systems started with document management systems, sometimes known as 'image routers' (which managed the flow of document images through a process), and is now expanding into the broad area of process management. Process management for the insurance industry can be seen as a close analogy to 'just in time' management of physical components in a manufacturing process. The goal is to provide workers (particularly knowledge workers) with all information they need to perform a specific task, in an orderly and well controlled manner. Further, the worker should be presented with the work AND the system services necessary to execute the work as one package. The challenges of implementing a process of this type are partially technological, partially human factors and partially definition of business operations and goals. Digital is addressing these issues by offering workflow tracking and management services which fit the specific needs of customer's. Third party work management systems which operate on the Digital platform (such as ODESTA) are currently available, and are expected to proliferate over the next year or so. Within the Insurance Image Indexing platform, a standard work management, direction and tracking process is available. This standard work management capability is designed for work group computing where the flow of a specific piece of work can vary widely and unpredictably. The basic work management and flow process is driven by manual direction of the work item. The flow that the work item takes is not pre ordained or programmed, and the number of stations or functions that it passes through are defined by the knowledge workers involved in executing the functions. The III work manager will track a piece of work, embed information in the appropriate folder, create historical information on its status, and process and present it to the appropriate station when it is ready to be worked on. As an alternative, Digital also has an unannounced generic business process manager designed to work with large processes, where the flow (while variable) has form and consistency, the environment is heterogeneous and the flow spans different elements of the enterprise. This work manager will also operate successfully in smaller environments. Under this unannounced product, a set of processes is initiated by an Event (such as the receipt of an application) and reaches completion when a defined goal (policy issue or rejection) is met. Each step in the work process (and each component software function) is initiated by, and interacts with, a controller that governs and manages the execution process. The controller is driven by a template identifying the steps required to do a particular piece of work. This template (which is supported by a graphic interface) typically contains alternative paths for activity, depending on the conditions encountered during processing. Customers interested in more information on this unannounced product are likely to be companies who have started to consider the issue of business process management in their organization, and are investigating the various offerings that are available. Activity at LOMA At LOMA plans call for Business process and work management experts to be available on the floor of the exhibit, and for signs to be in the booth which invite discussion of work management issues. The discussions on the exhibit floor will take the form of generic review of work management issues, and a potential demonstration of III work management characteristics. The unannounced product will be referred to by its characteristics, and qualified customers will be invited to attend one of the nondisclosure meetings on the product. IV. THIRD PARTY DISCUSSIONS Firms with a Digital Relationship In addition to the third party products being shown as part of the Digital exhibit, there are a number of other third parties on the floor who either offer products that run on the VAX or have a close relationship with Digital. The following have been identified at this time: Andersen Consulting The FOUNDATION for VAX/VMS product is a Digital-based application development environment. FOUNDATION for VAX/VMS is an integrated set of facilities that automates and supports development of mission critical, commercial applications targeted for VMS systems. FOUNDATION can also be used to develop applications on other platforms, including IBM CICS. Comshare Comshare is a relatively new Digital CMP, but their products have been in use (in conjunction with our DECworld and SERVE-NET events) for some time. Comshare offers Commander EIS and System W, both of which are being sold jointly with Digital. At LOMA, Comshare will demonstrate examples of systems it has implmeneted at large insurers. The demonstrations will focus on Life Agency Management, Investment Management and Profitability Analysis. DISC Digital Insurance Systems Corporation offers a HealthCare claims payment package for PPOs, HMOs, managed care, Indemnity Plan and Corporate payors. The package, which is installed in a number of HMO and Blue Cross Plans, is designed exclusively for the VAX, and takes advantage of many VAX features. Aside from its functionality, its attraction on the VAX is the simple scalability that fits directly into the requirements of the managed care marketplace. Kodak Digital has, for some years, been working with Kodak on the integration of imaging capabilities. Digital offers Kodak scanners where high speed scanning is required, and Digital VAX equipment is embedded (and renamed) in a number of the Kodak offerings. NETRON The Netron/CAP product in conjunction with Digital's COHESION environment, provides an application developers platform which can design, code, and test applications which run in a multivendor environment. The resulting applications can be executed in an IBM MVS, VM, CICS, IMS/DC or VMS environment. Policyholder Services Corp For many years, PSC's flagship product, Vantage I, has been offered exclusively on an IBM mainframe. This product, which is the most extensive and complete Life Policy Administration system in the market, is currently being ported to the VAX. Phase I of the port is now underway, and is expected to be available for sale in the Spring of 1991. For PSC, the advantage of this port lies in the fact that the Vantage product can now be made available to many of the small and mid sized insurance companies that previously could not afford, or did not want, a mainframe environment. Major Competitors The following major competitors are expected to be at the Systems Forum. For obvious reasons, we do not know exactly what they will be showing or how they will be positioning it. FileNet Filenet is a competitor in the image systems area, although they lack Digital's ability to integrate image into an overall process and treat image as "just another data type". They offer (and emphasize) a work management software package known as 'WorkFlo', which is designed to manage the flow of images to workstations and execution of appropriate activities around those images. IBM We expect that IBM will focus on their image capabilities, and may include third parties in their booth. Intervoice Intervoice is a small company in the voice response systems field, competing with DECvoice. PMS Policy Management Systems Inc. has recently been the focus of a a major IBM investment. The company is now developing SAA compliant systems, and is one of the components in IBM's strategy to turn the market to SAA, leveraging many of IBM's new capabilities and technologies. While the corporate focus is on the P&C marketplace, they are also creating a generic developers platform for general insurance systems. Sequent Sequent is in the high speed, special process, systems field and is likely to be concentrating on areas such as actuarial and financial analysis, where considerable compute power is required. TRW Financial Systems TRW is likely to be demonstrating their image database management and presentation capabilities, along with their credit database services. UNISYS Recent UNISYS activities at major business shows have mainly focused on paper handling (check processing) and other point solution areas. V. SYSTEM FORUM EXHIBITOR LISTING Booth Assignments March 10-13, 1991 COMPANY/CONTACT BOOTH NUMBERS Andersen Consulting 313, 412 BIS CAP International 1100 Blaze SSI Corporation 713, 812 Comshare, Inc. 604 The Continuum Company 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003 Corbel & Co. 420 Cybertek Corporation 600, 602 Digital Equipment Corporation 710, 703, 705, 707, 709 800, 802, 804, 806, 808 DISCorp 505 Dyatron Corporation 814 Eastman Kodak 911, 913, 915, 1010, 1012, 1014 Equifax, Inc. 1019, 1021 ERISCO 112 Ernst & Young 319, 321 E-Z Data, Inc. 1013, 1015 FileNet Corporation 301, 305, 400, 402 Financial Data Planning Corp. 1106 FiTECH Systems, L.P. 1112 The Freedom Group 100 Genelco, Inc. 104, 106 GRID Sytems 1007 IBM 801, 803, 900, 902 Image Sciences, Inc. 818, 820 Information Systems of America 109, 110 Innovative Systems, Inc. 512 InSlaw 518 InSystems 413 InterVoice, Inc. 608 Interactive Computing Services, Inc. 816 IVANS 507 The Leverage Group, Inc. 1009 Life Insurance Data Processing 509 Management Data, Inc. 503 Mead Data Central 501 Micro Insurance Software, Inc. 104 Multidata Corporation 606 NAPERSOFT, Inc. 107 Network Data Processing 1102, 1104 NETRON ?? PDA, Incorporated 715 Periphonics Corporation 905, 907 Policyholder Service Corporaton 717, 719, 721 Policy Management Systems Corp. Price Waterhouse 300, 302, 304 Pride-Tech, Inc. 105, 106 Resource Information Management Systems 1108 Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. 807, 809, 906, 908 SIGMA Consultants, Inc. SunGard Investment Systems, Inc. 520 SwissRe Services, Inc. 601, 603, 605, 609, 611, 613 700, 702, 704, 708, 710, 712 TRW Financial Systems 514, 516 UNISYS 1101, 1103, 1200, 1202 Universal Systems of America 108 V.I.P. Systems, Inc. 105 Vista Concepts, Inc. 901 VI. CONTACT INDIVIDUALS FOR FURTHER INFORMTION ON LOMA DEMONSTRATIONS Investment Station Don Bracken DTN 291-0234 @PDM (CSGDEC) III (General) Sue Foley DTN 291-0199 @PDM (CSGDEC) Index/Scanner Randy Rock DTN 383-4537 @FMT Russ Carr DTN 277-7023 @UFO Underwriting Randy Rock DTN 383-4537 @FMT Russ Carr DTN 277-7023 @UFO Claims Randy Rock DTN 383-4537 @FMT Russ Carr DTN 277-7023 @UFO Legal Marilu Lane DTN 295-6508 @SCO CIT (Service) Sue Kenney DTN 226-5106 @LKG (DELNI) M. Ciccarelli DTN 291-0536 @PDM (INSURE) Actuarial Workstation Barry Kaditz DTN 291-0152 @PDM (CSGDEC) CASE Bob Casinghino DTN 291-0428 @PDM (CSGDEC) DIDDLY John Baker DTN 291-0202 @PDM (CSGDEC) EDGE John McAtee DTN 291-0276 (ONEDGE) John Kelly DTN 264-3477 @MKO Third Parties Ed Lear DTN 321-5473 @PCO