Pinnacle Signs Perpetual License Agreement with Exstream

www.exstream.com  - Extreme Software, LLC announced that Pinnacle Data Systems, LLC, a business communications service provider offering value-added solutions for paper and electronic invoices, statements, marketing, and other critical on-demand documents, has signed a perpetual license agreement with Exstream Software. A satisfied Dialogue user since 2003, Pinnacle added a second production server as well as several modules to its existing platform. These expanded capabilities include enhanced functionality for marketing end users.

“Exstream continues to demonstrate its expertise in the industry, and its ongoing commitment to research and development has certainly enabled users to readily meet the challenges of this ever-changing market space,” said Robert Reddinger, president, Pinnacle Data Systems. “The signing of this perpetual license agreement with Exstream recognizes the satisfaction that we have experienced over the years with the Dialogue software and the benefits it has brought to our business.”

“The positive results Dialogue is delivering for Pinnacle is very satisfying to Exstream as well,” said John Nitti, vice president of Exstream’s print service provider practice. “We are proud to be a part of this innovative company’s growth and look forward to continuing to add value to its business processes.”

About Pinnacle Data Systems, LLC

Founded in 1992, Pinnacle Data Systems, LLC provides business communication solutions to clients across the United States. From locations in Birmingham, AL and Atlanta, GA, Pinnacle provides customized end-to-end document management and distribution services to the insurance, utilities, telecommunications, credit union, collections, financial services, and business-to-business industries. Pinnacle (www.pinnacledatasystems.com) is a wholly owned corporation, and headquartered in Birmingham, AL.

About Exstream Software

Ranked among the world’s fastest growing technology companies, Exstream Software provides enterprise software solutions for businesses around the world to streamline document creation processes and produce higher quality, relevant communications of all types for delivery through print/mail and online channels. Customers in many industries benefit by getting communications to market as much as 85 percent faster, reducing document production costs up to 80 percent, and as much as tripling customer response. Visit Exstream at www.exstream.com, or contact us at +1 859-296-0600 or info@exstream.com for more information.

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EDS announced that Hub Financial,  a division of HUB International, has gone live with EDS SOLCORP's IDEX on the WealthServ platform. HUB is the first MGA in Canada to complete the integration of IDEX data messaging and transformation services directly into the WealthServ solution, positioning the company at the forefront of the industry for data exchange.

The WealthServ-IDEX environment provides an open system for transparent data exchange, mapping and data conversion. It collects data from an originator, converts it to any required format (XML, ACORD XM-Life, mutual fund data standards, legacy files and others) and delivers it in real-time. The state-of-the-art configuration at HUB is integrated with their corporate financial systems and supports new business, commissions, client management and compliance controls.

"Implementing IDEX on the WealthServ platform has enabled our brokers to deliver services to their clients at a level unparalleled in the industry," said Terri DiFlorio, President of Hub Financial. "With 24 hour availability via the Internet, automated updates, data feeds and seamless data exchange between all points in our distribution channel, our brokers can concentrate on the sales process and leave the rest to us."

"HUB Financial is the first MGA in Canada to use direct carrier feeds to update their systems," said Todd Haney, Product Manager, EDS SOLCORP. "Their requirements have established a new standard in Canadian insurance and we're excited to have played a part in their accomplishment."

WealthServ Insurance is a fully outsourced, Web-based solution, providing brokers with the ability to complete and send applications and forms, track business in real-time, and view and administrate pending and in-force business, through a single interface.

About Hub International

Hub Financial is a subsidiary of Hub International Limited, Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Hub International Limited is a leading North American insurance brokerage that provides a broad array of property and casualty, life and health, employee benefits, investment and risk management products and services through offices located in the United States and Canada. Hub Financial is, by volume, the number one insurance MGA in Canada. www.hubinternational.com

About EDS SOLCORP

EDS SOLCORP, a global business unit within EDS, is a leader in software solutions and services for the life insurance and wealth management industries. For 25 years, EDS SOLCORP solutions have helped customers reduce their total cost of administration, accelerate time to market for new products, and streamline their  infrastructure. Visit us at solcorp.com.

About EDS

EDS (NYSE: EDS) is a leading global technology services company delivering business solutions to its clients. EDS founded the information technology outsourcing industry 45 years ago. Today, EDS delivers a broad portfolio of information technology and business process outsourcing services to clients in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, transportation, and consumer and retail industries and to governments around the world. Learn more at eds.com.

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Raddon Financial Group (RFG), a provider of research-based solutions to the financial industry, hosted the CEO/Directors’ Forum for CEOs and directors of credit unions with assets in excess of $500 million. The forum, held in early August at The Ritz-Carlton Half Moon Bay, Calif., featured several highly-rated, industry-leading speakers including Dennis Dollar, principal partner, Dollar Associates LLC & former chairman, NCUA; Chip Filson, president, Callahan & Associates; Gary Raddon, founder, Raddon Financial Group; and Terence Roche, principal, Cornerstone Advisors.

The event attracted more than 60 of the nation’s top credit union executives and brought them together for an interactive discussion of the opportunities and challenges facing large credit unions. A recurring topic was offered by Steve Winninger, chief executive officer, NuUnion Credit Union in a timely presentation on credit union mergers, which was examined throughout the forum as a critical trend by many of the speakers and credit union executives. “This was a top-notch conference. It was an excellent opportunity for large credit unions to discuss and get exposed to common problems and solutions, thanks,” commented Jack McElravey, first vice chairman of Star One Credit Union. “Excellent content, great location and great networking. Thank you for the invitation!” offered David Bard, president and chief executive officer of New England Federal Credit Union.

“We plan to build on the success of this event as we plan for next year by examining strategic topics specifically designed for senior-level executives and directors managing large asset credit unions,” said Bob Dye, RFG’s general manager and chief operating officer.

Next year’s CEO/Directors’ Forum is scheduled to occur in August 2008. For more information about the CEO/Directors’ Forum visit www.raddon.com/forum or call 800.827.3500.

About RFG
RFG, a business unit of Open Solutions Inc., has been providing research-based solutions exclusively to the financial industry since 1983. RFG understands the industry and knows how consumers interact with financial institutions. By using best practices in research, analysis and trends to create customer intelligence, RFG plays a key role in helping financial institutions manage their customer relationships and their organizations.

For more information about Raddon Financial Group, contact Dan McGowan by email at dmcgowan@raddon.com or by phone at 800.827.3500. Visit Raddon Financial Group online at www.raddon.com.

About Our Parent Company
Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully-featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle® relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, Check 21, digital document, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, payments and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial service providers in the United States, Canada and internationally to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.

For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mickey.goldwasser@opensolutions.com, by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.

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Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (Nasdaq: JKHY), a leading provider of integrated technology solutions and outsourced data processing for financial institutions, announced fiscal 2007 results.  Total revenue increased 13 percent over prior fiscal year to $668.1 million, gross profit grew 12 percent to $286.2 million, and net income increased to $104.7 million or 16 percent over the prior fiscal year.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2007, the company generated total revenue of $181.3 million compared to $162.3 million in the same quarter a year ago.  Gross profit increased to $78.2 million compared to $70.7 million in the fourth quarter of last fiscal year.  Net income totaled $29.1 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, compared to $25.4 million, or $0.27 per diluted share in the same quarter a year ago.

In fiscal 2007, total revenue was $668.1 million compared to $592.2 million in fiscal 2006.  Gross profit increased to $286.2 million compared to $256.4 million during last fiscal year.  Net income for the current year was $104.7 million, or $1.14 per diluted share, compared to $89.9 million, or $0.96 per diluted share for the prior year.

According to Jack Prim, CEO, “We are very pleased to announce record revenues and net income for the quarter and fiscal year.  Our revenue growth of 12% in the quarter and 13% for the fiscal year was primarily organic. While our license revenue was below expectations for the quarter and fiscal year; the increase in support and services and hardware revenue continued to offset any shortfall. Our managers and employees continued to focus on the business which enabled us to leverage our revenue growth into a 16% increase in net income and a 19% increase in EPS.  While paying close attention to our financial performance we also maintained our ongoing focus on meeting our customers needs, and continue to have industry leading customer satisfaction ratings.”

Operating Results

“We continue to experience strong demand in both of our banking and credit union segments for our products and services. This strong demand is both inside our core base of financial institutions through our Jack Henry Banking and Symitar brands and through the products marketed under our ProfitStars brand to non-core customers,” stated Tony Wormington, President.  “It is our belief that this continuing demand for our products and services is a direct result of our continued focus on our overall strengths.  This provides our customers with powerful and flexible technology either through a best-of-suite solution or individual best-of-breed point product approach, coupled with our fundamental commitment to provide outstanding service, which allows them to run their institution securely, efficiently and profitably.”

License revenue for the fourth quarter was $24.3 million, or 13 percent of fourth quarter total revenue, compared to $25.7 million, or 16 percent of the fourth quarter total revenue a year ago.  Support and service revenue increased 17 percent to $133.2 million, or 73 percent of total revenue in fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 from $113.7 million, or 70 percent of total revenue for the same period a year ago.  There was strong growth in all support and service revenue components for the fourth quarter.  EFT Support, which includes ATM/debit card processing, bill pay, remote capture and Check 21 transaction processing services, was the largest contributor with growth of $7.2 million or 33% in the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. Hardware sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 increased 3 percent to $23.7 million, or 13 percent of total revenue, from $23.0 million, or 14 percent of total revenue in the fourth quarter of last fiscal year.

For the fiscal year 2007, license revenue decreased to $76.4 million, or 11 percent of total revenue, compared to $84.0 million, or 14 percent of total revenue a year ago.  Support and service revenue contributed 75 percent of total revenue or $503.3 million of the total revenue for the current fiscal year, compared to $425.7 million, or 72 percent of total revenue for the prior fiscal year.  The increase in support and service revenue is due to solid increases in every component of this revenue line for the fiscal year 2007 compared to fiscal year 2006, particularly electronic payments which had growth of $28.9 million or 38% during fiscal year 2007 compared to fiscal year 2006.  Hardware sales for the fiscal year were $88.3 million compared to $82.5 million for the same period last year.  Hardware revenue was 13 percent of total revenue for fiscal 2007 compared to 14 percent of revenue in fiscal 2006.

Cost of sales for the fourth quarter increased to $103.1 million from $91.6 million for the fourth quarter in fiscal 2006. Fourth quarter gross profit increased 11 percent to $78.2 million with a 43 percent gross margin, compared to $70.7 million and a 44 percent gross margin for the same period a year ago.

Cost of sales for fiscal year 2007 increased 14 percent to $381.9 million from $335.8 million for fiscal year 2006.  Gross profit for fiscal 2007 increased 12 percent to $286.2 million compared to $256.4 million for fiscal 2005.  Gross margin was 43 percent in both fiscal years.

Gross margin on license revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 was 91 percent compared to 98 percent a year ago for the same period.  Gross margins on license revenue for fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2006 were 94 percent and 97 percent, respectively.  The decrease in this gross margin is directly attributable to the sales mix of third party products delivered.

Support and service gross margin increased to 38 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 from 35 percent in the fourth quarter of the prior year.  Support and service gross margin increased to 38 percent in fiscal 2007 from 36 percent for fiscal 2006. Support and service gross margins have improved due to the continued increase in electronic processing transactions which yield higher margins than other components of support and service. Hardware gross margins were lower for the fourth quarter at 23 percent compared to 25 percent for the same quarter last year.  The hardware gross margin for fiscal year 2007 was 26 percent, while fiscal year 2006 hardware gross margin was 27 percent, primarily due to sales mix along with reduced vendor rebates received on hardware sold during the current year.

Operating expenses increased 7 percent in the final quarter of fiscal 2007 compared to the same quarter a year ago primarily due to increased labor related costs, including an increase in headcount. Selling and marketing expenses decreased 3 percent in the current year fourth quarter to $13.6 million, or 7 percent of total revenue, from $14.0 million, or 9 percent of prior year fourth quarter revenue.  Research and development expenses increased 9 percent to $9.5 million from $8.7 million, while remaining at 5 percent of total revenue for the fourth quarters in fiscal 2007 and 2006.  General and administrative costs increased 24 percent in the current year fourth quarter to $9.9 million from $8.0 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006.  The fourth quarter in both fiscal years remained at 5 percent of revenue.

Operating expenses increased 9 percent for the 2007 fiscal year to $127.6 million from $117.1 million for fiscal 2006, primarily due to employee related expenses from increased commission expense and labor related costs, including an increase in headcount. Selling and marketing expenses rose 2 percent for the current year to $51.0 million, or 8 percent of total revenue from $50.0 million, also 8 percent of total revenue, compared to a year ago.  Research and development expenses increased 13 percent to $36.0 million from $31.9 million, while remaining at 5 percent of total revenue for both fiscal years.  General and administrative costs increased 15 percent to $40.6 million or 6 percent of revenue for the current fiscal year from $35.2 million, also 5 percent of revenue for the 2006 fiscal year. 

Operating income increased 13 percent to $45.2 million, or 25 percent of fourth quarter revenue, compared to $40.0 million, also 25 percent of revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006.  Operating income increased 14 percent to $158.6 million compared to $139.4 million in fiscal 2006.  Operating income was 24 percent of revenue for both years.

Provision for income taxes increased 10 percent in the current fourth quarter compared to the same quarter in fiscal 2006.   Provision for income taxes for the current fiscal year increased 11 percent and is 34.6 percent of income before income taxes compared to 35.8 percent of income before income taxes for fiscal 2006. The effective tax rate change is due to the renewal of the Research and Experimentation Credit retroactive to January 1, 2006.  Fourth quarter net income totaled $29.1 million, or $0.32 per diluted share, compared to $25.4 million, or $0.27 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006.   Fiscal year 2007 net income totaled $104.7 million, or $1.14 per diluted share, compared to $89.9 million, or $0.96 per diluted share in the prior year.

According to Kevin Williams, CFO, “The operating results of the quarter and the year were in-line with our expectations. Our net income increased during the year with the assistance of the change in our effective tax rate due to the extension of the Research and Development Credit (“the R&D Tax Credit”) which was retroactive to January 1, 2006. This extension required the recording of an additional six months of R&D credit during the fiscal year related to fiscal 2006, which created a significant tax benefit (approximately $3.0 million or $.03 per diluted share) for fiscal 2007.  Our effective tax rate for fiscal 2008 will be dependent somewhat on whether this credit will be extended again as it is now scheduled to lapse on December 31, 2007, and until it is extended we will have to assume in our quarterly provision that it will not be renewed, therefore we are anticipating a higher effective tax rate for fiscal year 2008”.

For the fourth quarter of 2007, the bank systems and services segment revenue increased 13 percent to $150.9 million, with a gross margin of 43 percent from $133.6 million and a gross margin of 45 percent in the same quarter a year ago.  The credit union systems and services segment revenue increased 6 percent to $30.4 million with a gross margin of 44 percent for the fourth quarter of 2007 from $28.7 million and a gross margin of 37 percent in the same period a year ago. 

In fiscal year 2007, the bank systems and services segment revenue increased 15 percent to $557.5 million, with a gross margin of 44 percent from $482.9 million, also with a gross margin of 44 percent a year ago.  The credit union systems and services segment revenue increased 1 percent to $110.6 million for the fiscal 2007 year, from $109.3 million in fiscal 2006.  Both years ended with a gross margin of 38 percent.

Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and Backlog Review

At June 30, 2007, cash and cash equivalents increased to $88.6 million from $74.1 million at June 30, 2006.  Trade receivables increased 16 percent, or $28.9 million, to $209.2 million compared to $180.3 million a year ago.  The increase in receivables is primarily due to increased revenues.  Note payable increased from $50.2 million a year ago to $70.5 million at June 30, 2007.  Deferred revenue increased $26.8 million or 14 percent to $212.6 million at June 30, 2007, compared to $185.7 million a year ago.  Stockholders’ equity grew 4 percent to $598.4 million at June 30, 2007, from $575.2 million a year ago.

Backlog increased 8 percent at June 30, 2007 to $239.3 million ($68.1 million in-house and $171.2 million outsourcing) from $222.0 million ($66.4 million in-house and $155.6 million outsourcing) at June 30, 2006.  Backlog also increased 8 percent when compared to March 31, 2007, at $221.2 million ($61.4 million in-house and $159.8 million outsourcing).

Cash provided by operations totaled $174.2 million in the current year compared to $169.4 million last year.  The following table summarizes net cash (in thousands) from operating activities:

Cash used in investing activities for the fiscal year ended June 2007 was $92.9 million and includes payments for acquisitions of $34.0 million, plus $5.3 million paid on earn-outs and other acquisition adjustments.  During fiscal 2006, payments for acquisitions totaled $19.3 million, plus $1.4 million paid on earn-outs from prior acquisitions. Capital expenditures for fiscal 2007 were $34.2 million compared to $45.4 million for fiscal 2006.  Capital expenditures were higher in fiscal 2006 due primarily to a conversion to a new accounting software system and the acquisition of additional facilities during that year.  Cash used for software development in fiscal 2007 was $20.7 million compared to $16.1 million during the prior year.

Net cash used in financing activities for the current fiscal year is $66.9 million and includes the repurchase of 4.3 million shares of our common stock for $98.4 million and the payment of dividends of $21.7 million.  Cash used in financing activities was partially offset by proceeds of $29.2 million from the exercise of stock options and the sale of common stock, $4.6 million from excess tax benefits from stock option exercises and $19.4 million from net borrowings on revolving credit facilities.  During fiscal 2006, net cash used in financing activities included the repurchase of our common stock for $41.8 million and the payment of dividends of $18.4 million.  As in the current year, cash used in fiscal 2006 was partially offset by proceeds from the exercise of stock options and the sale of common stock of $20.6 million, $4.7 million from excess tax benefits from stock option exercises and $5.1 million from net borrowings on revolving credit facilities.

About Jack Henry & Associates

Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. is a leading provider of integrated computer systems and processor of ATM/debit card/ACH transactions for banks and credit unions.  Jack Henry markets and supports its systems throughout the United States, and has more than 8,700 customers nationwide.  For additional information on Jack Henry, visit the company’s Web site at www.jackhenry.com.  The company will hold a conference call on August 22nd; at 7:45 a.m. Central Time and investors are invited to listen at www.jackhenry.com.

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Insurance Technologies, LLC, the premier provider of illustration and point-of-sale software for the financial services and brokerage industries, announces that UNIFI Companies^SM, a growing Annuity provider, has selected Insurance Technologies’ ForeSight™ to enhance the functionality and overall user experience of their Annuity sales and marketing technology. As their Annuity products gain in popularity, Insurance Technologies’ ForeSight™, the application that manages all point-of-sale activities from a single platform, is being utilized by UNIFI to integrate asset allocation models, provide product training wizards, offer sales strategies and sales concepts, generate story boards, provide opportunity to integrate electronic applications, and to clearly present their differentiating product features and benefits. 

Insurance Technologies’ ForeSight™ Mobility helps new field producers, or those with limited annuity exposure, provide clients with focused product information. The ForeSight™ platform is designed to help producers educate clients and compel positive action, which will develop a producer's business. ForeSight™ Mobility also assists producers with two other essential tasks: creating actuarial onscreen quick views with monthly and yearly values and providing templates to create reporting sales kits.

“In order to compete in today’s annuity market, we need an Annuity specialty system to differentiate our unique product features along with an opened technology platform that allows us to expand electronic services to producers as ‘easy to do business’.   ForeSight™ Mobility meets our needs.” said Eric Tang, Annuity Software Manager.  “It’s crucial that every resource we create for producers to move the sales process along is simple to understand. Insurance Technologies’ ForeSight™ gives us the ability to deliver concise tools that innovatively demonstrate our product’s unique attributes, and make them easy to sell.”

“Insurance Technologies’ ForeSight™ gives UNIFI the type of innovative and impressive presence that will differentiate them in the marketplace, said Paul Skordilis, EVP, Worldwide Sales and Marketing at Insurance Technologies. “Our tools easily and effectively showcase UNIFI’s unique, client-focused attributes and create more informed clients and productive producers.” 

About Insurance Technologies (www.insurancetechnologies.com)

Based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Insurance Technologies, LLC offers point-of-sale illustration software to the insurance and financial services industries. Insurance Technologies award-winning product, ForeSight™, supports all product types, including Life, Health, Annuities, Mutual funds, Critical Illness, DI, and LTC – all on a single mobile platform.

About UNIFI Companies

The UNIFI Companies—Ameritas Life, Acacia Life, Union Central Life and their affiliated companies—offer a wide range of insurance and financial products and services to individuals, families and businesses. These products and services include: life insurance, annuities, individual disability insurance, group dental and eye care insurance, retirement plans, investments, banking and public finance. To learn more, visit the UNIFI Companies web site at www.UNIFIcompanies.com.

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In June and July, six new insurance organizations signed contracts with ImageRight, a leading provider of insurance-focused data imaging, content management and workflow solutions. These organizations represent many different types of companies, including property/casualty carriers, agencies, medical malpractice insurers, and brokers, further demonstrating ImageRight’s knowledge and understanding of, as well as penetration into, all areas of the insurance industry.   

“Agencies, brokerages and carriers alike are handling more data than ever before,” said Don Elias, president of ImageRight.  “Dealing with such an influx of paperwork and information on a daily basis demands the functionality a system such as ImageRight can provide to handle data imaging, content management and workflow faster and more efficiently.”

Companies who recently purchased the ImageRight system include:

·         Concorde General Agency – was founded in 1981, and it has grown from a startup general agency based in Fargo, ND to an organization serving over 1,600 independent agencies in eleven states with written premium in excess of $20,000,000. www.cgains.com

·         Sullivan Group – is a Los Angeles, CA-based privately-held consortium of independent, insurance-related brokerage companies handling professional liability insurance programs, as well as retail and wholesale activities in the areas of property and casualty, life, employee benefits, and structured settlements. www.gjs.com

·         HCC Service Company – is the corporate services subsidiary of HCC Insurance Holdings, a specialty insurance provider based in Houston, TX.  www.hcch.com

·         West Virginia Mutual Insurance Company - is the only non-profit, member-owned medical liability insurance company in West Virginia formed to provide a viable option for West Virginia physicians to obtain medical liability insurance coverage. www.wvmic.com

·          LIG Management Services, Inc. – is a Fort Lee, NJ-based management company owned and created by LIG Insurance Co., Ltd., in the fall of 2005. Today, the company operates in three states – California, New Jersey, and New York on an admitted basis. www.liginsurancegroup.com

·          Sterling Casualty Insurance Company – is a subsidiary of H&H Agency, a managing general agent that originally marketed personal automobile physical damage policies intended for drivers that had difficulty obtaining affordable insurance due to too many tickets or accidents. Sterling Casualty initially offered physical damage policies, but in 1986 expanded its product offerings to include personal automobile liability insurance.  http://hhagency.com

The recently-published Insurance Software Deal Trends Study 2005-2006 by Craig Weber and Ashley Evans of Celent LLC surveyed insurers about software purchases in the categories of core processing, distribution, document/content management, and infrastructure.  The study found significantly more deals taking place in the document/content management area and states that “document management issues continue to be a top priority for most carriers.” 

With more than 380 clients in the insurance industry, ImageRight is uniquely positioned to solve the data imaging, content management and workflow problems of companies operating in this space. 

For more information about this release or any of ImageRight’s products and services, please visit the ImageRight website at www.imageright.com, or contact us via phone at 770-860-0065 or email at inquiry@imageright.com.

About ImageRight

Conyers, Ga.-based ImageRight is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vertafore, Inc., a leading provider of specialized software solutions and information for the insurance industry. ImageRight provides complete document and content management solutions coupled with advanced workflow automation that is scalable for insurance operations of all sizes, and that has been implemented at more than 380 companies within the insurance industry. For more information, please visit ImageRight on the web at www.imageright.com, or contact an ImageRight professional via phone at (770) 860-0065 or via email at inquiry@imageright.com.

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AQS®, Inc., a leading provider of commercial policy administration solutions for property and casualty insurers, has announced a licensing agreement with General Casualty Insurance, an 82-year-old auto, home and business insurer based in Sun Prairie, Wis.                                                                    

Through the agreement, AQS will provide General Casualty with its exclusive AQS/advantage™ solution- a comprehensive commercial lines policy administration system, as well as AQS/advantage Integrator, a back-end administrative tool used to monitor the ETL process, providing the client success/failure notifications to their target back-end systems.                                                       

AQS/advantage will be used to facilitate internal processing needs and services for the company’s external clients.  General Casualty serves more than 1,500 agents based in 25 states, and has 1,800 employees in 15 states.

General Casualty chose the AQS/advantage system after a thorough evaluation.  The systems’ ability to address integration requirements with other General Casualty systems and its “production ready” implementation convinced company officials to license the AQS system.  “The evaluation also involved ‘hands-on’ demonstrations, technology meetings and reference checks. Our team dug deep in the system.  We liked the intuitiveness, functionality, and the fact that they have multiple clients in production,” states Richard Kalina, General Casualty’s Senior Vice President of Commercial Lines.

“Through the use of Web services, XML and .NET technologies, the AQS/advantage solution is technically compatible with our environment.  It met our criteria for architecture and flexibility, and it allows integration with current and future customer facing systems,” said Peter Logothetis, General Casualty’s Senior Vice President and CIO – QBE Regional Insurance.               

“We are pleased that General Casualty chose AQS to be its policy administration solution partner,” stated David Kerford, President and CEO of AQS. “As we went through the evaluation process, we came to understand that we would work well together and form the kind of partnership that will ultimately lead to greater success for General Casualty. We are already off to a very good start.”

General Casualty Insurance Companies is rated A (Excellent) by insurance analyst A.M. Best.  Founded in 1925, the company reported direct written premiums of $1.15 billion in 2006.  Additional information on the company is available on the company’s Web site http://www.generalcasualty.com/             

About AQS, Inc.
Since 1979, AQS has provided leading policy administration solutions for commercial property and casualty insurance carriers. In addition to its innovative Web-centric product, AQS/advantage™, and integration solution, AQS/advantage™ Integrator, AQS provides diverse professional service solutions to 35+ insurance companies throughout the United States. AQS/advantage™ supports all transactions for all commercial lines of business, in all states. The system is architected for scalability and leverages the Internet and innovative technologies such as Web services and .NET to automate and shorten the entire policy transaction lifecycle. AQS is a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner.  For more information on AQS and the AQS/advantage product suite, please contact AQS or call Nancy Hines at 262.369.7500. Web site: http://www.aqssys.com/.

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WAUSAU’s industry-leading, web-based Remote Corporate Capture solution, WebDDL®, continues to grow its functionality with its newest release.  WebDDL® provides financial institutions and corporate customers increased opportunities within both the B2B and C2B markets, as well as enhanced web-based capabilities, with its latest version.  WAUSAU, the industry leader in Remote Corporate Capture, provides payments, remittance and enterprise content management technology for leading financial institutions and corporations.

With this latest release, WAUSAU is extending its recognized position as “best of breed” in the industry.  WAUSAU was previously named “best of breed” among Remote Corporate Capture solutions reviewed by Boston-based Celent in the respected analyst firm’s Remote Deposit Capture Vendors: Crossing the Chasm report.  Based on its advanced technology and breadth of features categories, WAUSAU is designated the overall performance leader.

The current release of the web-based application enhances a financial institution’s Remote Corporate Capture offerings, increasing revenue development opportunities within the C2B and B2B markets.  The new WebDDL® release includes expanded ACH capabilities for enhanced decisioning and ease of integration.  This offering also includes new options for remote wholesale lockbox processing, with enhanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, featuring full-page document scanning capabilities for invoices and customer correspondence that may accompany a customer payments.

WAUSAU’s solution enhancements include an expanded web-based training tool with an interactive multimedia simulation for application and scanner functions.  This feature allows corporate clients to be more independent and reduces training support calls for the institution.

WAUSAU’s Remote Corporate Capture suite boasts a scalable architecture that is easy to deploy to meet market demands.  The strength of WAUSAU’s holistic Remote Corporate Capture vision and integrated platform provides the ability to offer solutions to a wide breadth of markets, including customer deposits, retail and business-to-business payments and “white label” correspondent bank services. 

“Financial institutions of all sizes have tremendous opportunities to build new revenue streams through expanding their Remote Corporate Capture opportunities,” said Nancy Langer, President - Enterprise Financial Solutions for WAUSAU.  “At WAUSAU, we offer the most advanced and experienced Remote Corporate Capture solution designed to fit the needs of all customers across diverse industries and business sizes, from small businesses to large corporate clients.  We continue to make significant investments into the enhancement of our solution, to meet the evolving market demands and serve the growing needs of our current and future customers.”

WAUSAU’s web-based solution enables financial institutions to speed the implementation of Remote Corporate Capture with lower upfront investments, increased performance and reduced deployment costs.  WAUSAU offers both an in-house and ASP offering with a defined migration path for customers that want to get to market quickly with an ASP and then move in-house as volumes grow.

About WAUSAU

WAUSAU is a premier provider of payment and remittance processing solutions, serving businesses of all types to develop strategies that move money faster.  With its products, services and consulting, WAUSAU works with customers to speed check processing, electronic presentment, ACH payments, transaction processing, distributed capture and enterprise content management. WAUSAU’s innovative solutions provide results for a wide range of organizations, including financial institutions, insurance companies, utilities, retail businesses and governmental agencies.  Find more information about WAUSAU at www.wausaufs.com.

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Open architecture solution will support credit union’s growth

Sunshine Coast Credit Union, located in British Columbia, Canada, has selected Open Solutions Inc.®’s The Complete Credit Union Solution® as its core banking system. The credit union will complement the core solution with Open Solutions’ Financial Accounting Suite and cView™ knowledge centre modules MyVision™ and ReportWizard™. A long-time Open Solutions Canada client, Sunshine Coast Credit Union will continue to run its data processing through the company’s Vancouver-based data centre.

Sunshine Coast Credit Union is a full-service financial institution that has assets exceeding $295 million CAD and serves more than 14,000 members through branches located in three communities on British Columbia’s “Sunshine Coast,” located just north of Vancouver.

Dale Eichar, CEO of Sunshine Coast Credit Union, said, “Competition for market share among financial institutions in this area is fierce. We’re all striving to become the financial institution of choice for a broadly diverse population and that calls for flexibility and innovation in product and service offerings. In this respect, I believe the credit union has the edge over its competitors due to our local decision-making and local control. That said, we need the technology to be able to capitalize on this ability to be responsive and creative in delivering our products and services. We believe Open Solutions’ banking system meets that technology need.” According to Eichar, the key advantage of Open Solutions’ technology over other systems is the open architecture that makes it so adaptable to rapidly changing business requirements. “We need a technology platform that will keep pace with our growth and evolution. Open Solutions’ Oracle®-based database architecture gives us a system we can build on,” Eichar said.     

Built on a single, centralized Oracle® database, The Complete Credit Union Solution’s open architecture and member-centric platform are designed to help credit unions streamline both front- and back-office applications with a focus on improving member service. Open Solutions’ powerful financial accounting suite is an industry-leading product used by financial institutions of all sizes throughout North America to address their accounting needs. The MyVision and ReportWizard applications are tools to help credit unions focus their marketing efforts by better understanding their members’ needs.

 “We are very pleased Sunshine Coast Credit Union is continuing its long-time relationship with Open Solutions Canada and has selected Open Solutions’ technology to support its business and growth strategies,” said Open Solutions Canada President, Blair Goulet. “We know our clients are facing significant competitive challenges, not only from traditional financial services providers but also from new entrants into the Canadian financial services industry. Open Solutions Canada is proud to have been selected to help Sunshine Coast Credit Union to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities for growth in the communities it serves and become the financial institution that leads the competition.”

Open Solutions Chairman and CEO Louis Hernandez, Jr., said, “Sunshine Coast Credit Union has been client of Open Solutions Canada for many years and we are very pleased our association will continue in the future. We value the credit union’s business, but above all, we value its loyalty. Open Solutions is committed to delivering the ‘vision, technology and service’ to help Sunshine Coast Credit Union achieve its goals.”

About Open Solutions Inc.
Open Solutions Inc. offers a fully featured strategic product platform that integrates core data processing applications built on a single centralized Oracle relational database, with Internet banking, cash management, CRM/business intelligence, financial accounting tools, imaging, digital documents, Check 21, interactive voice response, network services, Web hosting and design, payments and loan origination solutions. Open Solutions’ full suite of products and services allows banks, thrifts, credit unions and financial services providers in the United States, Canada and internationally to better compete in today’s aggressive financial services marketplace, and expand and tap their trusted financial relationships, client affinity, community presence and personalized service.

For more information about Open Solutions or its financial product line, contact Mickey Goldwasser by email at mgoldwasser@opensolutions.com by phone at 860.652.3153 or via fax at 860.652.3156. Visit Open Solutions’ Internet site at www.opensolutions.com.

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Vertafore CEO Euan Menzies Speaks About ImageRight Formula for Success

ImageRight, a leading provider of insurance-focused data imaging, content management and workflow solutions, recently held their biennial user group conference July 24-26, 2007 at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta, GA.  

During the opening general session, ImageRight President Don Elias spoke about the company’s continuing commitment to providing second-to-none customer service and an industry-leading insurance-specific document management solution. Vertafore CEO Euan Menzies also helped to kick off the event with a brief statement.

“We are very proud to include ImageRight in the Vertafore family,” said Menzies of the April acquisition of ImageRight by Vertafore. “And I want to take some of the ImageRight ‘magic’ that I have seen so far and translate that back to the other companies that we own.”

Over 800 insurance company, agency, brokerage, MGA and reinsurance professionals attended this year’s event and took part in nearly 30 sessions and roundtable discussions in business and technology tracks on topics including reporting and metrics, straight-through processing, business continuity, remote access, and insurance industry trends. 

Attendees were encouraged to network with peers and learn about new ImageRight features and solutions in a fully-staffed lab with more than 100 desktops running the ImageRight system.  Additionally, ImageRight held its inaugural meeting of their User Advisory Council, a group comprised of ten ImageRight clients in various segments of the insurance industry who will give feedback and suggestions about improvements to the system and who will help prioritize future upgrades and direction the company and product should take in the future to meet the needs of insurance industry clients on an ongoing basis.

“It is an honor to participate as a member of ImageRight’s User Advisory Council,” said Bob Robertson, vice president and director of IT business analysis for White Mountains Re Services, LLC, Folksamerica Reinsurance, a White Mountains Re Company that deployed ImageRight in 2004. “Like the User Group Conference, the User Advisory Council is just another example of how ImageRight strives to meet the needs of not only customers, but the insurance industry as well.”

Each year, ImageRight contributes $1,000 to the Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA) for each new insurance client signed in honor of Kerry Bardorf, a former ImageRight employee who passed away in 2005 from pulmonary hypertension (PH).  At this year’s user group conference, an additional $11,500 was raised by ImageRight and their clients to support PHA’s efforts and research toward finding treatments or a cure for this debilitating disease. 

In addition, ImageRight announced the cities where next year’s regional user group conferences will be held.  Next year’s locations include Atlanta, Atlantic City, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas and Orlando.

For additional information about this release or any of ImageRight’s products and services, please visit the ImageRight website at www.imageright.com, or contact us via phone at 770-860-0065 or email at inquiry@imageright.com.

About Advanced Solutions, Inc. – ImageRight

Advanced Solutions, Inc. provides insurance-focused data imaging, content management and workflow systems that deliver unprecedented productivity gains and customer service improvements to more than three hundred companies.  The ImageRight system provides companies with complete document and content management, coupled with advanced workflow automation that is scalable for insurance operations of all sizes.  The company is located in Conyers, Georgia, and on the Web at www.imageright.com.  Readers may contact ImageRight by phone at (770) 860-0065, or by e-mail at inquiry@imageright.com.

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QuickSolver Reports Manager developed using Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services

INSTEC, a leading provider of rating and policy administration software for the insurance industry and experts in integrated solution delivery, announced the availability of QuickSolver^® Reports Manager, a new ad-hoc reporting tool for the QuickSolver rating and policy administration software. 

The QuickSolver Reports Manager allows users the ability to view and export policy data in real time without requiring technical expertise. It includes thirty reports, each of which can be easily modified by the client, filtered and grouped to meet unique reporting requirements. Parameters are easy to set and can be saved for future use.  Reports can also be exported to Microsoft Excel for further analysis as well as to PDFs for archiving and distribution.

Some reports include: 

·                   Full plan bureau statistical coding data

·                   Detailed policy data (e.g.  premiums by coverage, class code, limit, territory)

·                   Policy forms, form groups, and form order

·                   Rating data (e.g.  LCMs, revisions, deviations)

Reports developed by INSTEC will be maintained across product and bureau updates, as part of the QuickSolver maintenance program.

Mark Strelau, Director, Products Technology stated, “INSTEC is proud to have delivered this mission critical tool to our clients.  Data accessibility issues have plagued our industry for a long time, and achieving real time, flexible ad hoc capabilities was a business imperative we recognized.   As a Microsoft Gold Partner, we actively seek to implement industry standard technologies into our application, and SQL Server Reporting Services is just the latest addition to our robust technology suite.”

About INSTEC

Founded in 1982, INSTEC provides carriers and MGAs with comprehensive “best-of-breed” rating and policy issuance software designed for the dynamic nature of Commercial Lines.  As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, INSTEC continues to demonstrate their expertise in Microsoft technologies and their commitment to deliver insurance software solutions that meet the high standards expected from software products developed for Microsoft platforms, including .NET.

For more information on INSTEC, please call 630-955-9200 or visit our website at www.instec-corp.com

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4th Story, a leading provider of automated and algorithmic trading software to institutions, hedge funds and broker-dealers, announced that trading strategists using 4S.Everglades™ can now connect to Hotspot FXi  for spot foreign exchange trading.

4S.Everglades, 4th Story’s innovative high-performance strategy trading platform, can directly access live, streaming, executable market data from Hotspot FXi’s ECN-structured marketplace. Trading strategies implemented on the 4th Story multi-asset, multi currency platform can be configured to include Hotspot FXi among the venues from which they receive live market data and on which they automatically place and execute orders.

“Integration with Hotspot FXi continues our ongoing efforts to give our customers the options and flexibility to create and operate the automated and algorithmic trading strategies that will give them a competitive advantage,” said Steven Smith, Chief Executive Officer of 4th Story. “Strategists can target FX itself or add an FX element to models based on other asset classes like equities and futures.”

About 4th Story (www.4thstory.com)
4th Story, LLC’s suite of software quickly enables and manages automated trading opportunities for brokers, hedge funds and institutional traders. The company's products give the user the power of rapid testing and implementation of arbitrarily complex quantitative, algorithmic and automated trading strategies.
  
About Hotspot FX, Inc. (www.hotspotfx.com)
Hotspot FX, Inc. operates leading spot FX ECN marketplaces for institutional and retail market participants respectively. Both marketplaces support client bidding and offering and anonymous, instantaneous, direct-access trading on live, executable, prices streamed by leading foreign exchange banks and financial institutions. Hotspot FXi is the top-rated multibank FX trading platform in the key execution speed category of the 2007 Euromoney Foreign Exchange Survey. It has won this award for three consecutive years.

Hotspot FX provides connectivity to trade and order management systems, market data vendors and other platforms via their LiveLink® proprietary API, which supports a FIX gateway as well as other connectivity protocols. 

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New Customers Turn to WAUSAU for Innovative Remittance Payment Processing

WAUSAU, the industry leader in remittance processing, announced that the organization has added almost one dozen new competitive replacement customers since the beginning of the year.  Through the addition of these new replacement customers switching to the WAUSAU’s industry-leading ImageRPS application, WAUSAU continues to add remittance transaction volume to its industry-leading market share position for retail, wholesale and wholetail lockbox operations.

Recent replacement wins include a large Midwestern utility company, a Southeastern charitable organization, a Nebraska-based national bank, a California county government entity, a large Vermont-based financial institution and a large Southern telecommunications company.  With the addition of these competitive replacement customers, the total estimated number of remittance transactions being processed by WAUSAU lockbox technology will exceed 100 million annually.

The new competitive replacement customers secured in 2007 continue to solidify the strength and position WAUSAU holds in the remittance processing industry.  Even as check payment volumes continue to decline, WAUSAU continues to realize growth in its remittance solutions business. With more and more competitive replacement customers turning to a WAUSAU solution, WAUSAU now realizes over one-third of the market share in both the retail and wholesale lockbox environments.

“The significant number of replacement system transactions WAUSAU has added to date in 2007 speaks clearly to the confidence our new and existing customers have in our remittance solutions, which continue to be the most technologically advanced in the industry,” said Patrick Brzezinski, Vice President – WAUSAU Remittance Solutions.  “Overall, the remittance industry is stable and does not indicate a significant amount of growth in the future, but here at WAUSAU, we continually increase our client base as customers make the switch to the WAUSAU remittance solution.  Our customers trust that WAUSAU is staying abreast of the ever-changing payments landscape and continually enhancing our technology.”

WAUSAU’s ImageRPS solution offers advanced transaction technology that is flexible and scalable for the customer, whether an organization receives recurring business or personal checks, partial- or full-remittance payments, or single check or full-page transactions.  WAUSAU customers continue to dominate the industry in Accounts Receivable Conversion (ARC) and annually generate more than 35% of all ARC transactions on the ImageRPS application.

About WAUSAU

WAUSAU is a premier provider of payment and remittance processing solutions, serving businesses of all types to develop strategies that move money faster.  With its products, services and consulting, WAUSAU works with customers to speed check processing, electronic presentment, ACH payments, transaction processing, distributed capture and enterprise content management.  WAUSAU’s innovative solutions provide results for a wide range of organizations including financial institutions, insurance companies, utilities, retail businesses and governmental agencies.  Find more information about WAUSAU at www.wausaufs.com.

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Arkansas Bankers’ Bank now has private correspondent banking alternative for respondents

LendingTools.com, a leading application service provider (ASP) for correspondent and community financial institutions, announced that Arkansas Bankers’ Bank has licensed the rights to become a Community Host for the OnWe Network^® created by LendingTools.com.

“Arkansas Bankers’ Bank has become an OnWe Network Community Host as part of our efforts to continually increase efficiency and lower operating costs for our respondents,” said James N. Thomason, president and CEO of Arkansas Bankers’ Bank. “In a broader perspective, the Bank now offers a private correspondent banking alternative for our respondents. They now have the cost saving opportunity to completely replace their FedLine Advantage connection with lower cost Arkansas Bankers’ Bank services.”

Arkansas Bankers’ Bank has seen the majority of their 150 respondents adopt image technology over the past year to enhance their customer service and lower their operating costs. Becoming a Community Host for the OnWe Network will now allow the flexibility for each of its respondents to choose the clearing route best suited to their needs.

The OnWe Network differs from national image exchange models by enabling a local approach to meeting the exchange needs of community banks. A bank’s “on us” payments are the least expensive payments to settle because both the payer and the payee are customers of the same bank. With the OnWe Network, a bank can use a similar process with trading partners to save on expenses by conducting the entire clearing and settlement process within the group of banks served by the Community Host.

"Arkansas Bankers’ Bank is a prime example of the privatization of correspondent banking," said Eric Goering, president and CEO of LendingTools.com. "There are substantial efficiencies and savings to be found in localized service offerings. LendingTools.com’s Private Correspondent Suite provides a private labeled platform for all correspondent banks to privatize their service offerings. The OnWe Network component of the Suite is specifically designed to reach thousands of community financial institutions through correspondent institutions. For the national banks needing to reach these community banks, the OnWe Network is the last mile for image exchange."

About LendingTools.com

LendingTools.com, Inc. specializes in the design and delivery of web-based applications for the financial services industry and delivers them through correspondent processing organizations. Its OnWe Network provides a low cost option for community bank image exchange through a series of OnWe Network Community Hosts. Over 25 per cent of the nations’ banks utilize one or more LendingTools.com services daily to originate and process ACH, wire, and imaged check transactions valued in excess of one billion dollars. The last mile for image exchange is a registered service mark of LendingTools.com. A privately-held corporation, LendingTools.com was founded by and is operated by bankers. Please visit www.OnWe.com and www.LendingTools.com for more information.

About Arkansas Bankers’ Bank

Arkansas Bankers’ Bank, chartered on April 17, 1990, currently serves approximately 150 Arkansas Community Banks by offering Cash Letter Services, Investments, Portfolio Accounting, Safekeeping, Loan Participations, Fed Fund Purchases and Sales plus many other services. Since 1990, ABB has been able to extend correspondent services while lowering overall costs to the Community Banks. Please visit www.arbankersbank.com for more information.

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Report reveals vendor leadership in insurance industry, ECM marketplace 

Hyland Software Inc., developer of the OnBase^® enterprise content management (ECM) software suite, announced that they have been recognized as a leading provider of ECM software solutions for insurers in the June 2007 report, “Insurance Software Deal Trends” by Boston-based Celent, LLC.  Hyland was named as a leading provider in the ECM category in both the Property/Casualty and Life/Health versions of the report.  Vendor ratings were based on each company’s reported insurance deal volume in 2005 and 2006.

“Celent’s recognition of Hyland Software in the 2007 Insurance Software Deal Trends report underscores our commitment to developing ECM software solutions that deliver substantial business value and return on investment for insurance organizations.” said Bill Premier, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Hyland Software.

Celent also named Hyland Software as a "Traction Index" leader in the reports. The Traction Index is a weighted score that measures the volume and type of deals that software companies made during 2005 and 2006. "Leaders in our Traction Index are demonstrating strong market momentum among insurers, which gives them the kind of experience that many carriers are looking for," says Craig Weber, Celent senior analyst and author of the report.

Hyland’s OnBase ECM solution allows insurers to control, manage and improve internal business processes. With more than 200 insurance customers, OnBase was recently selected by Accident Fund Insurance Company of America of Lansing, Mich., Gulfshore Insurance of Naples, Fla. and Aioi Insurance Co. of Toyko, Japan.  OnBase solutions have been deployed at more than 6,600 organizations worldwide to help these businesses operate more effectively and efficiently.

About Hyland Software Inc.

Established in 1991, Hyland Software Inc. is the developer of OnBase, a rapidly deployable suite of enterprise content management (ECM) software applications. OnBase is a leading solution for optimizing content-driven business processes throughout insurance enterprises. More than 200 insurance customers use OnBase’s document imaging, process automation and content management capabilities to enhance process throughput, increase operating margins, improve customer service and minimize organizational risk.  For more information about OnBase, please contact an Authorized OnBase Solution Provider or visit www.onbase.com

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Move Solidifies Company’s Position as a Dominant, Vertically Focused Software Provider and Continues Its Global Expansion Serving Insurance and Other Key Industries

Skywire Software and Whitehill Technologies, two leading global providers of software and services for insurance, financial services, legal, and professional services, announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Skywire Software will acquire Whitehill Technologies, Inc.  Terms of the transaction, which is expected to be complete on or before August 31, 2007, were not disclosed. 

The acquisition of Whitehill will solidify Skywire Software’s position as a dominant, vertically focused software company and continue its aggressive global expansion in serving insurance, financial services and other key, high-growth industries.  Whitehill provides document and compliance software that helps insurance carriers, law firms and other companies improve efficiency and speed of key business processes.  Based in Moncton, New Brunswick, Whitehill is a privately-held, profitable company with a major center in Markham, Ontario, and offices in the U.S. and U.K.  With the acquisition of Whitehill, Skywire Software will employ more than 650 employees and serve nearly 2,500 customers in 45 countries.

“This acquisition anchors our position as a leading provider of key software applications to insurers of all sizes and across all segments of the insurance industry,” said Patrick Brandt, president and chief executive officer of Skywire Software.   “Whitehill offers an attractive complementary customer base and performance-driven talent.  It fits well with our goal of providing the best customer service and technology in the industry, furthers our presence in key vertical markets, and enhances our presence on a global basis.”

Whitehill serves more than half of the largest insurance companies in North America.  The company’s document automation and regulatory compliance software complements Skywire Software’s portfolio of  software applications and services that assist insurers in managing the lifecycle of a policy. 

Skywire Software’s enterprise-wide products span a range of key functions including rating and underwriting, policy production and correspondence, real-time data exchange and business intelligence.  Customers also leverage the deep domain knowledge and expertise of Skywire Software’s professional services team and its state-of-the-art Business Process Outsourcing facilities.  Currently, Skywire Software serves more than 1,000 insurance companies.

According to industry research and advisory firm, Celent LLC, document management accounts for four of the top five categories tracking in software deals in the insurance industry.  This acquisition positions Skywire Software as a leader in a highly-fragmented market.

Skywire Software’s vertical focus will expand to include legal and professional services. Over the past decade Whitehill has provided billing, reporting, workflow, and process integration software and services tailored to the specialized needs of these sectors. Whitehill currently serves more than 750 legal and professional services organizations, including two thirds of the world’s 250 largest law firms.

“It’s incredible the number of synergies between Skywire Software and Whitehill’s offerings, customers and employees, “ said Paul McSpurren, president and chief executive officer of Whitehill Technologies.  “We look forward to combining with Skywire Software to continue serving the legal and insurance markets, and building one of the top vertically focused software companies fueled by innovation, talent and a drive to provide outstanding customer service.”

Current Whitehill customers should expect business to continue without interruption. The shared vision to build upon the domain expertise, process knowledge and service delivery success of the combined companies was a key driver of the acquisition.  The transaction continues Skywire Software’s aggressive expansion, which has been fueled by organic growth and through nine previous acquisitions during the past four years.  Earlier this year, Skywire Software completed the acquisitions of both Docucorp International and Integrated Insurance Technologies.  Skywire Software is a privately-held subsidiary of Hall Financial Group, a $2 billion private, diversified firm.

About Skywire Software

Skywire Software is a leading software company serving the insurance, health care, utility, and financial services industries.  The Company develops industry-specific software products that help companies integrate processes, people and information. With products and services that span a range of key functions, including rating, rules, underwriting, business intelligence, agency management, data movement, and enterprise-wide document automation, Skywire Software is dedicated to providing an unparalleled customer experience to more than 1,600 customers worldwide.  For more information, contact Skywire Software at 1-800-735-6620 or visit www.skywiresoftware.com.

About Whitehill Technologies Inc.

Whitehill Technologies, Inc. develops and implements document and compliance automation solutions that help customers accelerate key business processes. More than 1,000 customers in 45 countries have used Whitehill software, including half the largest 100 insurers in North America and two thirds of the largest 250 law firms in the world. Headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, Whitehill is a privately held company in Canada, the United States and the UK. For more information, please call 1-888-944-8344 or visit www.whitehilltech.com.

About Hall Financial Group

Founded in 1968, Hall Financial Group is owned by Chairman Craig Hall and family. Diversified holdings include active operations in commercial real estate development, ownership and management; software application development, principally for the insurance industry; structured finance lending for real estate and other areas; vineyards and wineries; and oil and gas. In addition, the company maintains a portfolio of approximately $1.5 billion in stocks, bonds and venture capital investments in a broad range of industries, including a substantial ownership position in American Airlines (AMR). For more information, visit www.hallfinancial.com.

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Connecture, Inc., the leading provider of Web-based sales, service, and process automation solutions to the health insurance industry, has moved Network Health Plan into production with its InsureConnect EZ solution in less than five months. Network Health Plan signed on with Connecture in January 2007 to automate its small group health plan administration. Network Health Plan, located in Menasha, Wis., has been providing comprehensive health care coverage to Northeast Wisconsin companies for more than 25 years, and is a member of Affinity Health System.

Network Health Plan purchased several InsureConnect Products including InsureConnect Quoting, InsureConnect Rating, InsureConnect Enrollment and Installation, and InsureConnect Renewal. Connecture and Network Health Plan agreed on a phased implementation approach to provide Network Health Plan exceptional speed to market, and InsureConnect Products Quoting and Rating went live May 23. The remaining products will be implemented by first quarter of next year.

Network Health Plan rolled the system out internally first and brought its agent and broker community online in June. Some of their key producers, after having their first look at InsureConnect EZ, commented on how easy it is to use and how it would increase the speed and accuracy of generating quotes. “Our agents and brokers are looking forward to the competitive advantage InsureConnect EZ will give them by providing online access to professional quote proposals within minutes,” stated Richard Bond, Vice President, Sales, at Network Health Plan.

The movement to online sales, enrollment, and processing is part of Affinity Health System’s corporate Web strategy to make it easy for customers to do business with them. The productivity and efficiency improvements will afford producers more time to sell, including cross-selling and up-selling. Bond said, “The increased production from utilizing InsureConnect EZ will significantly impact our sales and profitability, and provide agents and brokers more time to pursue sales opportunities that can further improve our bottom line.”

Network Health Plan is Connecture’s first health plan client in the less than 100,000 member range, which is the market segment Connecture was targeting when they initially decided to develop InsureConnect EZ. “We’re very pleased that the first phase of the InsureConnect EZ implementation at Network Health Plan came in under budget and was completed early to prove that we have a solution that truly does offer speed to market and a quick return on investment,” said Dan Maynard, president and CEO at Connecture. “Our extensive industry experience, staff of experts, and reliable product suite helped us provide Network Health Plan an InsureConnect EZ implementation that will improve producer satisfaction and help them attract and retain more members.”

About Network Health Plan

Network Health Plan has achieved Excellent accreditation status from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the highest possible level. It is ranked 41st among the 257 rated health plans in the nation in terms of customer satisfaction and clinical performance, according to the U.S. News and World Report/NCQA Best Health Plans in America listing. It is a member of Affinity Health System, a Catholic mission-oriented regional health care network. Affinity Health System is the Fox Valley's third largest employer, according to the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and is ranked number 29 in the top 100 Integrated Health Care Networks nationwide (Verispan 2007). Other members of Affinity Health System include Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Health Foundation, Oshkosh; Franciscan Care & Rehabilitation Center, St. Elizabeth Hospital and the St. Elizabeth Hospital Community Foundation, Appleton; Affinity Medical Group, a regional network of 26 family medicine and specialty clinics in 13 communities; Calumet Medical Center, Chilton; and Affinity Occupational Health.

About Connecture

Connecture is solely focused on delivering integrated Web-based sales, service, and process automation solutions to the health insurance industry. Connecture has automated elements of the insurance sales and service process for over 70 health plans and insurers, and its InsureConnect suite of solutions currently supports the sales and servicing of 10 of the 20 largest health plans and insurers in the country. Its industry-proven solutions encompass the entire spectrum of multi-channel insurance sales and services for small group, large group and individual markets. Connecture offers an end-to-end business process transaction platform consisting of focused modular applications that fully integrate with existing legacy systems. Connecture’s solutions have proven to deliver increased sales, enhanced broker loyalty, improved back-office efficiencies, lower customer acquisition costs, and lower overall operating expenses. For more information, call Megan Moyer at 262.408.3866 or visit the Connecture Web site at www.connecture.com. Connecture has offices at 101 Marietta Street, Suite 1700, Atlanta, GA, and at One Riverwood Place, N17W24222 Riverwood Drive, Suite 330, Waukesha, WI.

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AMS Services, the leader in insurance agency automation, announced that Barnard Donegan Insurance, a full-service insurance agency based in Seguin, Texas, is using AMS 360 to improve efficiency and increase productivity across its five locations.

Barnard Donegan Insurance, established in 1911, prides itself as being "the one you can depend on" and services the insurance needs of more than 8,500 individuals and families and 1,500 businesses from five separate locations. They needed an agency management system that gave them control and a comprehensive view of all five of its locations so they decided to make a move from AMS AfW to AMS 360 Online. By switching to an online solution, the agency reduced paper costs by 50 percent, gained immediate access to information across all offices and saved 180 minutes a day previously spent at individual insurance company websites.

"Because AMS 360 is online, it allows us to incorporate all our locations. Our customer service representatives can be anywhere and have access to the system," said Bruce Barnard, president and CEO of Barnard Donegan Insurance. "AMS 360 really helped improve our agency's efficiency and effectiveness. It is hard to remember life before AMS 360."

"Customers like Barnard Donegan Insurance are why we continually strive to make our solutions better," said Bill Bunker, senior vice president of products and marketing at AMS Services. "No matter how long a company has been a customer, we strive to make technical innovations that allow them to be successful and grow their business."

About AMS Services
Vertafore, Inc d/b/a AMS Services is dedicated to helping independent insurance agencies achieve maximum performance and operational efficiency. The business offers a comprehensive, insurance-specific solution for managing critical business activities, including agency management, rating, benefits, performance management and carrier connectivity. With more than 150,000 users in more than 15,000 agencies, as well as 600 carrier partners, AMS Services is a proven market leader providing the strategy and scalability to help independent agencies, MGAs and wholesale brokers excel now and in the future. For more information about AMS Services, please visit www.amsservices.com.

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