21ST CENTURY UPGRADING AUTO INSURER FORGES AHEAD ON SOFTWARE.Byline: Evan Pondel Staff Writer WOODLAND HILLS - 21st Century Insurance will spend at least $35.6 million to emerge from a botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. software upgrade that already has cost the auto insurer An individual or company who, through a contractual agreement, undertakes to compensate specified losses, liability, or damages incurred by another individual. An insurer is frequently an insurance company and is also known as an underwriter. $37.2 million. The Woodland Hills-based company is in the process of transforming its automated au·to·mate v. au·to·mat·ed, au·to·mat·ing, au·to·mates v.tr. 1. To convert to automatic operation: automate a factory. 2. policy system for greater efficiency. ``And this is not off-the- shelf technology, so it has to be built using internal resources and external resources,'' Dan Cohen cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. , a spokesman for the company, said Wednesday afternoon. Last December, the auto insurer, seeking more than $100 million from Computer Sciences Corp., initiated arbitration arbitration Process of resolving a dispute or a grievance outside a court system by presenting it for decision to an impartial third party. Both sides in the dispute usually must agree in advance to the choice of arbitrator and certify that they will abide by the proceedings against the software company. Bruce Bruce, Scottish royal family descended from an 11th-century Norman duke, Robert de Brus. He aided William I in his conquest of England (1066) and was given lands in England. Marlow, 21st Century president and chief executive officer, said at the time that it had become evident in the third quarter of 2002, through a series of tests and reviews, that components of a new software system were not performing at levels necessary to support the entire operations of the company. ``The company spent nearly $100 million on this project, most of which was paid directly to the software development vendor,'' Marlow said in a printed statement then. Cohen said Wednesday that 21st Century and Computer Sciences have reached a settlement. He said 21st Century continues to move forward with its software project, which was characterized char·ac·ter·ize tr.v. character·ized, character·iz·ing, character·iz·es 1. To describe the qualities or peculiarities of: characterized the warden as ruthless. 2. as ongoing. The auto insurer recently swung to a profit, reporting third-quarter net income of $12.7 million, or 15 cents a share, compared with a loss of $45.2 million, or 53 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Cohen said the company is seeing a record number of policies in force - about 1.38 million in the third quarter of 2003, up from 1.2 million in the same period a year ago. As insurance companies respond to more customers, meeting that demand through technology has become a cost-effective cost-effective, n the minimal expenditure of dollars, time, and other elements necessary to achieve the health care result deemed necessary and appropriate. solution. ``And while technology is moving forward, I don't think we're going to see a whole lot of job loss because of it. Someone is still needed to manage a policy,'' said Janine Gibford, government affairs advocate for the Association of California Insurance Companies in Sacramento. ``We may even find ourselves in a situation where we are actually hiring more people to service the computers.'' If 21st Century successfully implements its new software, company officials expect to reduce the employee count by at least 125 people, about 5 percent of the work force, in the next decade. Peter Moraga, spokesman for the Insurance Information Network of California, said technology is doing for the insurance industry what fast food has done for the hungry consumer. ``Consumers now want insurance immediately, and technology helps speed up the process,'' Moraga said. Progressive Insurance, whose Internet presence accounts for a relatively small percentage of the company's revenues, utilizes software to help settle claims. The company also provides quotes and services independent agents via an 80,000-square-foot data center known as The Bunker bunk, bunker large storage bin. bunk forage forage, usually ensilage stored in a large storage bunk and made available to cattle or other livestock along a face of the storage. in Mayfield Village, a suburb suburb, a community in an outlying section of a city or, more commonly, a nearby, politically separate municipality with social and economic ties to the central city. In the 20th cent. of Cleveland. Information technology ``is critically important to Progressive's success. Technology is intertwined with the business here - it's not a stand-alone function - and it runs through every part of our business,'' Matthew Collister, a spokesman for Progressive, said in an e-mail. ``Information technology and business alignment is rhetoric in some businesses - not at Progressive.'' Evan Pondel, (818) 713-3662 evan.pondel(at)dailynews.com |
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