AnnuityNet/VARDS Teams up With Blue Frog for Annuity Product Profile Tools.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers POMPANO BEACH Pompano Beach (pŏm`pənō), city (1990 pop. 72,411), Broward co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic coast and the Intracoastal Waterway; inc. 1908. It is a resort city with ocean beaches, excellent fishing, and a harness-racing track. , Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 7, 2003 AnnuityNet Endorses the Use of Blue Frog's ADMServer System Tools and Services to Assist in the Implementation and Maintenance of AnnuityNet's Products Blue Frog  The of this article or section may be compromised by "weasel words".You can help Wikipedia by removing weasel words. Solutions, the leading provider of ACORD ACORD Association for Cooperative Operations, Research and Development ACORD Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development ACORD Association de Coopération et de Recherche pour le Développement (French) XMLife-based technologies, announced today that AnnuityNet, Inc., a software and business re-engineering company endorses the use of Blue Frog's ADMServer system tools and services to assist in the implementation and maintenance of annuity product information offered via AnnuityNet systems. "We are pleased to partner with the pioneer of Web-based annuity transactions," said Blue Frog CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Brad Levine. "Blue Frog's tools will enhance insurance carriers' ability to support industry standards and easily implement their annuity products on AnnuityNet's automated transaction processing Updating the appropriate database records as soon as a transaction (order, payment, etc.) is entered into the computer. It may also imply that confirmations are sent at the same time. Transaction processing systems are the backbone of an organization because they update constantly. platform." Last November, through the National Association of Variable Annuities Variable annuities Investment contracts whose issuer pays a periodic amount linked to the investment performance of an underlying portfolio. and ACORD, the annuity industry ratified the adoption of the Product Profile for Annuities (PPfA), an open industry XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. standard that allows carriers to electronically articulate product definition information, including service features, riders, state availability data and other information. "Blue Frog has developed the ADMServer PPfA Administration tool to allow annuity manufacturers to load their product information into the most up-to-date PPfA XML format," said Steve Dunlap, AnnuityNet/VARDS Chief Marketing Officer. "The Blue Frog PPfA Administrator acts as a single entry point where product managers and business analysts can update and maintain all of the critical information about their products in one central database. In addition, the PPfA Administrator has a distribution and communication capability that allows users to easily configure ADMServer to manage and automate communications and data transfers to various business partners, including the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC DTCC See: Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation ) product repository." Prior to the development of the PPfA, there was no other managed way to receive product information from carriers other than through Excel spreadsheets or other non-standard means. This led to inefficiencies during the development and testing process as sometimes ambiguous data elements surfaced and had to be corrected. AnnuityNet's use of the PPfA moves the company and its clients toward the collective goal of automated implementation and maintenance of products. AnnuityNet's systems can now automatically import the PPfA on its platform with only trivial manual intervention. Additionally, in a continual effort to automate and create efficiencies, Blue Frog is working with a pilot group of carriers to include support for AnnuityNet's forms management. "AnnuityNet/VARDS understands that the PPfA is new to the industry and that it can be complicated," said Dunlap. "Through our alliance with Blue Frog, we are pleased to support the industry by helping provide effective methods for insurance carriers to more quickly and efficiently implement support for the PPfA process." About Blue Frog Solutions Blue Frog Solutions is a leading provider of ACORD middleware software solutions for data transfer, messaging, and transaction processing among life insurance carriers/underwriters and distributors/agents. The ADMServer Suite supports the entire XMLife model. Blue Frog is headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida Pompano Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean just to the north of Fort Lauderdale. The Nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of 2006, the U.S. and was selected 2002 "Tech Company of the Year" by the South Florida Business Journal. For additional information about Blue Frog Solutions, visit its Web site at http://www.bluefrogsolutions.com About AnnuityNet/VARDS AnnuityNet/VARDS, is a Herndon, Virginia-based software technology and research data firm. AnnuityNet is best known for having pioneered the Web-based approach to powering transactions in the annuity market space with an Internet platform that connects all industry constituencies - carriers and manufacturers, distributors and point of sale representatives - into a seamless, secure and information-rich process. AnnuityNet's Web technology currently processes over 30,000 annuity transactions per month over the Internet. In July 2003 AnnuityNet acquired the VARDS business from Professional Direct Agency, Inc., a subsidiary of Wachovia Insurance. The acquisition included VARDS Online, VARDS Wholesaler, VARDS Advisor, The VARDS Report and The VARDS/Greenwald Strategy Service. VARDS, founded by Rick Carey Richard ("Rick") John Carey (born March 13, 1963 in Mount Kisco, New York) was an American backstroke swimmer of the 1980s who won three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He broke nine world records, five individually, and also was a double world champion. , has been the industry's premier source for annuity research and data services for over 16 years. AnnuityNet was founded in 1997 by well-known actuary actuary One who calculates insurance risks and premiums. Actuaries compute the probability of the occurrence of such events as birth, marriage, illness, accidents, and death. and entrepreneur Shane Chalke, and is owned by a blue-ribbon consortium of financial industry organizations, including GE Equity, Lincoln Financial Group, Conning Capital Partners, FBR FBR Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. (investment firm) FBR Fast Breeder Reactor FBR Federal Benefit Rate FBR Foundation for Biomedical Research FBR Foundation for Blood Research FBR Fluidized Bed Reactor Financial Services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. Partners, SunLife Financial, Phoenix Life, Ohio National Financial, Bank One and Wachovia Insurance. The company's Web site address is http://www.annuitynet.com. |
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