Oceanwide Inc. recognized in Customer Management.

After Oceanwide Inc. saw the pressing need for freight forwarders to automate the issuance of certificates of insurance and calculation of applicable premium when facilitating the sale of transit insurance, the company developed Genoa as a solution. The Montreal, Canada-based company has been named the recipient of the E-Fusion Award for Customer Management for its project.

Mitchell Wasserman, chief executive officer and cofounder of the company, said not only did freight forwarders previously have to use typewriters to prepare certificates of insurance on onionskin paper in triplicate, there was no control over what insuring terms were typed on the negotiable documents, presenting significant risks to insurers. Also, claims were reported in ports all over the world, requiring the need for staff to gather and settle claims. "That all pointed to the need for an Internet system," he said. "The essence of our project was to try and control and facilitate the reporting of shipment information, the issuance of marine insurance certificates and the accumulation of claims information."

Genoa has evolved to a collaborative, Web-based software that automates all aspects of marine insurance in real time: application quoting, policy issuance, certificate issuance, compliance, value declarations, premium calculation, billing, claims management and reporting. Some of its unique features include simplified integration to corporate back-office systems, access to third-party databases for vessel and compliance validation, and integration with the Cognos business-intelligence reporting suite.

The system, used globally, is completely multicultural. "Based on a user's browser settings, the screen automatically displays in the appropriate language and with the proper date and number formatting," said Wasserman.

Genoa is currently being used by more than 20,000 brokers, underwriters, freight forwarders and shippers on a global basis, and Wasserman anticipated the company would process more than 500,000 certificates by year end 2006.

Oceanwide is currently expanding Genoa into the other marine lines, such as hull, marine liability, and yacht, as well as other niche specialty lines, that he said "have particular requirements that aren't being well serviced by general property/casualty policy administration systems."

The other finalists were:

BISYS Commercial Insurance Services Inc.'s STEP (Safe Thinking Employee Process) is an online loss-prevention program. The comprehensive, prepackaged program provides monthly safety meeting materials; safety quizzes; ongoing tracking of individual employees' participation; "how to" manuals; an online game for employees to obtain awards; and online redemption of awards.

In May 2005, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina launched Web Precert, a Web-based, real-time precertification tool integrated into a secure provider portal. Since its implementation, the company said more options have been added to improve self-service.

Under contract to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, www.communitycarerx.com was developed by MemberHealth Inc. to allow enrollment in Medicare Part D online using e-signatures. Data is transferred directly to MemberHealth's back-end policy administration system.