A Special Section Sponsored by Alliance for Productive Technology, Inc.

DELPHI COMES THROUGH

Agents enthusiastic about SEMCI facilities available

By Max Seybold, President & CEO, Delphi Information Systems, Inc.

SEMCI is a goal that many praise, some imitate, and few deliver. In June 1998, Delphi renewed its commitment to "deliver true SEMCI" as soon as possible.

How are we doing? On balance, reasonably well--some successes, some setbacks, and during the fourth quarter we will deliver everything promised under the Delphi/APT plan of June 1998. To be specific:

* In 1998, the APT SEMCI Access Module, or SAM, was selected as the most logical and straightforward way to integrate ACORD forms and SEMCI facilities in Delphi systems.

* In just the first six months of 1999, over 240 Delphi agents began using SAMs, increasing Delphi's share of APT-enabled agencies from less than 1% to over 8%.

* Working with APT, in the fourth quarter of 1998, Delphi arranged to have 31 Canadian and Lloyd's forms added to the approximately 700 ACORD Forms already available in the SAM.

* Redshaw and Insurnet are both SEMCI-enabled for new business and change processing upload.

* cd.one and cd.global will be SEMCI-enabled for new business and change processing upload during the fourth quarter.

Despite the fact that everything has not moved along as quickly as we would like, our customers' enthusiastic reception to what is already available is an excellent indication that we are on the right track. Internally, the SAM's AL3 upload and ACORD Form facilities have had the added benefit of freeing valuable Delphi resources for other projects. We are also evaluating APT's webSEMCI software for use in Delphi's new ebix.link Web product, to allow the exchange of AL3 data over the Web between agents and carriers.

When we are done with our desktop SEMCI integration later this year, Delphi will deliver true SEMCI, not a knock-off or proprietary imitation. Others can praise SEMCI, imitate SEMCI, or even criticize SEMCI--Delphi, working with the folks at APT, is delivering SEMCI. *