NEW YORK , NY Oct. 10, 2004 – SeaPass Solutions, a leader in connectivity solutions for insurance agents and carriers, made its official industry debut at the October 9-11 IIABA Conference in Orlando , FL. More than 10 major insurance carriers attended a special breakfast meeting hosted by Dean O'Hare to learn about the SeaPass technology and its application in The Hartford Expressway system.

Opening the meeting, Mr. O'Hare explained his new role as chairman of SeaPass and his commitment to this revolutionary industry technology . “I am delighted to head the SeaPass board because I am convinced that SeaPass has created an innovative solution to what I thought for decades to be the most critical problem the insurance industry faces – real-time connectivity and communications,” he said.

“For years in the business, I have struggled with this issue and, frankly, thought it was impossible to resolve. This solution is so critical to the future of the industry that I have given SeaPass my full support to help them succeed where existing systems currently have not,” he continued.

“SeaPass simplifies agent workflow and increases their productivity,” said Eric Gewirtzman, president of SeaPass U.S. operations. “ Insurance carriers have grappled with this issue for some time, without a workable industry solution. From a single technology platform, the SeaPass solution literally enables easy, error-free data exchange and interaction among agents, carriers, brokers and wholesalers to get quotes and bind coverage in seconds.”

Gewirtzman described the patented SeaPass process as a uniquely simple and intuitive single-platform solution, which achieves Straight-Through-Processing in a four-step approach that is both easily implemented and instantly usable for all parties involved in the transaction: Transmit, Interact, Exchange and Transact.

The SeaPass Gateway is designed to seamlessly connect insurance parties, in order to automatically interact with an agent's existing system, without requiring any changes even if the systems were not originally designed with connectivity capabilities. It drives true real-time transactions – not just transmission – using any of a variety of platforms. Agents and carriers can exchange relevant data in real-time between themselves or with third-party vendors, using their existing systems.

According to representatives from The Hartford, “The SeaPass Gateway is the backbone technology that runs our Expressway system, linking customer data from identified agency management systems to The Hartford for real-time quoting and issuing personal, auto and homeowners insurance. From a single technology platform, we can now enable easy, error-free data exchange and interaction with our agents and brokers.”

Gewirtzman also remarked on the cost effectiveness of implementing SeaPass. “The connectivity is seamless to users and requires no drawn-out integration projects. But most importantly, it is a single solution that can be adapted to solve any and all connectivity issues a carrier might have.”

He went on to add, “The solution helps produce an investment return more quickly because the time and other costs required to implement it are a fraction of those of a full-scale electronic-business project. Moreover, the cost reduction in automating these workflow processes is immediate and easy to calculate. And since it requires virtually no change to existing back-end and front-end systems, there is no system downtime, no need for expensive IT personnel and resources to be deployed, and no employee training required.”

The solution is based on a proprietary data transformation language developed by SeaPass, which uses complex intelligence, employs algorithms for multi-dimensional data transfer, and also incorporates sophisticated connection pooling and connectivity technologies. The SeaPass Gateway recognizes data, instantly compares it to the receiver system requirements, seeks immediate clarification from the sender, and then completes the process.

About SeaPass

SeaPass Solutions, founded in 2000, is headquartered in New York City . The company develops and markets solutions that enable insurance carriers, agents, brokers, and wholesalers to transmit and receive data in real-time and leverage existing systems to automatically interact with one another, leading to reduced costs, better new business and successful transactions. Since mid-2001, SeaPass has been implementing it solutions at national insurance carriers, regional carriers, banks, large agencies and brokers.