"Our 'product' is paying for the claims of our customers," says Barb Baurer, VP and general manager of Country Mutual Insurance Co. in Bloomington, Ill., which is testing ADP's claim-processing service. "This lets us do it efficiently," she says, saving adjusters about an hour a day and giving customers faster service. Country Mutual plans to roll out the service to its 150 appraisers over the next six months.

ADP used Nettech Systems' Smart IP middleware to create the wireless application, which users access via the BellSouth Mobile Data Inc. network. Last week, Nettech unveiled ExpressQ, middleware that will let developers build both wireless and wireline remote-access capabilities into business apps. Mobile workers can click on the network they want to use to access sales, inventory, or other apps back at the office.

Chubb & Son, a unit of Chubb Corp., this week will introduce an extranet-based risk-management application for its large-business customers. Starting in June, the subscription service will provide those customers with a data analysis tool from MicroStrategy Inc. to analyze loss data for claims management. The Web app will update data daily and provide better analysis of claims than the old client-server system, says Jeff Hoffman, assistant VP of commercial business services at the Warren, N.J., insurer.