Berkshire Life Insurance Selects Bridgeline’s iAPPS to Power Fully Automated Online Enrollment System

BOSTON, May 22, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgeline Software, Inc. (Nasdaq:BLSW), a developer of SaaS-based web application management software and award-winning web applications, has been selected by Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America to develop a new web-based enrollment system to support sales and service of their Multi-Life Disability Insurance (DI) products. Based in Pittsfield, MA, Berkshire Life is a wholly-owned stock subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY, one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the United States, and is responsible for all Individual and Multi-Life DI products distributed by the two companies.

Marketed in a worksite setting, Multi-Life DI combines some of the best of group and individual DI insurance coverage. Typically issued on a guaranteed standard issue basis to groups of eligible employees within a company, Multi-Life DI policies are individually owned (and portable; policy owners can take them to their next jobs) and buyers usually benefit from a discounted group rate. In contrast to a true individual sale, eligible employees enroll via a streamlined application process that requires no medical exams or financial underwriting. Last year, Berkshire was the industry's sales leader of non-cancelable disability insurance sold on a one-to-one basis, according to the Life Insurance Market Research Association (LIMRA). Through significant investment in its multi-life capabilities, infrastructure, and service offerings, Berkshire seeks to achieve the same level of leadership within the multi-life market segment.

To help realize this, Berkshire's web-based enrollment system, being developed on Bridgeline Software's iAPPS Framework and flagship web content management system, iAPPS Content Manager, will considerably improve their competitive positioning in the Multi-Life DI market through incorporation of several primary communication objectives such as ease-of-use, targeted educational content, and flexibility. "Bridgeline brings an advanced understanding of developing customized, scalable, complex web-based technology systems, along with a focus on usability and user experience," says Shelly Mushinski, Manager, Multi-Life Market Segment at Berkshire Life. "This gave them a unique edge over other application developers we considered for the project. We're very excited about a finished system that not only meets our technical requirements, but from a user experience perspective, offers an extremely easy-to-use enrollment process with integrated educational content to help facilitate understanding of Disability Insurance and dramatically enhanced overall enrollment levels."

The enrollment system will utilize as much of Berkshire's back-office infrastructure as possible and will employ web services between the new application and the existing technology environment such as their back-office mainframe and imaging systems. Leveraging iAPPS as a development framework offers many advantages from an integration perspective. For example, iAPPS common service layer's APIs facilitate integration with external data sources. And with native integration between iAPPS Framework and iAPPS Content Manager, seamless incorporation of content management capabilities, a key component to the overall project, is easily made possible.

iAPPS Content Manager offers Berkshire Life easy-to-use remote authoring capabilities, enabling content owners to quickly update and customize content for new customers or particular needs. With iAPPS Content Manager, non-technical staff can manage and deliver content to any web interface from virtually any source to ensure the right content is delivered at the right time, to the right audience. And for administrators, iAPPS provides centralized control and management over site structure and content, workflow, and user access rights. Says Mushinski, "Bridgeline is helping Berkshire to realize a system that incorporates our overall investment and focus on usability, and that provides an individualized user experience to our customers. This iAPPS solution will offer the flexibility to accommodate the reality that no client is the same and that a successful, conversion-oriented system lets users access content and processes that are most useful to them when and where they want to access them."

About Berkshire Life

Headquartered in Pittsfield, MA, Berkshire Life Insurance Company of America is a wholly-owned stock subsidiary of The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, New York, NY. Its key missions are to grow Guardian's disability income and long-term care lines of business and to research and develop new insurance products. More information about Berkshire Life can be obtained at www.BerkshireLife.com.

About Bridgeline Software

Bridgeline Software is a developer of web application management software and award-winning web applications that help organizations optimize business processes. The iAPPS(r) Framework and Product Suite are innovative SaaS solutions that unify Content Management, Analytics, eCommerce, and eMarketing capabilities -- enabling business users to swiftly enhance and optimize the value of their web properties. Combined with award-winning application development services, Bridgeline helps customers cost-effectively accommodate the rapidly changing needs of mission-critical web applications. Bridgeline Software's teams of developers specialize in web application development, information architecture, usability engineering, SharePoint development, rich media development, and search engine optimization.

Bridgeline is headquartered near Boston with additional locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, New York, Washington, D.C., and Bangalore, India. We are a recipient of the Inc. 500 award for America's fastest growing companies and currently have over 550 customers ranging from middle market organizations to divisions within Fortune 1,000 companies that include: The Bank of New York Mellon, Marriott International, Berkshire Life, Honeywell, EMC, John Hancock, AARP, National Financial Partners, The Packard Foundation, DTCC, Cadaret, Grant & Co., Perkin Elmer, UBS, JBHanauer & Co., Omgeo, the Gill Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, and the Smithsonian Institute. To learn more about Bridgeline Software, please visit www.bridgelinesw.com.

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 CONTACT:  Bridgeline Software, Inc.           Brian Bolton, Director of Marketing           781.497.3013           [email protected]