Unity Mutual Life Insurance Company Approves Life Insurance Applications at the Point of Sale with Apptical SoundDecisions-Capture

Boca Raton, FL, March 19, 2007 – Apptical™, a leading provider of audio-enabled Tele-Underwriting / Tele-Application solutions to the insurance industry, today announced that Unity Mutual Life Insurance Company (Unity) and a related company, Unity Financial Life Insurance Company (Unity Financial) now utilize Apptical  SoundDecisions™-Capture to better serve their field agents in the final expense market. With SoundDecisions-Capture, Unity underwriters can conduct secure, scripted, recorded telephone interviews from the Unity home office or from remote locations.

Unity, a New York Mutual Company based in Syracuse, NY, is utilizing Apptical SoundDecisions-Capture to conduct telephone interviews, trim operational costs, and have geographical freedom when hiring underwriter interviewers. SoundDecisions enables Unity underwriters to conduct both inbound and outbound telephone interviews. If the Unity underwriters are busy or unavailable, an overflow call is seamlessly routed to an Apptical interviewer. Interview results are archived and received from Apptical with no paper, no human intervention, lower costs and fewer errors.

“As a small-face-amount insurance provider, Unity can benefit from Apptical’s service. We wanted to stay close to our field force and add protective value,” said Julie Davis, the Senior Underwriter at Unity. “We saw a strong business case for the SoundDecisions-Capture early on.

SoundDecisions-Capture enabled incoming calls from field agents at the Point-of-Sale to be first routed to Unity underwriters. If Unity underwriters are busy or unavailable, the call is immediately transferred to an Apptical interviewer. We receive the benefit of participating in the sale of our product without having to build and run a full fledged call center. All of these factors contribute to a better understanding of our business and a nimble new business process.”

Apptical SoundDecisions-Capture is delivered to Unity via Software as a Service (SaaS), the latest software delivery model. With SaaS, Unity didn’t have to buy any hardware or software.

Apptical provides maintenance, daily technical operation, and support. Unity only pays for the seats they need. SaaS is perfect for quick seamless implementation reducing both up front risk and up front costs.

When Unity underwriters are unavailable inbound calls are routed to Apptical and answered by an Apptical Interviewer as part of the Apptical SoundDecisions-Interviewer service. Sound Decisions-Interviewer consists of Apptical telephone interviewers available to complete inbound or outbound telephone interviews during normal and extended business hours. Both Apptical interviewers and Unity underwriters use the SoundDecisions-Capture application to conduct interviews and collect valuable underwriting information. The resulting data and the audio recording for all interviews conducted across the Apptical SoundDecisions platform are stored in a database and immediately accessible. The Unity home office uses the SoundDecisions-View web application to access data, images, and audio recordings securely over the Internet. In addition, data, images, and audio recordings are transmitted to the Unity home office for integration into Unity’s new business system. All data files and recordings are available in the same manner regardless if they were captured by a Unity Underwriter or an Apptical Interviewer.

Human resources are the most expensive part of the equation in a telephone interview. Using SoundDecisions-Capture, Unity can leverage in-house staff to complete Telephone Interviews. Apptical can improve Unity’s bottom line by benefiting from SoundDecisions efficiencies and passing those savings on to Unity.

“Unity and Unity Financial have been at the forefront of Final Expense insurance for quite some time,” said Peggy Bartraw, Manager of Telephonic Services at Apptical. “The Apptical SoundDecisions-Capture application empowers Unity to make final decisions and issue policies at the point of sale. If challenges arise, they can be resolved faster than ever because the Underwriting and New Business departments can listen to interviews moments after the interview is complete. Agents benefit because their concerns can be resolved faster and applicants benefit from faster policy issue.”

About Unity

Unity is an Insurance Company offering coverage in the small face amount life insurance market. Unity is based in Syracuse, New York and was founded in 1903 as a small fraternal society. It currently has over 75 employees and is licensed in 49 states, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia. The company distributes its products to its client base through a network of more than 4,000 insurance agents.

About Unity Financial

Unity also offers coverage in the small face amount life insurance market through a related company, Unity Financial Life Insurance Company, a Pennsylvania domiciled company (not licensed in New York).

About Apptical

Founded in 1988, Apptical has consistently delivered high quality audio, image and conventional business process solutions to the financial industry. Apptical is the leading company to offer a browser based solution to instantly listen to completed telephone interviews securely from a remote location. Apptical SoundDecisions is a scalable Windows and browser based telephone interview capture platform that supports integrated prescription histories, audio capture, electronic signatures, Tele-Applications, custom questionnaires, drilldown, question branching, data storage, instant rendering, data mining, multi-lingual scripts, condition, treatment, financial and provider schedules and XML Web Services. SoundDecisions is available as a turnkey solution from Apptical or as a licensed SaaS solution for insurance company in-house use.

Apptical is based in Boca Raton, FL. Visit Apptical on the Web at www.apptical.com.

Further Information Contact:

Alison Douglas
Apptical Corp.
[email protected]
305-351-1791
Jeanne Clarke
Sr. VP/Insurance Operations & MIS
[email protected]
315-448-7211