Hastings Mutual Acknowledged as a Top Leader in Information Technology; Receives Three Innovation and Performance Awards

HASTINGS, MI--(Marketwire - Oct 11, 2011) - Hastings Mutual Insurance Company, an A+ rated regional Property Casualty insurance carrier, received three awards this month for outstanding performance in information technology practices. Hastings Mutual was named to this year's InformationWeek 500, an annual listing of the nation's most innovative users of business technology.

"We are honored to be recognized on the InformationWeek Top 500 list for our use of innovative information technology at Hastings Mutual," said Paul I. Ayoub, vice president and chief information officer at Hastings Mutual. "Being named to this list highlights our efforts to incorporate advancements in technology that improve our corporate efficiency and also facilitate a greater ease of business for our agents and policyholders."

InformationWeek examined more than 1,200 companies to determine the annual list of organizations that demonstrate the nation's top information technology practices. Hastings Mutual ranked number 201 on the list among companies such as Microsoft Corp., Fifth Third Bancorp., Yahoo! Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Co.

"For 23 years, the InformationWeek 500 has chronicled and honored the most innovative users of business technology," said InformationWeek Editor In Chief Rob Preston. "In this day and age, however, being innovative isn't enough. Companies and their IT organizations need to innovate faster than ever before to stay a step or two ahead of their customers, partners, and competitors. This year's ranking placed special emphasis on those high-octane business technology innovators."

The 2011 list was revealed in mid-September during a gala awards ceremony at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point, California.

Applied Systems' 2011 Interface Partner Award
The second of the awards is the 2011 Interface Partner Award from insurance technology company Applied Systems, recognizing achievement in dedication to real-time communication with independent agencies. Hastings Mutual was specifically cited for interface advancements in download and real-time rating.

"We continue to focus on opportunities to expand our capabilities for download, upload and real-time rating to make us a stronger partner with our independent agencies," said Ayoub. "We greatly appreciate Applied Systems for recognizing our efforts and presenting us with this award."

Hastings Mutual Insurance Company was recognized during an award ceremony at 2011 TENCon, the Technology, Education and Networking Conference in Orlando, hosted by ASCnet, the Applied Systems Client Network.

"In today's competitive insurance marketplace, efficient and cost-saving interface between independent agencies and their multiple carriers is a fundamental business requirement," said Doug Johnston, vice president of Partner Relations & Product Innovations. "Carriers such as Hastings Mutual Insurance Company represent the absolute best in terms of their rounded interfaces they offer Applied Systems agency customers, including Download for Policy, Billing, Claims and Alerts, and real-time responses for agency inquiry, claim reports, policy servicing and policy rating."

Hyland Software's Insurance Sales Reference Award
Additionally, Hastings Mutual was awarded the Insurance Sales Reference Award by Hyland Software, the creators of OnBase, during the 2011 OnBase Training & Technology Conference in Las Vegas this September. Hastings Mutual was recognized for its ongoing efforts to assist new and prospective OnBase customers by welcoming onsite visits and participating in tele-conference meetings. Hastings Mutual has even hosted international groups from companies in Japan and Puerto Rico.

Hastings Mutual has partnered with Hyland Software for more than a decade and incorporates OnBase as a central part of the company's content management solution. The system provides electronic document management and automated workflow functionality, allowing Hastings Mutual to streamline its business processes.

About Hastings Mutual Insurance Company
Hastings Mutual is an award winning, A. M. Best A+ rated, regional Property Casualty insurance company. Hastings Mutual operates in six Midwestern states. The company, based in Hastings, Michigan, has been writing commercial, farm, and personal lines business through independent agents since 1885. For more information access the company web site: www.hastingsmutual.com.

About InformationWeek Business Technology Network
The InformationWeek Business Technology Network provides IT executives with unique analysis and tools that parallel their work flow -- from defining and framing objectives through to the evaluation and recommendation of solutions. Anchored by InformationWeek, the multimedia powerhouse that looks across the enterprise, the network scales across the most critical technology categories with online properties like DarkReading.com (security), NetworkComputing.com (networking and communications) and BYTE (consumer technology). Content is at the nucleus of our information distribution strategy -- IT professionals turn to our experts and communities to stay informed, get advice and research technologies to make strategic business decisions.

About Applied Systems, Inc.
Applied Systems, Inc. develops, sells and supports insurance agency and broker management systems and provides services for accounting, customer, policy, claims management and all related agent and broker functions. More than 130,000 users in 11,000 agencies of every size and complexity level use Applied Systems solutions built around TAM®, Epic™ and Vision® and DORIS™ insurance agency software. In addition, Applied Systems is recognized as a pioneer in advancing carrier communication with agents and brokers. Applied Systems is the parent company of Artizan Internet Services, creator of CSR24®, CertTrax®, WebEngine 2.0®, and InsWorld®. www.appliedsystems.com, www.artizan.com.

About the Hyland Software, OnBase
For more than 20 years, Hyland Software has been dedicated to meeting organizations' needs for document and process management with OnBase, an enterprise content management (ECM) solution suite. As OnBase has evolved through consistent and customer-driven product innovation, it remains focused on automating business processes that depend on documents, content and people to operate more effectively. For more information about Hyland Software's ECM solutions, please visit http://blog.hyland.com.