Berkshire Life Insurance Chooses Bridgeline

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

BURLINGTON, Mass., May 22 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgeline Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLIN), a provider in cloud-based Web Content Management, eCommerce and Marketing Automation software, announced that it 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 Digital

Bridgeline Digital, The Digital Engagement Company™, helps customers maximize the performance of their full digital experience - from websites and intranets to online stores and campaigns. Bridgeline's Unbound (formerly iAPPS®) platform deeply integrates Web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, Social Media management, and Web Analytics to help marketers deliver digital experiences that attract, engage, nurture and convert their customers across all channels. Headquartered in Burlington, Mass., Bridgeline has thousands of quality customers that range from small- and medium-sized organizations to Fortune 1000 companies. To learn more, please visit www.bridgeline.com or call (800) 603-9936.