IBM Corp says it will buy Professional Data Management Associates Inc, a privately-held Indianapolis software and services company. IBM is not saying how much it will pay, but sees the buy strengthening its capability to provide business applications to the global insurance industry. IBM particularly coveted the company’s LifePRO on-line system for life and annuity insurance processing, which is designed to support both individual and group-policy administration, and to help companies reduce operating and overhead costs and eliminate multiple administration systems. It will have the luxury of operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary only for another three months, then on January 1, it will be subsumed into IBM and all its employees will be come employees of IBM’s Worldwide Insurance Solutions unit. IBM will develop versions of LifePRO – currently a locally networked Windows product – for System/390 mainframes. IBM also plans AS/400 and RS/6000 versions, and one for Windows NT.
