Liaise's appeal is a specialized multi-insurance companysoftware system tailored for financial institutions that want touse the Internet to offer insurance products to customers. Liaisesays revenues of about $1.3 million from $7.55 million in writtenpremiums will be realized in the next 12 months with itsspecialized offerings.

For Viking, the acquisition means the addition of a proprietarysoftware - LifeTech Internet Point-of-Sale system - that ismarket-tested for insurance sales and service administration. Italso meets one of Viking's goals for generating fee income byproviding insurancy agency sales and service administrationprocessing services. The Liaise software provides a secureintranet-based, end-to-end solution for insurance sales in either adirect-to-customer or platform agent system, with features such asmultiple carrier quoting and real-time underwriting statusreporting.

The teaming will mesh LifeTech with Viking's worldwide privatefiber optic network, enhancing the security of transmitting privatedata. The combination creates "excellent synergy with superbcomplementary features of each other's software applications," saysJon Hilgers, who will remain as Liaise Systems president and CEO.Also remaining on board after the deal closes is Hugh Bailey,Liaise founder and current board chairman.