Liaise's appeal is a specialized multi-insurance company software system tailored for financial institutions that want to use the Internet to offer insurance products to customers. Liaise says revenues of about $1.3 million from $7.55 million in written premiums will be realized in the next 12 months with its specialized offerings.

For Viking, the acquisition means the addition of a proprietary software - LifeTech Internet Point-of-Sale system - that is market-tested for insurance sales and service administration. It also meets one of Viking's goals for generating fee income by providing insurancy agency sales and service administration processing services. The Liaise software provides a secure intranet-based, end-to-end solution for insurance sales in either a direct-to-customer or platform agent system, with features such as multiple carrier quoting and real-time underwriting status reporting.

The teaming will mesh LifeTech with Viking's worldwide private fiber optic network, enhancing the security of transmitting private data. The combination creates "excellent synergy with superb complementary features of each other's software applications," says Jon 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.