technical excellence award
Technical Excellence Award — Presented to an organization offering the best example of system engineering and architecture, system integration or technology management in conjunction with a CSC solution. Winners will exhibit high degrees of innovation, leverage and value, with positive results proven in actual business use.
Arch Insurance Group
ImageRight Integration to Media Management
Arch Insurance Group has invested a lot of resources in the deployment of the ImageRight imaging and workflow application. To maximize the advantages, Arch wanted to enhance the integration between POINT IN's Media Management component and the ImageRight Application.
This integration will support archiving and retrieval of all documents in ImageRight so that the company will not have to maintain multiple document repositories. When a document is produced from Document Production, it will be converted to a PDF and stored in the ImageRight repository with other documents not archived via the POINT IN application. POINT IN will pass the users’ group profile to ImageRight in order to restrict the access users have to documents stored in ImageRight.
The ImageRight to Media Management integration will also support storage and retrieval of Advanced Claims documents.
By storing all documents in one repository, Arch will reduce maintenance needed to support multiple repositories and eliminate the need to search for documents in multiple repositories.
Arch Insurance Group
Interface to External Rating Models
Arch Insurance Group rates specialty products using sophisticated rating algorithms and analysis tools designed by the company’s actuarial staff. Enhancements built to interface with the company’s rating models give Arch's actuary department control over defining and adjusting its rating methodology while using POINT IN for all policy processing functions.
These interface programs will take advantage of and extend the XML sync and mod request messages currently used with the integration of POINT IN and Agency Link. Arch will be able to use one database for all lines of business supporting the full life cycle of a policy. The company will also have traditional lines of business rated via POINT IN's rating tool and Arch's specialty lines of business using Arch rating models.
Arch Insurance Group
Integration with ArchLink using Communications Framework (CFW)
Arch Insurance Group created a submission tracking system to track all applications submitted by brokers. The company needed to use this submission tracking system to track quotes, new business and renewal business submitted to POINT IN.
Working with CSC, Arch integrated POINT IN and the ArchLink submission tracking system using CSC's Communications Framework application. By adding more user exits to the Communications Framework application, Arch is now able to send quote and policy information between ArchLink and POINT IN based on defined transactions. The transactions can be triggered in ArchLink or in POINT IN. The integration allows ArchLink and POINT IN to update information between each application by extending the use of Communications Framework.
The company will be able to continue using the ArchLink submission tracking system, which was developed specifically for Arch. By taking advantage of Communications Framework, Arch will automate data updates between ArchLink and POINT IN based on triggers set in each application. Automating these updates will reduce the volume of manual labor required and ensure data is passed to each application as triggers occur.
Brethren Mutual Insurance Company
Credit Card Processing
More and more customers rely on credit cards to pay their policy premiums, and Brethren Mutual Insurance Company knew it was imperative to develop a more effective process within POINT IN to accommodate this need. The company worked with CSC to develop an enhancement to POINT IN that allowed the system to accept and process single credit card payments as well as credit card payments made online.
The enhancement captures credit card information in intermediate files for single credit card payments and online payments and in a customer file for revolving payments. It stores unapproved credit card payments in the intermediate file. It created an extract (for ICVerify/External interface) for all types of credit card payments. The enhancement creates separate batches for single credit card payments and payments through a website. It will also create a single batch for each type of payment for a particular day.
All approved payments are loaded in POINT IN using existing remittance processing. The system’s new functionality is similar to existing eCheck functionality developed for single credit card payments. Users can be allowed up to five attempts to have their payments verified. The number of verification attempts can also be configured based on Policy status. (For example, when N3 is generated – only one try is allowed, etc.)
This enhancement has improved Brethren Mutual’s speed and flexibility in processing various types of credit card payments.
Builders Mutual Insurance Company
POINT IN Suite C.0 Migrations - Creating the Gold Standard
Several planned IT migrations led Builders Mutual Insurance Company’s (BMIC) to invest a significant amount of time and money into changing the company’s technology infrastructure.
The company evaluated the AS/400 which was running on an old IBM iSeries 9406 with a single partition and 1.3 TB of disk storage. Its network bandwidth could only handle a single 100 Mbps network connection to the company’s production LAN. BMIC was running two separate software systems, with test and production environments on a single LPAR. The company knew it had to tighten up and fortify security.
BMIC upgraded the AS/400 to an IBM Power Express 8203 with two partitions and 3.5 TB of disk storage. It procured new hardware, and dual monitors were provided to employees who would view dual C.0 screens to process their work.
To ensure a smooth conversion, the project management team created a 500-plus task implementation plan, a command center and an employee hotline. The weekend of the conversion, BMIC and CSC project managers monitored progress onsite, and CSC managers guided remote programmers on next steps. The team followed a detailed user test schedule. All UAT occurred onsite so issues could be resolved immediately. Predefined “go/no go” criteria were determined, drop-dead timelines defined, and back-out plans created. The project team coordinated every detail including overnight lodging for critical staff, office security, meals and meeting space.
BMIC successfully converted to CSC’s POINT IN C.0 platform and incorporated Agency Link Inquiry and Advanced Claims in the migration. The company now has the capacity and security to operate 10 test environments on one partition in a single production environment. To have more Windows-based servers and large pipeline for data to flow between servers, the AS/400, employees and customers, BMIC implemented VMware vSphere 4.1 using six ESXi hosts configured in a single cluster with HA and DRS protection. The company has grown from nine physical servers to 67 virtual servers running on six physical ESXi hosts. Of the 67 VMs, five are dedicated to production; another five to the test environments.
BMIC beefed up communication pipelines to accommodate massive amounts of data. All network switches use fully redundant and load balancing 10 Gbps uplinks to connect to core switches in the server room. All servers, including the AS/400, would have redundant NIC connections running at 1 Gbps directly attached to the core switches.
All ESXi hosts connect directly to the EqualLogic SANs over a dedicated, high bandwidth and fully redundant network. All devices on this network are configured to use iSCSI jumbo packets (9,000 MTU). To accommodate Agency Link, the company upgraded its Internet connection from 5 Mbps to 25 Mbps. To deal with the explosion of data, BMIC chose Dell’s EqualLogic series iSCSI SANs. These devices allow BMIC to add up to 12 SANs, with the added benefit of more storage, faster disk access and more bandwidth for the dedicated storage area network.
BMIC learned that implementation planning is instrumental for a project of this magnitude. Specifying each and every detail possible, reviewing the plan multiple times with business partners and CSC’s project team, and tight communication between project managers and teams were crucial to success. Building a detailed implementation plan has become a gold standard for BMIC projects.
Federated Insurance Company
Certificate of Insurance Management
Federated Insurance Company worked with CSC to create a new product design to manage all aspects of ACORD certificates of insurance.
The complexity of managing certificates of insurance was being addressed in different ways by commercial insurers. The new Certificates system was designed to make use of contemporary design patterns, development practices and industry standards. All customer-specific requirements, including business processing rules, have been externalized to allow easy customization during implementation. Where appropriate, Certificates makes use of robust open source frameworks and software components. The system has loosely coupled integration with external applications via Web services.
Implementation successes include:
- Development with the Spring Framework used in numerous enterprise systems
- The first implementation of P&C reference architecture - RA3
- Model View Controller pattern using Java Server Faces from Spring Web Flow
- The user interface library employed by Spring Web Flow (Primefaces), which provides extremely powerful UI components with minimal coding
- Externalized business rules using the Drools engine, which allows clients to apply their own business processing rules
- Loosely coupled integration with external applications, allowing for policy and client and document systems using a thin SOA layer.
The Certificates team worked closely with ACORD to employ existing standards for information interchange. Standard messages were extended and submitted for certification and inclusion into the spec.
Florida Peninsula Insurance Company
Agency Link Attach Document to Quote
Florida Peninsula worked with CSC to enhance Agency Link by adding a new tab to the new business and endorsement quoting screens so that agents could easily attach documents using the Media Management C.0 release. Once an application is submitted, the documents are forwarded immediately to underwriting for review.
The company added a list of required documents to Agency Link’s quote summary. Next to each item is an indicator allowing an agent to quickly determine if that document is attached. As a configurable, Florida Peninsula created various edits for each document, requiring some documents to be attached before an application can be submitted. This enhancement allows underwriting to receive documents from agents in real time and underwrite the policy as documents are received. Essential to this process is the ability of agents to quickly view and determine which documents are required, to attach documents to the quote, and to notify underwriting of the attached documents once the application is submitted. Underwriting can then underwrite the policy immediately without the need to wait for additional information.
Since Florida Peninsula introduced this enhancement, the company has received numerous compliments from its agents, who appreciate the ease of use, convenience and speed. Florida Peninsula underwriters are able to review applications and make underwriting decisions faster and more efficiently. This is truly one enhancement that puts Florida Peninsula ahead of its competition.
MAG Mutual Insurance Company
Policyholder Portal
MAG Mutual worked with CSC’s offshore team to develop a customer portal that gives policyholders the ability to view current policy data (including billing), view and print policy documents, request endorsements, make online payments, submit FNOL reports (and attach associated documents), and receive custom reports which previously required customer service intervention. The portal seamlessly integrates multiple disparate systems — policy, claims, imaging and custom applications — providing a common and transparent experience for the end-user. It also integrates with the company’s agent portal, allowing policyholders to interact with their agents using the portal’s automated workflow capabilities. Inversely, agents can access the policyholder portal to assist in servicing their accounts. The underlying technology of the portal is .NET, and it uses Oracle’s Access Manager for authentication. The custom-designed authorization schema also allows policy administrators to grant access to insureds to perform functions they deem appropriate. The portal leverages the framework of Agency Link to present policy and billing data imported every night from POINT IN. An interface to Media Management allows users to view their policy documents from within the portal without having to launch Media Management separately.
Using another interface to MAG Mutual‘s applied system, which manages Non-MMIC policies, a complete view of all policies held by a customer is attained. A real-time interface to the Elavon Online Payment website was developed to permit customers to pay outstanding invoices. Requests for policy endorsements feed directly into the same ImageRight workflow processes in use by the underwriting department for its other policy-related tasks. Any information presented on the portal can be either printed to PDF or saved to Excel. A final key feature is that all requests, emails and documents generated from the portal are archived and available for access by the policyholder in a centralized communications center, allowing them to review the history of activity performed while using the system.
This effort resulted in an immediate return on investment through the renewal of one of the company's largest accounts. The client specifically stated that the capabilities provided in the portal were the reason for renewing. Indirectly, it also contributed to the favorable rating result MAG Mutual received this year from A.M. Best, which gave the portal a positive mention in its written report.
North Carolina Farm Bureau
Exceed Claims and Fraud Analytics
North Carolina Farm Bureau (NCFB) has worked with CSC on various insurance solutions since first licensing PMS software for commercial and personal lines processing in 1976. More recently, NCFB embarked on a creative and aggressive strategy to modernize all of the company’s insurance software and reduce current manual processes with best-of-breed CSC solutions.
NCFB deployed Exceed Claims and Fraud Analytics in June 2010. Exceed Claims replaced five legacy claims systems, each of which handled different parts of the claims process. By introducing Web-based technology, the company now provides more direct access to claims for adjusters working in the field via wireless connections. The company has reduced the time it needed to get loss notices to the district claims office, open reserves and assign claims to adjusters. Claim handling is more efficient because adjusters can now add their own comments, process financials, request checks and perform other tasks that previously required home office assistance.
NCFB is currently implementing the midrange solutions for commercial lines using POINT IN, Agency Link, Rules, Document Production and Media Management. One main objective is to extend access to the Policy administrative system to more than 900 agents statewide using Agency Link. Agency Link’s intuitive and function-rich presentation will allow NCFB’s agents to process quotes and policy transactions, improving customer service. Another objective is to implement infrastructure that will allow the addition of products and features to accommodate anticipated growth, and new technology with more robust function.
Long term, NCFB plans to eliminate most paper-based processes and reduce paper, mailroom and postage costs as part of its Green Initiative. The company has also started an Exceed Policy project that will eventually replace its personal lines processing, currently handled by the PMS system and a third-party solution that is slowly becoming obsolete. Business and IT staff have found value in the flexible, robust features of the Exceed Business Processor to develop their rating, system edits and some underwriting rules. NCFB envisions that the new solution will enable agents to process quotes, new business and endorsement transactions, leading to faster turnaround times, better cash flow and improved customer service. NCFB ultimately plans to consolidate bureau and statistical reporting by integrating all lines of business into Exceed’s Management Information System.
For all solutions, NCFB has embraced the Continuous Delivery Process. The company actively applies released CDRs as part of normal IT operations. This allows NCFB to remain current on CSC software, apply technology upgrades and take advantage of community-sponsored enhancements.
NCFB staff also sees positive return on investment by sponsoring their own IC enhancements, which lessens the iterative cost of maintaining modifications. Through collaboration with CSC, growth-focused NCFB is proactively executing a roadmap using various CSC insurance applications to meet market demands for innovative, modern insurance solutions that can be easily configured, integrated and rapidly deployed.
Ohio Mutual Insurance Group
Automated CDR Install Tool
Ohio Mutual Insurance Group (OMIG) has been protecting policyholders for more than 100 years and is continually looking for ways to make quoting and issuance easier for its partners, independent agents.
OMIG has written and implemented an automated installation tool to apply Continuous Delivery Release (CDR) files as they are received. The tool provides a foundation to handle the standard processes required for every CDR as well as any specific processes required for each, all without manual intervention. Written to address the iSeries portion of CDRs, this automation allows users to process a single CDR or multiple CDRs at the same time, provides a mode for installation, test and production, and handles all housekeeping procedures to ensure a clean environment upon completion.
The Automated CDR Install Tool has the capability to interact with an organization’s change management system to maintain the integrity of current and installed files. Implementation of this automated process has dramatically reduced the time needed to apply CDRs. After completion of upfront prep work, this tool can apply a CDR in minutes. This step, in turn, significantly reduces the amount of time and effort required to implement a CDR into production.
OMIG now uses the process to apply all CDRs and continues to realize productivity benefits from it. By providing a streamlined, consistent and automated methodology to the CDR installation process, OMIG has seen an improvement in overall productivity, efficiency and quality of its information systems.
Safety Insurance Company
Agent Server Certificate Project
Safety Insurance has worked with CSC to create a seamless entry platform for Exceed, and the company’s agent community has since declared it “the standard against which all will be judged.”
The platform uses an internal server certificate process to authenticate members of Safety’s agent community. Agents are given the capability to cross multiple CSC solutions through one Web-based service. In addition to entering policies into CSC’s Agency Link application, agents can now create and add First Notice of Loss Claims to the Exceed system and access billing and claims inquiry information. All information is coupled, creating the ability to streamline information presented according to the user’s own policies and clients.
The Safety Insurance independent agent community has been given enhanced access to additional lines of business without any interruption of service or changes in their platform. The ease with which this transition was executed has allowed Safety to continue empowering agents and enhancing their ability to provide the fastest claims service in the business.
State Auto Insurance Companies
Series II Extend, Enhance and Evolve
State Auto Insurance has been a long-time collaborator with CSC and user of CSC products. For more than 30 years, State Auto has exploited the capabilities of a wide range of CSC products, including Series II PMS Version 6, Series II PMS Version 7, Agency Link, and Exceed Billing & Claims. State Auto has also embraced CSC’s Series II Extend, Enhance and Evolve (E3) strategy to accelerate growth and increase its competitive edge.
A successful 2006 implementation of Series II Real Time Processing (RTP) in its commercial lines PMS Version 7 system dramatically improved speed to market. Today, State Auto runs 7,300 real-time new business, quote and endorsement transactions a day.
In 2010, State Auto applied the same real-time upgrade to its personal lines Version 6 system with CSC’s assistance, and the company is now processing 3,200 new business, quote and endorsement transactions a day through that RTP.
State Auto continues to build on the enhanced capabilities of its state-of-the-art Series II system. Most recently, the company developed a new and innovative feature that exploits the power of RTP to enable real-time policy renewals. Faced with an increasing nightly batch processing window, the company’s real-time renewals capacity pushed resource-intensive renewal processing to off-peak times, flattening out processing usage and alleviating the need to upgrade the mainframe. The feature went live in June 2011. Already the company is processing an average of 4,000 real-time commercial and personal lines renewals daily.
State Auto continues to distinguish itself with ground-breaking technical innovation and excellence as exemplified by these initiatives. State Auto continues to provide strategic direction and model leadership to the Series II Advisory Council for the benefit of the entire Series II community with the addition of this new feature code to the Series II Base. As a result the company achieved: accelerated business growth; enhanced competitive edge; real-time processing for personal and commercial lines, including real-time renewals; dramatic improvement in turnaround time; improved product quality; improved CPU load balancing; and improved processing efficiency — and postponement of the need for additional hardware.
