Information Support
Companywide Connectivity
Despite the unanticipated challenge, Smith maintained project coordination across 13 departments at both Conseco and Bankers and more than 30 branch offices. The initiative also accomplished a high level of data and systems integration from more than 10 of Bankers' business areas. Now, the information previously spread across paper files, e-mail and the old server systems can be accessed through the BSPN Web portal.
From the start, Smith wanted to build a highly specialized product that eventually would require little resource expertise from IT. "Using ATG's portal and relationship management technologies, we were able to construct BSPN in a modular fashion, simplify the management of various categories of users and personalize BSPN to each user," says Smith.
"For example, we built a single reporting portlet, which can be configured to produce different reports on different parts of the portal, and we use the relationship management application so that an agent doesn't have to weed through information that is not typically relevant to him or her," she continues. When an agent is reviewing a product, the relationship management application will display only links to application forms for states where the agent is licensed, according to Smith.
BSPN entered a pilot phase in October 2004 and was rolled out to Bankers' sales force nationwide on Jan. 1, 2005. According to Smith, Bankers' distribution growth strategy outlined a sales goal for new offices of $8 million in premium for 2004; thanks in part to the carrier's new portal, the new offices performed 30 percent above expectations, resulting in $10.5 million in new premium. For 2005, the insurer has set an aggressive sales goal for its new offices of $19.5 million in premium. Smith says that in addition to a 1 percent increase in overall sales (approximately $240 million), Bankers expects to realize a 3 percent reduction in customer care costs and a 2 percent decrease in printing costs as a result of the portal initiative.
The carrier's user-centric philosophy in developing the portal has resulted in a high adoption rate: 3,800 of Bankers' 4,000 total field agents use the BSPN platform and more than 60 percent of the field force now uses laptops. The Web portal technology also has led to the adoption of a branch infrastucture with high-speed connectivity rather than the widespread dial-up infrastructure that was prevalent three years ago.
Phase 2 of the portal initiative is scheduled to launch this summer. The release management team plans to introduce additional tools to the field force, including contact management, electronic forms processing, document scanning, mobile applications and an agent-activity tracking tool.
Bankers also is looking to increase the portal's ease of use with a single password capability to access all tools. "We are using Microsoft Active Directory as a single source for identifications and passwords," reports Smith. "This is helping us streamline agent authentication."
Smith expects Bankers to realize additional benefits this year from the portal initiative, including increased field productivity, reduction of field administration by about two hours per day, faster, less-expensive training, and less expense incurred through travel to and communication with headquarters. In the meantime, she continues to drive her vision with the users.
"We designed the site targeted at our end user. To be honest, we needed to make this as easy to use as any site agents would use on their own, so making it as intuitive as possible was a big factor," she relates. "The agents and release management team are the ones driving our vision and functionality and ensuring there is consistent and timely communication available in the field."
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