New and Improved

Though the software the company was running was adequate for many functions, Sompo Japan Insurance Company of America (New York) had two good reasons to replace its legacy policy administration system - it was costly to maintain and it lacked Web compatibility. According to Linda Moon, Sompo Japan America's business integration manager, the objective behind upgrading the system was to improve the efficiency, speed and accuracy of the policy issuance process.

The insurer's first and only choice was Commercial Intellisys from Insurity (Hartford), a ChoicePoint (Alpharetta, Ga.) subsidiary. Sompo ($339 million in total assets) had relied on Insurity's DOS-based Gen-a-rate product and was satisfied with its performance, but to bring policy administration online, the carrier needed another solution. Additionally, increasing maintenance costs for the legacy application made the decision to upgrade more cost-effective. "The maintenance costs for the DOS product were very close to what the maintenance costs would be for the Internet-based product," Moon explains.

An updated version of the Gen-a-rate system, Commercial Intellisys (CII) does more than improve efficiency - it empowers Sompo with e-business capabilities, Moon relates. For example, "Insurity's Virtual Policy feature will allow us to view policies online before sending them to brokers and insureds," she says.

Empowering E-Business

According to Moon, to minimize business disruptions, Sompo decided to implement the system in phases, beginning with new business. Workers' compensation went live Aug. 1, and the remaining lines of business - including package policies, commercial property and casualty, and auto - should be live by the end of the third quarter. The workers' comp renewal business will be migrated to the new system by Sept. 1 for November renewals. Additionally, Sompo plans to use the rollout to introduce an entirely new line of business - umbrella.

To determine each client's implementation needs, Insurity creates a customer requirements book, or CRB. Items such as line of business, policy production requirements and underwriting rules are examined against the company's processing needs and system requirements to create an implementation methodology. Moon says the exercise gave Sompo an opportunity to explore current processes and identify how the new system could improve operations. "We expect that the efficiencies gained by the new system will allow our processes to assume additional work," she notes.

Though Moon declines to specify cost or ROI figures, she stresses that Sompo already is realizing its goal of streamlining the policy issuance process, adding that the efficiencies gained from using the CII system also offer a competitive advantage. Rather than printing and mailing each policy, using CII, policies are viewed online and sent electronically. This saves the company time and money, but also improves service, Moon explains. "This should give us a competitive advantage in the marketplace," she asserts. Further, Moon anticipates that the process efficiencies will result in administrative cost savings. "We are hoping the product will save us adding additional staff," she adds.

Case Study Profile

Company

Sompo Japan Insurance Company of America

(New York; $339 million in total assets).

Lines of Business

Property and casualty lines.

Vendor/Technology

Insurity's (Hartford) Commercial Intellisys (CII) policy administration system.

Challenge

Improve policy issuance by replacing DOS-based policy admin system with a Web-based system.