A mid-market carrier offers its peers and larger carriers valuable lessons for using new technology tools to maximize efficiency and meet agents’ needs.
Providence Washington Insurance is solidifying its position as a carrier of choice for its independent agents with its intelligent e-commerce initiatives. (See Table 1, below.) The company’s experience suggests that having a clear vision and picking the right tools can deliver results without breaking the bank.
"Sometimes technology innovation is triggered by the bigger carriers, who have more money to invest," says senior analyst Craig Weber, author of Celent's latest report, Providence Washington Case Study: Managing Technology Innovation. "Providence Washington is an example of how technology innovation can also come from a smaller carrier with a clear vision and a bias toward quick, incremental change. The company’s success is a model for all carriers."
| Catego | Initiative | Description |
| Business Functionality | Custom "front-end" administrative application | Provides role-based interface for company to manage Web-based interactions with agents and internal staff. Business users can access and maintain business rules and update workflows. |
| Interactive, real-time quoting, rating, and issue on agent’s Web site | Solidifies agent relationships by providing functionality and responsiveness they can’t get anywhere else. | |
| Rules-based intelligence and workflow | Improves data entry efficiency and automates assignments of rate class for most business. Also automates routing of cases in the home office. | |
| Agency management system upload/download capability | Increases convenience for agents, reduces re-keying errors, speeds new business process, and creates XML data to improve downstream processing. | |
| Straight-through processing | Replaces expensive "human interface" with real-time or near real-time automation and collaboration. | |
| Source: Celent Communications, Providence Washington | ||
| Category | Initiative | Description |
| Infrastructure | Use of Business Process Integration (BPI) tools | Allows company to model and define processes graphically and reuse many integration components. |
| Creation of a message queuing facility | Adds fault tolerance to system, enabling complex integration with both internal and vendor systems. | |
| Creation of rule repository | Allows re-use of rules common across lines of business. | |
| Table-based rules engine | Dramatically reduces time to make rule and rate changes, allows control by business users. | |
| Creation of an XML transaction database | Allows company to store transactions at a granular level for use in ad hoc reporting. | |
| Source: Celent Communications, Providence Washington | ||
The report describes how Providence Washington’s use of rules-based decisioning, business process integration tools, and ACORD XML have helped it improve services to agents on the front end of its new business processes and gain operational efficiencies on the back end.
