Client Co-operative Insurance Society Challenge Faced with a possible fall in its market share through increased competition, Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) needed to ensure its unique home service could compete in the e-driven insurance marketplace. It was also keen to reduce operating costs. Solution “When it came to interfacing with CIS’s IT infrastructure, COGEN from CSC, stood head and shoulders above its competition,” Morgan said. She continues “COGEN enables CIS to focus on its core business and allows it to get on with developing new insurance products. Results Enhanced customer service Accurate policy documents issued in as little as 24 hours Up to 30% savings on rate revisions Motor policy take-up increased by 30% Allows field sales teams access to all CIS applications Shorter time to market Business users in control Significant savings in IT resource For more information: To learn more about CSC's offerings, contact us.

In today’s cost-sensitive marketplace, where loyalty has been replaced by attractive price tags in the minds of many consumers, CIS remains faithful to its home service, appearing at odds with industry trends. “CIS is a very traditional and very successful company. Our customers have always been very loyal and have a special relationship with us. We needed to reciprocate by streamlining our service,” says Kathryn Morgan, the project manager who was responsible for evaluating CIS’s general insurance systems and finding a long-term solution to the company’s needs.

She adds: “Our marketplace has changed dramatically in recent times and we needed to enhance our customer relationship management system to keep pace with the e-commerce world. But while old-fashioned service values remain a vital part of our business, technology has an equally important role to play in sustaining our market position.”

Function, Flexibility and Partnership
With a corporate decision to buy in a new non-life administration system, Morgan’s team began a six-month evaluation of suitable solutions. Morgan claims that this was one of the most detailed business and IT evaluations that any vendor has ever had to endure. She adds: “Choosing the right solution was not simply about business functionality but about finding an adaptable system and a partner comfortable working in a co-operative environment. When it came to interfacing with CIS’s IT infrastructure, one system, COGEN from CSC, stood head and shoulders above its competition”.

Unlike most other insurance companies, which are reducing their direct sales operations in favour of telephone and internet-based methods, CIS is investing in its national network of sales representatives. The company has given each of them a laptop to provide quotations for life and non-life business and these systems are now fundamental to the company’s sales strategy. They enable the representatives to sell more effectively, as well as reducing the administrative burden. “It was a major benefit to us that COGEN functionality could be compiled for use on the laptops,” says Morgan.

Enhanced Service, Reduced Costs and New Business
Customers have benefited significantly since the implementation of the COGEN administrative system, according to Gary Heathcote, a member of Kathryn Morgan’s project team. “Before”, he says, “it was taking up to six weeks to issue a policy document. With COGEN and the laptops, we can cut this process down to 24 hours. Such is the dramatic difference brought by the new system.”

Under the old system all forms were completed manually, with 20 per cent needing referral due to human error. With COGEN and the laptop system, CIS has a number of underwriting and rating rules to reduce these. Heathcote adds: “The number of policies being re-issued has dropped from six per cent per week to virtually zero. When you consider that we are currently writing around 11,000 new policies each week, this represents a huge saving”.

“A major saving that we didn’t anticipate when we installed COGEN is when we make rate revisions,” says Heathcote. “We now save up to 30 per cent on the cost of a traditional rate revision. Involvement of IT staff is significantly reduced because COGEN’s flexibility allows authorised business users themselves to alter many values and tables.

“We have benefited from significant savings in IT resource and improved the process by which rate revisions can now be implemented. It means that we can react much quicker to market trends. And when it comes to the take-up rate for new policies – well, the streamlined, efficient process makes getting business much easier and, as a result, we are able to sell more.”

Cost-Effective Package
The total cost of the system, including consultancy and development work, is around £12 million, spread over five years. Morgan says: “It has proved more cost-effective to implement a package than to develop a solution. When you try to develop a system in-house, you aim for a 100 per cent fit, although you never achieve it. With CSC, we reckoned we could get an 80 per cent fit but it would be cheaper and quicker. This has proved to be the case.”

Kathryn Morgan says COGEN enables CIS to focus on its core business and allows it to get on with developing new insurance products. She says: “It clears the way for CIS to implement its strategy of getting closer to customers. Our aim is to have less IT involvement,” she adds, “and to let the business side carry out a lot of product development work within COGEN. This will enable the company to move forward more quickly and to achieve shorter timescales to market.”

Kathryn Morgan stresses how smoothly the implementation went. “Our culture is very different from other insurance companies but the CSC staff seemed to understand where we were coming from. An important word in CIS is ‘reflect.’ We are encouraged to take time to reflect on everything we do. Then, when we make a decision for example, it is the right decision. CSC quickly grasped this approach and worked along with us.”

In this faceless e-commerce age, when most things can be bought over the telephone or the Internet, the benefits of face-to-face contact have not been forgotten at CIS. “COGEN has been a catalyst for change within the company,” says Kathryn Morgan. “This project really has made a difference and will help us to continue blending traditional values with modern technology. This, in turn, will enable us to continue providing a high quality, one-stop, personalised financial planning service.” She concludes: “CSC and COGEN have helped us to achieve that”.