Long journeys really do begin with a single step. The problem isthere are thousands of other steps along the way-and plenty ofopportunities to get lost.

The Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. (VFB) had reachedthe end of the road with its core operating system. The company hadbeen maintaining the system on its own for at least a decade, butthe system had reached its capacity for changes. Getting throughY2K was enough of a challenge for the insurer.

Jeff Fehn, IT director for the Farm Bureau, knew there was muchwork to be done to find the right replacement system. “There was ahuge amount of changes that were needed,” he said. The companysettled on a product from Sapiens that Fehn felt could modernizethe way VFB did business. One problem: The system didn't work fromthe start.

“It was a bad implementation,” Fehn said. “The project wasdeadline driven and that proved to be a disaster. It wasn't readyon time and it didn't clean up the problems that needed fixing. Itleft a bad taste in the mouths of our users.”

The Farm Bureau had to start over, this time with a core systemsreview that examined how the company operated and how, as amembership company, it had a special relationship with itsmember/customers.

Once Virginia Farm Bureau found its way, RFPs were sent toseveral vendors. “But we still couldn't find what we wanted,” Fehnsaid. “I had come from a niche market background, so I thought thiswould be easier. The parts seemed to work well, but not thewhole.”

Sometimes, though, the answer appears by accident; that was thecase for VFB. “We stumbled across AscendantOne,” Fehn said. “It'sfocused on customer service to the insured, and that's important toa membership company like ours. If we lose a customer we lose amember, too,” he explained.

Dealing with a vendor developing a new product would beworrisome for some companies, but Virginia Farm Bureau put adifferent spin on the arrangement. According to Fehn, VFB figuredAscendantOne couldn't afford to let its first big project fail.After experiencing one failure of its own, though, Fehn said VFB'seyes were wide open.

VFB began its search in January 2000. Last fall it hooked upwith AscendantOne, and completed a requirement study in January.The contracts were signed in April. With several lines of P&Cbusinesses, VFB wanted to ease into a new software solution. Itchose to open with BOPs, which go online this month after months oftesting.

Patience has been a key part of this installation. “We'rewilling to wait,” Fehn said. “We want to get it right.”

The Farm Bureau is incorporating AscendantOne's RateFocus andQuoteFocus into its system for the BOP coverage, allowing VFB toautomate a line that wasn't automated before. And because of thesoftware's XML interfaces, there was no need to overhaul FarmBureau's existing technology.

A measured layering of the new technology will ease the sting ofthe new implementation for VFB.”It was important that[AscendantOne] didn't propose an unrealistic big-bang methodologyfor new technology deployment,” Fehn said. “There is a lot of valuein our current systems, and this rounds out our existinginfrastructure.”

Auto and homeowners policies will follow early next year. Thesecoverages will take other aspects of AscendantOne's Front OfficeSuite, PolicyFocus, which manages policies in real time, andClientFocus, a CRM solution that complements the policy system.

Training has worked well in small measures. “We continue to beimpressed with what we're getting from AscendantOne,” Fehn said.“It's good to react to problems and it's willing to stand next toyou while the problems are solved.”

That's an important point for the Virginia Farm Bureau, whichwants all of its deals to taste as sweet as some of those deliciousVirginia peaches.

THE COMPANY: Virginia Farm Bureau
TOTAL WRITTEN PREMIUM: $150 million
WEB SITE: www.vafb.com

THE PRODUCT: RateFocus and QuoteFocus fromAscendantOne Technologies
WEB SITE: www.ascendantone.com