Todd Stuewer
Michigan Construction Industry Mutual
An opportunity with a new company led to a promotionandprobably the greatest job satisfaction of hiscareer.

Starting up an insurance company is somewhat rarethere arentthat many formed in any given yearbut the birth of a new mutualinsurance company is indeed a rarity. And Michigan has one of thenewest ones; well, sort of.

Michigan Construction Industry Mutual (MCIM) is a Michigan-onlyworkers comp insurance carrier. Officially, it was born in 2000,but essentially it is a rebirth of an earlier entity, MichiganConstruction Industry Self-Insurance Fund. Back in 1980, theconstruction industry in Michigan was experiencing a severeinability to get insurance at affordable rates, or even at all. TheMichigan Association of Homebuilders spearheaded an effort to starta self-insurance fund, and the resulting organization became one ofthe states largest self-insurance funds. In 2000, it became amutual carrier.

Were in a very good position, says Todd Stuewer, MCIMs new vicepresident of information technology, speaking about the state ofthe companys internal systems. In preparation for becoming a mutualcarrier in 2000, we reviewed and purchased new application systemsin 1999, so we really have no legacy issues to deal with. The newcarrier is growing conservatively and writes quality contractorsand manufacturers that adhere to safety and loss-preventionpractices.

We have six loss-prevention consultantsout of a 60-personcompanywho are out in the field every day visiting job sites. Wealso have field underwriters who visit our 80 agencies. They allconnect to our internal client-server systems using portablecomputers with high-speed wireless modems over a secure Citrixconnection to access our Tropics policy processing system, whichincludes a loss-prevention module we use extensively. Stuewerclaims MCIMs Verizon wireless system costs less and delivers fasterthroughput than conventional dial-up modems.

Stuewers expertise in the details of the statistics, plans, andachievements of MCIM makes it obvious he has immersed himselfdeeply into the company. He joined MCIM in January 2002, comingfrom another larger Michigan-based insurance carrier. His entire27-year career has been in IT, starting in the IT consultingdivision of a CPA firm. Although his background was investedheavily in the IBM mid-range computer area, hes now a strongproponent of the PC-based architecture MCIM uses. In April 2003,MCIM promoted him to his current position.

We run Microsoft networks on Dell servers that are absolutelybullet-proof, Stuewer states, pointing out MCIM has had nounscheduled down-time in the 16 months hes been with the company.The insurer is a 100 percent Dell shop and is happy that way. Therealso is a very tight schedule for loading patches and very strongphysical and password security systems. In 2002, MCIM moved intoits own state-of-the-art building, which also includes a moderncomputer facility with improved security. Stuewer says the HIPAAand GLB issues that apply to medical insurance may apply to workerscompensation at some point, and MCIM wants to be ready.

Stuewer and his staff of five support the hardware plant andthree primary software systems. They use Tropics for theirunderwriting, policy issuance, and loss-prevention activities.Tropics specializes in workers compensation im-plementations andruns on an Oracle database. Claims are handled with a GenSourcesystem. The general ledger is on a MAS 90 accounting system.

Looking forward, Stuewer explains MCIM has multiple strategicprojects that will impact its agents, policyholders, and internalprocesses. True to the companys workers comp focus, the initialpiece will be an electronic first report of injury capability.Anything we can do to speed up the processing of a claim helps theinsureds and gets the money to their employees faster.

Although Stuewers background is with larger companies, he claimsMCIM is more committed to technology and makes faster and moresupportive decisions about IT than hes experienced in pastpositions, and it shows in his job satisfaction. He adds: This jobhas been the most fun of any in my career.

Jeffrey Fehn, CPCU
Virginia Farm Bureau
Not only has this IT director made successful transitions inhis career, hes now transitioning his systems off a mainframe to bemore customer-centric.

From Madison Avenue to Madison County might make a good titlefor a book or article about Jeff Fehns journey from his first jobin an advertising agency to his current position as director ofinformation technology for the Virginia Farm Bureau (VFB).

There are a couple of hitches, though. While Fehn began hiscareer in advertising, he actually didnt start on Madison Avenue.After studying public and corporate communications at ButlerUniversity in Indianapolis (where he also played basketball), hegraduated in 1978 and entered the ad world, working for a localfirm. And Richmond, Va., where he ended up, isnt quite as rural asthe Iowa countryside portrayed in Robert James Wallers best-sellingnovel, The Bridges of Madison County. But its not a bad analogy andeven kind of catchy.

Shortly after launching his career, Fehn found the advertisingindustry tightening up from a recession, and Indianapolis-basedAmerican States Insurance Company was expanding its programmingdepartment. Having enjoyed an exposure to programming in college,he joined American States. Fehn spent five years there, followed bya couple of years with insurance software vendor PALLM.

Accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand recruited him as an ITauditor, and he worked his way up to manager of the Indianapolisoffice. The next step would have been a similar position in alarger market, Fehn says, and that was something neither I nor myfamily was interested in. Taking advantage of an opportunity hiswife had, they moved to Richmond, and Fehn spent eight years withMarkel, a major carrier based there.

In October 1999, the position of director of IT opened up atVirginia Farm Bureau, and Fehn got the job. Farm Bureaus are alittle different from other insurance companies, as Fehn explains:The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation was formed in 1926 to supportlocal farmers, provide a legislative agenda, and otherwise provideservices to farmers. There are 88 county Farm Bureaus [inVirginia], and this is truly a grass-roots organization. Theinsurance company was established in 1950 as an additional memberservice at a time when farmers were having trouble gettingcoverage.

Today, the carrier (Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual InsuranceCompany) employs 599 of the combined 686 employees, has most of therevenue (of course), and the vast majority of its 142,000 membershave at least one policy. Its the largest domestic carrierdomiciled in Virginia, with about $181 million in premium. TheVirginia Farm Bureau Federation, however, still pursues a veryactive legislative agenda and provides many other non-insuranceservices to its members. Fehn is responsible for the IT operationsof both entities and supports all of it with only 48 employees.

The biggest thing we have going, he says, is were transitioningoff the mainframe. Weve signed a license agreement withAscendantOnewere its first customerand were adopting itsQuote-Focus, PolicyFocus, and Client-Focus suite of products. Fehngoes on to explain the carriers older CSC (originally PMSC) systemis policy-centric, whereas the newer system is customer-centric.Thats a key distinction for what essentially is a membershiporganization. One example, he adds, is well be able to bill ourmembership fees out of the same system instead of a separate one.He points out the systems client-centric nature will allow agents(each of whom is a company employee) and managers to see all thequotes, policies, and membership information for their customers bylooking in one place. VFB already is operational for quoting on itsfirst line, business owners, and it is working on others. The goalis to be totally off the mainframe in the 2005 to 2006 time frame,he asserts.

As part of the process of leaving the mainframe, VFB isconverting its stored policy data from DecView to Optical ImageTechnologys DocFinity system. Thats a server-based system, with aWeb interface, he says.

Getting access to good data is important to Fehn. VFB now is inthe final stages of implementing Millbrooks BEACON data warehouse.When I first got here, he explains, our information was indifferent systems, so the reports had to be synchronized. Noweveryone will have all the information they need, and it will beall in one place.

While his career didnt stay in one place or even one field, Fehnbelieves he benefited from his path. I learned things in each jobthat helped with later ones, he confirms. When I was writing copyin an advertising agency, for example, I learned to get the keyidea across, right away, and with as few words as possible. Thatreally helps as I deal with our vendors, our agents, and all ourinternal customers and management.