Consumers today–especially those buying personal auto insurance,for example–expect to purchase new policies, pay bills or changecoverage parameters at any time, day or night, via the Web.

Insurance companies not offering self-service capabilities tocustomers on a 24x7x365 basis could be losing business.

Obviously, there are hurdles to creating successful self-serviceportals, or every insurance company would be doing it.

However, state-of-the-art Web 2.0technologies utilized in conjunction with a service-orientedarchitecture-based policy administration system make buildingsecure, custom direct-to-consumer portals practical for insurancecompanies of all sizes.

That said, it's no secret that automating critical businessprocesses–including policy administration, underwriting andbilling–can help property and casualty insurers achieve andmaintain a distinct competitive advantage. Self-service cancertainly be seen as a microcosm of an insurance company'stechnology strategy, with some extra demands thrown in as well.

As always, there is information to be acted on automatically,thereby lowering costs, and exceptions can be routed elsewhere.

Fortunately–or unfortunately, depending on yourperspective–self-service is typically delivered via the Web, andthe Web requires everything to happen instantly. (Keep in mind,“everything” includes not only what your company requires, but alsowhat the customer wants. It's a win-win situation.)

The tight integration of an SOA-based core system is almost anecessity for implementing company-specific rules and leveragingboth the valuable data within your system and data via Web Servicesin real-time.

Once an insurance company decides self-service capabilities arenecessary for customer satisfaction, it's time to ask: “Which kindsof functionality are key to building successful self-serviceportals?”

Keep in mind, the goal should be to fully automate onlinequoting, online sales and consumer self-service.

Today, the most powerful self-service portals utilize dataanalytics and sophisticated statistical analysis to enableinsurance companies to more accurately view books of business,thereby empowering more informed marketing and product developmentdecisions.

Further, if insurance companies also want to consider buildingspecific portals for individual market segments, such as affinitygroups, Web Services such as geo-coding can be utilized soconsumers can select a local agent.

Insurance companies can also lower costs and increase customersatisfaction by offering self-service options that provide online,printable documents, including declaration pages, policies andinsurance cards for customers.

Providing online help during the quoting process throughlive-chat technology can be an option as well. No matter what isincluded, however, it is vital to offer a customer-friendlygraphical user interface that is also easy for the company'sbusiness and IT personnel to customize.

Also keep in mind that security is critical. With Internetsecurity breaches common, customers want to know that their privateinformation is protected from loss or theft. Insurance companiesmust also guard against incidents that could damage the company'scredibility and reputation.

Thus, all traffic to systems should pass through a securesockets layer (SSL) and be encrypted, and that fact should becommunicated to customers clearly and often. Further, user accessto policies should depend on a strict owner verification processinvolving the provision of multiple artifacts detailing personaland policy information.

Making self-service work requires insurers to employ asophisticated rules engine to manage the full range of portal usercapabilities.

If all rules are satisfied and there are no red flags requiringunderwriting review, customers should be able to navigatecompletely through to policy issuance with no underwriterintervention.

Of course, company-specific business rules may require that anindividual entry be reviewed and approved by underwriting. In thatcase, the self-service system must automatically alert theunderwriter and provide the information for the proper review.

Here again, SOA systems shine since it is easy to reconfiguresuch systems for new rules and in providing the data the rules actupon.

What integration issues may arise when implementing self-serviceportals? Connection through SSL combining content from multiplesources is not easy.

The trickiest part is creating screens and workflow that meetbusiness needs and are equally easy to understand for the averageconsumer. Self-service systems should be built with very flexibletechnology, ideally SOA–with its clear universal definitionsthroughout the core systems, which allows for integration of thissort.

With customers more aware than ever of the value they receivefor insurance dollars, there is a clear need in the industry fornew types of customer-facing technologies matching those offered byother industries.

By implementing self-service capabilities is an immediateway–with a quickly measured return on investment–insurancecompanies can use technology to build deeper customerrelationships, increase both retention and new business, appeal toa younger demographic, and gain a competitive advantage.

Andy Scurto is president of San Jose,California-based ISCS Inc., a provider of P&C policyadministration systems. He can be reached at [email protected].