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

The Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. (VFB) had reached the end of the road with its core operating system. The company had been maintaining the system on its own for at least a decade, but the system had reached its capacity for changes. Getting through Y2K was enough of a challenge for the insurer.

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

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

The Farm Bureau had to start over, this time with a core systems review that examined how the company operated and how, as a membership company, it had a special relationship with its member/customers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Special Reports /

Virginia Farm Bureau/AscendantOne

Related Stories

Recommended For You