You dont need a crystal ball to see carriers are moving towardWeb services, and Providence Wash-ington Insurance, a RhodeIsland-based property/casualty insurer, recognized theinevitability. Ed Leveille, vice president, systems, and CIO forProvidence Washington, says, Looking into the future, you could seeour business moving toward Web services with our business partnersas wellboth our independent agents and organizations such as IVANSand Dun & Bradstreet.

Providence Washington didnt feel building its own integrationsystem would be the best course, so the company met with consultantGartner to plan out a course of action. Over a span of about 12months, Providence Washington used a search committee made upalmost entirely of information services staff members and narrowedthe field to three or four vendors, according to Leveille.Eventually the decision was made to choose Metaserver and itsBusiness Process Integration (BPI) software known as P/C CarrierIntegration Solution.

We chose Metaserver for three reasons, says Leveille. Thetransformation and load component was fairly strong in comparing itto the competition. The user interface for building the processflows through the various components and was very strong. Last, theROI, based on our figures, was going to be very short with theMetaserver solution as opposed to the other vendors.

Accepting real-time electronic transactions from the companysindependent agents can now be accomplished, thanks to the use ofthe Internet. This makes life easier for the information servicespeople at Providence Washington, but Leveille claims the businessside of the carrier drove the project. It was a business decision,he says. The business folks who work in conjunction with the agentsfelt the need to get these personal lines transactions doneelectronically versus the old way of faxing them in to the homeoffice.

Leveille believes there have been two significant advantages tothe new system. It has to do with quicker turnaround times, hesays. The second was it was going to save a lot of effort on theagents side.

He points out this is not strictly a deal between ProvidenceWashington and Metaserver, though. We also partnered with IVANS[using Transformation Station] and Software AG [using its databaseas a repository for transactions].

There are four pieces to the puzzle, says Leveille. They are allworking nicely together. We started the first installation inSeptember, and we should have this in pilot by the end of February,which I think is pretty quick.

The IVANS Transformation Station system has been especiallyvaluable, according to Leveille. Its one of the easiest ways for usto get the data from the agents, he says. Providence Washington hasapproximately 500 independent agents it works with.

Getting any new system ready for operation is a challenge,particularly in the translation of XML into Providence Washingtonsproprietary language. Its more of a business problem than a toolproblem, Leveille says. Some of my people didnt know the needs ofthe legacy system as well as they should havemore codes, there wasmissing data.

Thanks to Internet technology, the cost of the BPI system wasfairly minimal, according to Leveille, although he declined todiscuss exact figures. The big savings on our part is we shouldhave fewer data-entry people to physically enter the data, hesays.

Having to deal with so many organizations has been a challengefor Leveille. With so many hands in the pot, amazingly we stillhave been able to stay so close to the original target dates, hesays. I have a hard time staying that close to a project dateinternally. To do that with four different companies isamazing.

The goal for Providence Washington was to grow its business bymaking it easier for independent agents to work with the carrier.This will be accomplished by simplifying procedures, reducing thetime it takes to issue policies, and improving customer service,according to Leveille. This addresses our need to create a flexibleenvironment and provide opportunities to strengthen key agencyrelationships.

CaseFile
The Challenge:Determining the best strategy for integrating components.
THE COMPANY: Providence Washington Insurance
NET WRITTEN PREMIUM: $230 million
WEB SITE: www.provwash.com

The SOLUTION: P/C Carrier Integration Solution fromMetaserver
WEB SITE: www.metaserver.com