Chris Haines, assistant vice president of technical operations at Buckeye State Mutual, is putting the finishing touches on one of two projects that have defined his career at this regional property/casualty insurance company.

By the end of this year, Buckeye, headquartered in Piqua, Ohio, plans to complete the rollout of an online rating, quoting, and endorsement system for homeowner policies for its independent agencies. A version for auto transactions was completed in 2004.

The Web-based rating system, developed by Buckeye with help from Interactive Business Systems, comes on the heels of a major policy administration conversion system that changed the way Buckeye operates.
Were doing things now we could only dream about doing five years ago, Haines says.

Back in 1999, Buckeye decided to replace its homegrown legacy mainframe system with Applied Systems client-server Diamond System. At the time, Haines and his staff were spending too much time and money patching the past, as he puts it. It also was becoming increasingly difficult to hire employees with the right skill sets and to train new users.

Converting its policies to Diamond (which is maintained by Insuresoft LLC, formerly a division of Applied Systems) helped Buckeye reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve staff efficiency. The three-tiered product has a Visual Basic front end and a SQL server on the back end. The middle tier, or business layer, was developed in a way that allows interaction not only between Diamond and its proprietary client but also with company Web sites, as well.

When we first went into this proj-ect, we only wanted to migrate our system, Haines explains. The Web was just a big dream. But because of all the things Diamond has done for us, we were able to move ahead with our Web plans much quicker than we expected.

As they began working on the online rating system, Haines and his team had just one goal in mindease of use for Buckeyes agencies. We are not the first company to do online rating, Haines admits. But five years from now, when all the companies are doing it, we want ours to be the easiest to use for our agencies. It isnt going to be the fanciest, but it is going to be the most user-friendly.

To that end, the interface, nicknamed the Wizard, was developed jointly by IT and underwriting. Too many failed IT projects are the result of IT departments not receiving any input from anyone else, Haines points out. The success of this project was due to the interaction between IT and other departments that know what the agencies need better than we do.

Buckeye, which employs 70 people, sells insurance through 150 agencies in five midwestern states. During one week in March, the company processed close to 800 auto transactions through the Web, a number Haines calls phenomenal for a company Buckeyes size. Last year, Buckeyes written premium was nearly $51 million.

Haines, who joined Buckeye in 1998, has been interested in computers since he was younghe wrote his first large computer program (with 400-plus lines) when he was in fourth grade. While growing up, he also spent a lot of time at Buckeye, where his father worked. R. Douglas Haines now is the companys president and chief executive officer.

I grew up as part of the Buckeye family, Haines says. But the last thing I wanted to do when I got older was work in insurance or work at Buckeye.

With that in mind, Haines originally majored in art at Wright State University in Dayton. He eventually switched to computers and graduated with a bachelors degree in business, with a concentration in management information systems.

As time went on, Haines attitude about working at Buckeye changed. In 1998, while finishing up his degree, he was hired as a network analyst. Haines soon became a business analyst, working on IT projects and helping the company streamline processes. Shortly thereafter, he was asked to manage the two-person mailroom.

In 2001, Haines was promoted to manager of technical operations and continued working on the migration to the new policy administration system. He was promoted to assistant vice president in 2004 and currently oversees 11 full-time employees and one part-timer.

With two major IT projects almost complete, Haines plans to focus on improving Internet security and strengthening Buckeye Online, the companys agency portal. We have no large projects on the horizon right now, he adds, but you never know in our industry whats going to happen.

is a freelance business writer based in Charlotte, N.C.

Special Reports /

Buckeye State Mutual&#039;s Chris Haines

Related Stories

Recommended For You

Buckeye State Mutual's Chris Haines