Document Composition Software Puts Insurers, Agents, Clients OnThe Same Page

In today's totally connected world, consumers expect immediateanswers

One of the most annoying customer service issues facing carrierstoday is the rather mundane issue of timing. When policies andother documents are sent to insureds, they're also sent to theagents who represent them, but due to the vagaries of the postalservice, insureds sometimes receive the paper before theiragents.

If they then have a question about the document and call theagent for an answer, the embarrassed agent has to say, "I don'tknow. I haven't received my copy yet."

Consumers expect better than that in today's connectedworld.

Consider the history of customer/agent communication: Onehundred years ago, if insureds had questions about their policies,they would send letters to the company and be satisfied if they gotan answer in the mail within a week. Fifty years ago, they wouldcall the carrier, pose their question, and expect a call back thatday.

Twenty years ago, they would expect their question to beanswered while they were on the phone, although they'd understandif they had to be transferred or put on hold. Now, consumers expectthe person who answers the phone to be able to access theinformation they need to answer the question.

How can carriers ensure that agents always have the relevantdocuments before their customers do? There are a couple oftechnology options that can deliver the goods on time.

Document Composition

Most carriers have a policy administration system that managesthe information about its customers and their coverage. Thesesystems do a great job of keeping track of all the informationabout the policies, but they don't always provide the kind ofprinted output the carrier requires. The carrier may want to alterthe system's output for any number of reasons:

o Print on both sides of the paper.

o Convert the output to something that can be run on ahigh-speed printer for large volumes.

o Add personalized marketing messages to their customercommunications.

o Add charts or graphs to make statements easier tounderstand.

o Simply change the layout of the information.

The technology used to alter the output of policy administrationand other back-office computer systems is called documentcomposition software. It is a fairly new class of solutions thatemerged from the confluence of several older, more establishedtypes of technology.

Document composition evolved from these by taking subsets ofeach of their functionalities and adding the ability to includespecific information--unique to each document--on the fly.

In the case of the policy delivery process described above,imagine the carrier wants to insert a graph outlining the growth inthe insured's investment. The policy administration systemobviously contains this information, but can only print plain-textversions of the data in a pre-defined format.

The carrier must use document composition software to alter thedata coming off the policy administration system and create thedocument with the desired layout. Since every policyholder'sinformation will be different, each chart has to be createdindividually using data contained in the policy system output.

The document composition software performs all these tasks andautomatically routes the completed pages to the appropriateprinter. This takes care of the printed documents for the insureds,but what about the agents?

Enter The Internet

While the hard-copy policies are being printed for thecustomers, the same document composition software that created themcan also be making other output formats. One example would beAdobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), which is readable on anyPC. The PDF versions of the insureds' printed policies can beautomatically e-mailed to the appropriate agents in a few seconds,so they'll have exact facsimiles of the printed pages days earlierthan the insureds.

Another output option would be HTML (Hypertext Mark-upLanguage--the format that Web sites use to display information).Once rendered in HTML, the document would be ready for presentationin an agents-only secure Web portal or extranet.

This way, nothing--neither paper nor electronic--has to be sentto the agent. When they need to see a copy of their customer'spolicy, they can just log into the carrier's portal and view itonline, instantly.

Either one of these alternatives ensures that the agent hasaccess to customers' paperwork before the customers receive it inthe mail. This improves the service they deliver and makes thecustomers happy. Happier customers mean happier agents, leading toincreased agent retention rates.

Another benefit to the carrier is reduced document distributioncosts, including paper, toner, handling and postage.

This simple solution to an annoying problem is available tocarriers that have already invested in a document compositionsoftware package to create attractive printed output, presumingtheir software can accommodate the alternative output formats.

For those who have not required this type of software in thepast, purchasing and installing it doesn't have to be a hugecommitment of time or money. No changes are needed to existing backoffice systems, so the installation is quick andnon-disruptive.

Most document composition software can pay for itself in a fewquarters, based simply on reducing printing costs. And that doesn'teven include the "soft" benefits of happier customers andwell-informed agents.

Michel Chiasson is vice president of insurance sales atWhitehill Technologies Inc., based in Moncton, NB, Canada.

Caption, for shot of document being passed between two computermonitors:

Can insurers guarantee that agents always have relevantdocuments before their clients? There are tech products that candeliver the goods on time.