When Chris Hunter joined The Hingham Group as vice president of IT four years ago, his mandate was simple: Move the carrier into the next generation of products to compete more effectively in the 21st century.

As an industry veteran with 35 years of systems development experience, Hunter predicted he could "whip everything into shape within six months"–even though he is the insurer's only full-time IT staff member.

While Hunter's plans have taken longer than expected, he has helped Hingham make significant progress. Projects include upgrading basic infrastructure, implementing imaging technology, and redesigning the company's Web site.

"Insurance companies in general and small property/casualty companies in particular aren't geared up for rapid change," Hunter contends. "I've been pushing Hingham through a lot of rapid change that has altered how the company operates, and the company has taken it extremely well."

Headquartered in Hingham, Mass., The Hingham Group has been in business for more than 175 years. The carrier, which employs about 65 people and averages $60 million in annual net premiums, sells property/casualty insurance through nearly 400 agents in all six New England states.

In 2002, Hunter was ready for a challenge and left software developer Allenbrook for The Hingham Group. Although some nonprogramming staff work part time in IT, Hunter essentially is a one-man department.

His first task was to upgrade the insurer's hardware. He replaced token-ring architecture with Ethernet, moved all servers from Windows NT to Windows 2000, and migrated all desktops to Windows XP. "Before I even could start the process of upgrading the business systems, I needed to upgrade a lot of the physical hardware," he says.

Hunter then focused on upgrading the company's Allenbrook system, Phoenix, originally installed in 1991. Once that was completed, he moved to imaging technology and, within a year, had installed ImageRight for both the underwriting and claims departments. "We've moved all of our current and historical documents out of hard-copy files and into ImageRight," Hunter notes. "Everything is digital now."

The next big project involved re-designing the company's Web site. Developed in the early 1990s, the site was maintained outside of Hingham, contained static information, and offered little value to its users.

"It was time to rethink what our Web site was supposed to do for us," Hunter indicates. "We needed something that was going to cater to the agents and provide them more of what they want."

The company hired Edgewater Technology to develop the site's database, security, and transactional aspects. The site layout and creative design was subcontracted to New Tilt, a Cambridge, Mass.-based Web design firm.

After three months of development, phase one of the redesigned Web site went live in January 2005. The new site provides enhanced functionality and streamlines and standardizes the use of forms by Hingham's agents. Rating and underwriting manuals now can be accessed online, saving the company time and printing costs.

In addition, the Web site's server currently is located on site, a change that gives Hunter the maintenance control he desired.

He expects to begin phase two, which likely will include billing and policy inquiries and agent experience and commission reports, in early 2006. Further enhancements to the site will be added each year.

"Our original intent was to develop a Web site that worked better than the one we had before," he says. "The return we anticipate is in the long term, when we begin providing more robust services for our agents."

Now that the redesigned Web site is up and running, Hunter's next assignment is to find a replacement for the Phoenix system. He believes emerging technologies will move the company in a totally new direction.

"The technology industry is on the verge of another paradigm shift," he says. "I think new solutions will be based on the Internet and have some kind of virtual environment where all data resides in infinite space. A lot will need to evolve before that's feasible, but I think that's where the technology is going."

Special Reports /

The Hingham Group's Chris Hunter

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