The future growth of Anchor General Insurance depended on the carrier's ability to streamline manual business functions, such as underwriting. That's why the writer of nonstandard auto turned to an old friend, DRC, to deliver a business rules solution to automate the underwriting process. "We wanted to streamline our rules and be more consistent with our underwriting guidelines," says John Amat, vice president of information systems with the insurer.

Anchor General had developed a positive relationship with DRC over a 12-year period, and when the decision was made to pursue the automated underwriting process, DRC was one of three vendors the carrier looked to for a solution. "We decided to go with DRC because it knew our business so well and we have a great business relationship," says Amat. "We wanted to partner with someone we trusted."

The selection process took about six months, but the installation was a much bigger issue, according to Amat. "We basically had to go through the underwriters' minds, pick their brains, and determine what they look for when examining risks," he says. Those findings were interpreted into business rules, and the rules then were automated. "We reviewed all the risks the underwriters accept or reject," says Amat. "We took about 1,000 risks and pieced together the decision-making process."