This month: Michigan Construction Industry Mutuals Todd Stuewer and VirginiaFarm Bureaus Jeffrey Fehn

Todd Stuewer
Michigan Construction Industry Mutual
An opportunity with a new company led to a promotionand probably the greatest job satisfaction of his career.

Starting up an insurance company is somewhat rarethere arent that many formed in any given yearbut the birth of a new mutual insurance company is indeed a rarity. And Michigan has one of the newest ones; well, sort of.

Michigan Construction Industry Mutual (MCIM) is a Michigan-only workers comp insurance carrier. Officially, it was born in 2000, but essentially it is a rebirth of an earlier entity, Michigan Construction Industry Self-Insurance Fund. Back in 1980, the construction industry in Michigan was experiencing a severe inability to get insurance at affordable rates, or even at all. The Michigan Association of Homebuilders spearheaded an effort to start a self-insurance fund, and the resulting organization became one of the states largest self-insurance funds. In 2000, it became a mutual carrier.

Were in a very good position, says Todd Stuewer, MCIMs new vice president of information technology, speaking about the state of the companys internal systems. In preparation for becoming a mutual carrier in 2000, we reviewed and purchased new application systems in 1999, so we really have no legacy issues to deal with. The new carrier is growing conservatively and writes quality contractors and manufacturers that adhere to safety and loss-prevention practices.

We have six loss-prevention consultantsout of a 60-person companywho are out in the field every day visiting job sites. We also have field underwriters who visit our 80 agencies. They all connect to our internal client-server systems using portable computers with high-speed wireless modems over a secure Citrix connection to access our Tropics policy processing system, which includes a loss-prevention module we use extensively. Stuewer claims MCIMs Verizon wireless system costs less and delivers faster throughput than conventional dial-up modems.

Stuewers expertise in the details of the statistics, plans, and achievements of MCIM makes it obvious he has immersed himself deeply into the company. He joined MCIM in January 2002, coming from another larger Michigan-based insurance carrier. His entire 27-year career has been in IT, starting in the IT consulting division of a CPA firm. Although his background was invested heavily in the IBM mid-range computer area, hes now a strong proponent of the PC-based architecture MCIM uses. In April 2003, MCIM promoted him to his current position.

We run Microsoft networks on Dell servers that are absolutely bullet-proof, Stuewer states, pointing out MCIM has had no unscheduled down-time in the 16 months hes been with the company. The insurer is a 100 percent Dell shop and is happy that way. There also is a very tight schedule for loading patches and very strong physical and password security systems. In 2002, MCIM moved into its own state-of-the-art building, which also includes a modern computer facility with improved security. Stuewer says the HIPAA and GLB issues that apply to medical insurance may apply to workers compensation at some point, and MCIM wants to be ready.

Stuewer and his staff of five support the hardware plant and three primary software systems. They use Tropics for their underwriting, policy issuance, and loss-prevention activities. Tropics specializes in workers compensation im-plementations and runs on an Oracle database. Claims are handled with a GenSource system. The general ledger is on a MAS 90 accounting system.

Looking forward, Stuewer explains MCIM has multiple strategic projects that will impact its agents, policyholders, and internal processes. True to the companys workers comp focus, the initial piece will be an electronic first report of injury capability. Anything we can do to speed up the processing of a claim helps the insureds and gets the money to their employees faster.

Although Stuewers background is with larger companies, he claims MCIM is more committed to technology and makes faster and more supportive decisions about IT than hes experienced in past positions, and it shows in his job satisfaction. He adds: This job has been the most fun of any in my career.

Jeffrey Fehn, CPCU
Virginia Farm Bureau
Not only has this IT director made successful transitions in his career, hes now transitioning his systems off a mainframe to be more customer-centric.

From Madison Avenue to Madison County might make a good title for a book or article about Jeff Fehns journey from his first job in an advertising agency to his current position as director of information technology for the Virginia Farm Bureau (VFB).

There are a couple of hitches, though. While Fehn began his career in advertising, he actually didnt start on Madison Avenue. After studying public and corporate communications at Butler University in Indianapolis (where he also played basketball), he graduated in 1978 and entered the ad world, working for a local firm. And Richmond, Va., where he ended up, isnt quite as rural as the Iowa countryside portrayed in Robert James Wallers best-selling novel, The Bridges of Madison County. But its not a bad analogy and even kind of catchy.

Shortly after launching his career, Fehn found the advertising industry tightening up from a recession, and Indianapolis-based American States Insurance Company was expanding its programming department. Having enjoyed an exposure to programming in college, he joined American States. Fehn spent five years there, followed by a couple of years with insurance software vendor PALLM.

Accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand recruited him as an IT auditor, and he worked his way up to manager of the Indianapolis office. The next step would have been a similar position in a larger market, Fehn says, and that was something neither I nor my family was interested in. Taking advantage of an opportunity his wife had, they moved to Richmond, and Fehn spent eight years with Markel, a major carrier based there.

In October 1999, the position of director of IT opened up at Virginia Farm Bureau, and Fehn got the job. Farm Bureaus are a little different from other insurance companies, as Fehn explains: The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation was formed in 1926 to support local farmers, provide a legislative agenda, and otherwise provide services to farmers. There are 88 county Farm Bureaus [in Virginia], and this is truly a grass-roots organization. The insurance company was established in 1950 as an additional member service at a time when farmers were having trouble getting coverage.

Today, the carrier (Virginia Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company) employs 599 of the combined 686 employees, has most of the revenue (of course), and the vast majority of its 142,000 members have at least one policy. Its the largest domestic carrier domiciled in Virginia, with about $181 million in premium. The Virginia Farm Bureau Federation, however, still pursues a very active legislative agenda and provides many other non-insurance services to its members. Fehn is responsible for the IT operations of both entities and supports all of it with only 48 employees.

The biggest thing we have going, he says, is were transitioning off the mainframe. Weve signed a license agreement with AscendantOnewere its first customerand were adopting its Quote-Focus, PolicyFocus, and Client-Focus suite of products. Fehn goes on to explain the carriers older CSC (originally PMSC) system is policy-centric, whereas the newer system is customer-centric. Thats a key distinction for what essentially is a membership organization. One example, he adds, is well be able to bill our membership fees out of the same system instead of a separate one. He points out the systems client-centric nature will allow agents (each of whom is a company employee) and managers to see all the quotes, policies, and membership information for their customers by looking in one place. VFB already is operational for quoting on its first line, business owners, and it is working on others. The goal is to be totally off the mainframe in the 2005 to 2006 time frame, he asserts.

As part of the process of leaving the mainframe, VFB is converting its stored policy data from DecView to Optical Image Technologys DocFinity system. Thats a server-based system, with a Web interface, he says.

Getting access to good data is important to Fehn. VFB now is in the final stages of implementing Millbrooks BEACON data warehouse. When I first got here, he explains, our information was in different systems, so the reports had to be synchronized. Now everyone will have all the information they need, and it will be all in one place.

While his career didnt stay in one place or even one field, Fehn believes he benefited from his path. I learned things in each job that helped with later ones, he confirms. When I was writing copy in an advertising agency, for example, I learned to get the key idea across, right away, and with as few words as possible. That really helps as I deal with our vendors, our agents, and all our internal customers and management.