Change is an everyday occurrence in the insurance industry. But it's how carriers react to change that differentiates the leaders from the also-rans. For Amica Mutual Insurance, importing third-party reports helped the carrier make important underwriting and rating decisions, but far too often, the reports required the carrier's IT department to make changes before the business units could glean necessary information from them.
"We would get a report, and our systems would opt out because we weren't aware of a particular change," says Mary Ann Palumbo, an Amica assistant vice president in sales and client services. "The problem kept the IT department constantly having to look for and install the changes. We wanted to use our IT resources for other projects."
Amica uses a variety of third-party data such as motor vehicle reports, Comprehen-sive Loss Underwriting Exchange reports, and insurance bureau scores, according to Palumbo. "We prefill reports, we get reports on youthful discovery, and we also have another product we use to check the motor vehicle reports," she says.
To get the most from those reports, Amica stores them in its Business Informa-tion Analysis System (BIAS) from Systems Consulting Services Inc. (SCSI).
BIAS is "just one database, which makes it easier from an IT standpoint," adds Darlene Major, assistant vice president in Amica's corporate information systems department. What Major says she likes about SCSI is the diverse product set. Plus, Amica was able to get the capabilities from the BIAS product online, which the carrier maintains was needed to improve service for its customers.
The relationship between Amica and its vendor has been a solid partnership, notes Palumbo. "In some cases, we were the first [insurer] to use a certain consumer report with [SCSI]," she says. "We have worked cooperatively together. [The cooperation] was good for SCSI and good for us."
SCSI is updating its BIAS product with a new version known as jBIAS. Although Amica has not committed to jBIAS yet, Major indicates the carrier is studying all aspects of the system. "We're looking to modernize our existing underwriting application system, which possibly could send us onto a distributed platform," she says. jBIAS has some Java-based interfaces, explains Major, and also can be run on a distributed platform. "We are testing to see whether it is a viable option at this point," she says. "We've had a couple of challenges, but SCSI is working with us on those. Every problem we have encountered thus far has been addressed. If we don't move forward with jBIAS, we'll definitely still use BIAS. We know we can wrap the existing version that resides on the mainframe and use that. We still are assessing the jBIAS product right now."
The advantages BIAS offers Amica, states Palumbo, include the ability to streamline the carrier's workflow. "[Business users] can stay in one system and actually review the reports they have access to," she says. "It also allows our IT department to focus on new initiatives instead of making changes in reports."
All of those changes can mount up, according to Major. For example, there are numerous state changes to the state violation codes, which in the past the IT department would have to be involved with. "Using BIAS takes us out of that [pattern] so we don't have to perform regular maintenance [on the reports], and we can focus our resources on other projects the business side wants to get done," she says.
Amica's business strategy, Palumbo explains, is to be the best at selling and servicing its customers. "So, anything that streamlines our workflows for our customer service representatives is what we look for, and [the BIAS product] has allowed us to do that," she says.
Major concedes with any software implementation there are issues to be resolved, but SCSI has been cooperative in working with Amica to handle any issues the carrier has encountered, particularly when Amica is introducing new insurance products. "Prefill [of reports] was a huge win for the business community," says Major. "It's all been relatively smooth."
Amica has some complex integrations in place, continues Major. "Beyond my applications group, we have to involve the specialized services area and the product administration area, so there are several areas within IT that focus on this," she says. "[BIAS] has helped greatly in terms of the resources we had to put in place."
The use of BIAS also has meant Amica has been able to eliminate sending routine maintenance changes to its IT department. And for the business users, says Palumbo, "it's one place for us to look for information."
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