Technology for Insurance

Open source software has certainly had an impact on the worlds of business and computing. The clearest example of this is the open source Apache web server. Netcraft (www.netcraft.com) reports that in June of 2007 it was the most popular web server on the public internet with more than 65 million sites being hosted on Apache servers. Microsoft’s IIS ran a distant 2nd with just under 44 million. That’s pretty amazing when you consider the muscle Microsoft has put into positioning their systems as being Internet ready.

So what is open source software and is it important to the insurance business. The idea behind open source software is an interesting one. A group of people deciding to collaborate on a piece of software to solve some problem they share is remarkable enough, but then to decide to share that software with anyone who wants it in the hope that they will work to improve it over time is profound indeed.

The natural question for me is “How can an insurance carrier, MGA or agent benefit from open source?”. There are open source projects that help to solve a wide range of problems that nearly all organizations in the insurance business have. Document management, business process management, OLAP, web services, the list is almost inexhaustible.

In future blogs I will look at specific open source projects and how they can benefit the insurance business.

It’s not an uncommon story. Management at the highest levels of the company identifies a need to have a centralized document repository to facilitate disaster recovery and document sharing. The IT department, swamped with other work, buys a product that looks like it might work and begins implementing it. When they start showing the new system to the business people (the people who will have to put documents into the system) they are confronted with resistance.

“We had hoped for automated workflow” and “It’s not fast enough in our remote offices” are common responses to their introduction to the new document management system. However, the most common response is “It will cost my department money. You can’t implement here”.

IT bought a solution that works with their preferred database, is easy for them to build integration with line of business applications and runs on the right operating system. What IT didn’t do is look at what is needed within their company beyond the bare basics of DR and document sharing. They didn’t evaluate what a document management system can do to empower front line business staff to do their job better and more efficiently.

While an objective of DM doesn’t have to be reducing labor related costs, this benefit shouldn’t be ignored. Changes in processes and additional staff to facilitate document scanning and indexing will cost money. If the DMS doesn’t provide any tools to allow managers to reduce costs elsewhere, the project to implement a new system is bound to receive an unfriendly reception.

This very scenario took place at a client of mine some time ago. In a financial services organization with a global foot print, the IT department at this client had purchased a DMS two weeks before they signed a contract with me to manage their DMS project. The product they purchased is a solid departmental product, but it provides no provision for managing content in the global environment the company maintains. The product fit into their technical environment, but it didn’t provide the ability to manage documents globally or any way to automate workflow. Both of these were seen to be key features of every business unit I met with early on in the project. However, IT didn’t consider any features of the product beyond their wish list.

How can your IT department avoid this sort of expensive mistake? It’s really very easy. Involve staff and management from across your company throughout your DMS project. Take the wish list and the concerns of business units seriously. Conversly, make sure that IT isn’t left out of the discussion. Their needs are important factors in the success of the project as well, but they aren’t the only factors.

Regardless of whether you are business or technology oriented keep your mind open to the needs of the other side. If you are bringing document management into your company, it’s vital that both business and technology concerns are addressed.

Bill Gates is rumored to have called the Insurance industry “the Amish” of the financial services world. I think a lot has changed since he made that comment, but it’s clear that there is still room for the Insurance business to improve the way it makes use of technology to improve customer service and bottom lines.

There are leaders in this trend of course, but many companies especially small and mid-sized companies are struggling to find ways to effectively leverage technologies like the Internet to improve their position in the market. I will use this space to discuss how powerful new technologies (and some not so new ones) are impacting the Insurance business.

Look for news soon!

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