Tony Giroti is president and chairman of MaxSol. Mandy Pahooja is executive vice president engineering. The husband and wife team formed the Internet solutions provider four years ago.
The U.S. Army deployed an extranet on its personnel database in its European Command Theatre in less than a week. The U.S. Marines, Air Force and other data-sensitive organizations in other industries with complex value chains have deployed similar highly secure Web solutions in days.
Then insurance carriers, reinsurers, MGAs, third party administrators and agencies started deploying Web-based solutions and automating transactions amongst these participants--in days as opposed to lengthy development cycles which took months and years of development.
Who's behind getting these development efforts in high gear?
MaxSol. Now backed by insurance industry venture capitalists, MaxSol was founded four years ago by the husband and wife team of Tony Giroti and Mandy Pahooja. Its deliverables include software applications with pre-built policy, billing and claims modules that empower all participants within the insurance value-chain--reinsurers, carriers, and agencies. MaxSol is integrating with insurance industry standards such as AL3, ObjX, and XML as well as IIAA's ACT initiatives. The company is starting to offer a suite of applications for a few lines of business based upon ACORD's AL3 specifications. These applications offer policy, billing and claims modules and an appropriate set of ACORD-like forms that can be configured for each carrier's needs and state mandates. MaxSol's technology offers the flexibility to plug and play ObjX, DNAfs, CORBA, DCOM, EJB objects, via their Application Programming Interface, as insurance objects based upon these standards become available within the next few years.
Carriers can Web enable their existing systems as "black-box" applications and expedite their time to market without lengthy development cycles. Carriers can eliminate expensive disk distribution from their practice by offering Web-based rate quoting. Allowing agencies to submit new policies and claims via the Web expedites policy issuance and claims processing, improves customer service and automates transactions and communication between the carrier and its agencies. Agencies can now access policy, billing and claims information in a highly secure and controlled way from the Web when and how they need it.
By deploying MaxSol's ready applications and predefined packaged modules, carriers such as Farmers are rapidly Web-enabling their databases and legacy applications to allow their agencies access to data via agency portals and Internet self-service centers. These portals are accessible over the Internet from a true thin client Web-browser that requires no complicated plug-ins or applications on the user's machine.
John Lord, president of National Risk Transfer, a stop loss medical insurer, comments that "MaxSol has provided us with a complete Web-based solution in less than a month, enabling us to securely interact with our customers and partners via the Web. We have deployed an agency/broker portal for our customers and a claims portal for internal operations. The system accesses data from our legacy systems via a replicated server and has required no re-engineering or programming of our existing systems." Lord adds, "Others told us it couldn't be done but with MaxSol's technology and turn-key application suite the fact is we are already live in production."
Independent agencies can offer customer portals that can be viewed from only the agency's Web site to preserve agency branding and the relationship with the insured. Because of the built-in application level security that was developed with support from the Army, MaxSol has quelled concerns amongst insurance executives regarding security on the Internet.
MaxSol's approach
MaxSol's patent-pending technology does not require the user to install any cookies, plug-ins or applets on the browser and yet allows him/her to have a secure and interactive session over the Internet. Agents and consumers don't need any special technical skills except the ability to point and click via a "plain vanilla" Web browser. By embracing a "customer-centric" approach, MaxSol has lowered the bar on technical competency for the users and made it easy for everyone to use their system.
Their suite comes bundled with an Extranet Automation Server (DBlive@WebTM) and an Application Configurator that eliminates the conventional process of hand-coding applications from scratch--a process that may take months or even years. The automation server technology offers a universal architecture that is capable of interfacing with disparate systems and vendor applications. The automation server also offers a platform to facilitate business-to-business automation amongst carriers, agencies, reinsurers and other application service providers and ISPs.
The ease of use of the Configurator is ideal for underwriters and agents who want to make quick changes to policies without depending upon IT. They can make adjustments using a point and click approach via a Web browser to facilitate policy and claim edits on the back end system.
Because MaxSol's approach does not lock organizations into any proprietary technology, they can deploy ready solutions or easily connect with their existing system without any significant custom coding. MaxSol's universal architecture works with CORBA, DCOM, DNAfs, SEMCI and ObjX objects. MaxSol is also interfacing with XML. This will allow carriers, agencies and other participants to facilitate business-to-business automation.
MaxSol wants to help position the insurance industry to take advantage of
e-business initiatives that are expected to redefine commerce in the 21st century.
Agency portals
Using MaxSol's technology, carriers can allow agencies access to a personalized view of their company data via "agency portals." Agencies can access products and policy data that are relevant to and specific to their lines of business, state and industry regulations. The beauty is, agencies do not need any new software other than access to the Internet via a local Internet service provider or an AOL account. Through a customized agency portal, carriers can maintain a closer relationship with their agencies. Agencies may also be empowered to leverage and customize the data available to them in a number of ways. For example, some agents may be authorized to publish reports from the carrier's site into their own Web site under their own brand name. Others may be restricted to interact to the extent of modifying a report without the ability to distribute or subscribe. Some may have view-only privileges without the right to publish or even customize. Carriers may allow some agencies to submit new policies and/or claims while other agencies may be allowed to make endorsements only.
An independent agent or an agency can easily access the agency's portal by connecting to the carrier's Web site via a Web-browser from the Internet. Upon clicking the "agency services" icon on the carrier's Web site, the agent is instructed to enter his/her user name and password. Upon authentication and authorization, the agent gets access to the personalized agency portal and can easily access client policies, billing information and claim status. Through this portal, the agency may also build its own reports and perform Web-based rate quoting, claim submissions, policy binding, and endorsements via standard ACORD forms. The agency also has access to a call center from within its agency portal that the carrier has prebuilt for the agency's access.
Customer portals
Agencies interested in leveraging the Web to deliver the next generation of customer service can do so now by deploying "customer portals" that can be accessed by the insured 24 hours a day. A customer portal can be deployed without any expensive development and without installation of any new software or hardware at the agency. Via this portal, agencies can extend policy, billing history and claim status information from one or more carriers in a highly secure and controlled way and under their own brand name. It requires almost no maintenance, is fairly inexpensive to operate and enables the agency to maintain a closer relationship with its customers. In this mode of deployment, the data is directly delivered from the carrier's database(carrier cooperation is required) to the customer portal via highly secure and automated business-to-business transactions (that are transparent to the user). In another mode, where software needs to be installed at the agency site, such data could be combined with the agency management systems.
With MaxSol's technology the insured never leaves the agency's Web site or loses sight of the agency's brand during his/her connection. The same Web site can also operate as a customer service center providing interactive feedback to the agency on customer inquiries and additional needs.
A customer portal is deployed by an agency at their AOL account or a local Internet service provider's location. A customer accesses the portal by clicking the "customer service center" icon from the agency's Web site. The user enters his/her policy number, his/her name and policy type. The authentication criteria can just as easily include other fields such as Social Security number, mother's maiden name, favorite color, etc. The user is allowed access to the customer portal upon proper authentication. He/she is offered a "policy master screen" from where he/she can easily seek information about a policy or billing by clicking on the "policy inquiry" or "billing inquiry" icon. It is important to note that although the data is being directly delivered from the carrier's database located at their site, the user never leaves the agency's Web site throughout the connection. So the independent agent can manage the user's experience and build a closer relationship with its customers.
Creating a customer portal is easy. All that an agent needs is an account with AOL or an Internet service provider. By connecting to their "agency portal" on the carrier's Web site, an agency staff person can generate pages and objects that can be downloaded or pushed via e-mail. These pages or objects can then be deployed as a "customer portal" at the agency or the agency's AOL or ISP account under their own brand name. A customer portal can be deployed in less than half a day by a browser-savvy agency staff person who may or may not have technical expertise. An agency's static Web site can be quickly transformed into a dynamic data-driven and content-rich Web application that offers live access to policy, billing and claims data directly from the carrier's database for the cost of the ISP--generally $15 to $20 per month.
No data is ever physically copied from the carrier to the agency or its ISP and there is no costly movement or replication of data. Without any costly development software on the agency site, an agency staff person can use a simple Web-browser to add or remove fields and configure the look and feel of reports he/she is authorized to distribute via the customer portal. An insured can retrieve data any time from the customer portal. With user-level security, the insured views the data specific to his/her policies only. An agency deploying such a customer portal can offer 24 x 7 support and deliver live data from the carrier database without the fear of disintermediation or losing the customer relationship.
Quelling concerns about agency disintermediation
MaxSol has eliminated the threat of agent disintermediation by empowering agencies to deploy customer self-service centers from their own Web sites under their own branding. Independent agencies can now become value-added intermediaries allowing their customers access to data from multiple carriers through their intermediary portal. This allows agencies to maintain control of their customer relationships and sell products from multiple carriers.
In many cases, the agencies may not require any new technology or applications on their desktops. All they need is a Web browser and access to the Internet. This eliminates the need for managing data and reliance on expensive IT resources, without sacrificing distribution and control over the data. This allows agents to prosper and evolve into the next generation of intermediaries who can deliver value-added services and preserve their agency/customer relationships by allowing customers access to policy, billing, claims data with a similar "look and feel" from multiple carriers through their own portal.
(Diagram #1) Agency portals
Carriers establish customized portals for agencies that offer products and policy data relevant to the specific agency.
(Diagram #2) Customer portals
Clients can access select information directly from the carrier's database without leaving the agency Web site.
(Diagram #3) Multiple carrier consumer access
Clients who have coverage with different carriers can access information about different policies during the same online session.
Business climate is changing
According to the E-Business Technology Forecast from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, "The world's leading organizations are reorienting themselves around electronic business, or e-business. Pioneering efforts are little more than five years old, yet e-business initiatives and startup companies are transforming entire industries and becoming a general phenomenon. Indeed, e-business promises to define what will become the ground rules for commerce in the 21st century."
There is no doubt that the Internet has and will continue to profoundly affect the marketing and distribution of insurance products and services. Last year alone the number of individuals buying products via the Internet increased by 40%. The question is: What are you doing to reach the 92 million users in the United States? With fierce competition from the banking and securities industry, carriers and agencies must be prepared to launch initiatives to thwart threats from other industries. If we don't meet our customer's needs, someone else will tap into this exploding marketplace. With products becoming a commodity and rates and profits tumbling, the independent agency system's major assets are its value-added services.
Adapt to rapid change
In an environment where change is constant, the differentiators will be how rapidly we can change and react to our customer's needs. Speed is now measured in Internet time. MaxSol has a technology that can be rapidly deployed by carriers--big or small. Its Interactive Development and Runtime Environment (dubbed as iDARETM) allows carriers and agencies to rapidly adapt to their customer's needs without the expense of lengthy development cycles. Organizations interested in making better decisions with reduced cycle time need to be proactive as opposed to reactive. The banking and securities industries are responding more quickly to new market demands. As a result, consumers are expecting greater levels of responsiveness and service from the insurance industry as well.
The ability of a carrier or an agency to leverage technology in order to empower employees to make better, faster decisions has become a competitive requirement in this era of rapid change. Rapid change means that a task that took a month is now accomplished in a few days. Project life cycles that were formerly measured in years now mature in months. Carriers and agencies face an accelerating need to accommodate rapid change in responding to their customer's requirements. Driven by constantly rising expectations from the customers, carriers and agencies should continually be searching for greater efficiency, higher productivity, better return on the technology investment, and improved customer satisfaction.
Ravi Bala, chief operating officer of KnowledgeFlow, an outsourced IT firm for a large insurance carrier says, "Without MaxSol's technology, it would be difficult to react to our customer's changing and evolving needs for upstream and downstream reporting. With MaxSol's technology, we can rapidly configure reports and updatable forms and securely deliver them online to our customers without expensive processes. We can interact and collaborate with our customers via the Web and solicit real-time feedback via the interactive development and runtime environment that just isn't possible via any other technology we have seen. We have cut down cycle time to minutes as opposed to traditionally taking days and sometimes weeks before our customer is completely happy with the presentation of data."
Value chain communication
MaxSol offers carriers and agencies the ability to deploy customer and agency portals that can serve as platforms for sharing and exchanging data and information via the Internet. Carriers and agencies searching for ways to become more responsive to their customer needs can collaborate, exchange and share information and content amongst themselves and with their customers. Carriers can harness the wealth of information available across their distributed organization and channel it selectively via a common portal to its employees and agencies.
Studies show that industries that utilize communication and collaboration amongst their value chain participants have the ability to be flexible and respond to new market requirements, thus making the participants more nimble and tuned in to their customers. Industries that do not succeed at enhancing communication and collaboration amongst participants cannot respond as quickly to new market demands and are quickly surpassed by organizations with highly developed communication and collaboration skills.
Ron Jones of Farmers notes, "Producers want to react to their customer's needs. They want to interact with us and get answers from us without playing telephone tag. MaxSol's technology enables us to interactively deliver what our customers are looking for."
Conclusion
The Internet has changed the business landscape. Chances are, like many agencies, you are inundated with messages of change with no clear solutions. Perhaps you have invested in development of a "static" Web site, have a modem connection to the Internet and perhaps are getting a lead or two from the Web. You've heard so much about the Internet that you know there's more for you but you are struggling with how to leverage solutions without high costs.
MaxSol offers the insurance industry the technology, automation capabilities and applications that allow both carriers and agencies to leverage the Web-based initiatives quickly, aggressively, effectively and efficiently with quicker returns on investment, delivering value for all participants. The technology allows carriers and independent agencies alike to capitalize on the Web phenomenon immediately. Carriers can Web enable their existing systems at a lower cost and plug and play new technologies and products as the business warrants. They can reach more prospective customers, sell more products more efficiently and at a lower operational cost.
Independent agencies can sell and deliver products and services without the lengthy development cycles or fear of disintermediation. In fact MaxSol offers opportunities for agencies to prosper and evolve into the next generation of intermediaries who will deliver value-added service by allowing customers access to policy, billing, claims data from multiple carriers via their own portal to preserve their agency/customer relationships. *
For more information ...
MaxSol, Inc.
Concord, Massachusetts
Phone: (978) 461-1700
E-mail: giroti@maxsol.com or
pahooja@maxsol.com
Web site: www.maxsol.com
©COPYRIGHT: The Rough Notes Magazine, 1999