Developed on the .NET platform
By Dennis H. Pillsbury
Bill Hunt is executive vice president of sales and marketing at XDimensional Technologies, Inc., of Brea, California.
The first time I wrote about SEMCI, I was typing on a Commodore 64 and SEMCI was just around the corner. That was some corner. Seems like it was actually a U-turn and we're right back where we started, except I've replaced my Commodore. (I do miss some of the games though.)
Now, here we are many moons later on the other side of the Y2K scare and many are saying that "SEMCI just ain't gonna happen." At least not in the way it was envisioned. Instead, we're going to go around the problem and we'll have what looks, tastes and feels like SEMCI, despite all the efforts to the contrary. Some insurance companies reportedly have actually stepped up the pace and are moving at a speed greater than glacial. Still working up to "slower than molasses," but it's an improvement.
What's happened is that any dude whose gotten a Dell or some other brand of computer can get instant access to a wide variety of information, and the aforementioned dudes now are starting to run some pretty big enterprises. They're wondering why they can order and pay for a gazillion widgets in a matter of seconds but still have to wait months for their insurance policy. In these days of instant gratification, the old insurance ways are going the way of the dinosaur, soon to be mere fossils in the La Brea tar pits, which brings us, rather circuitously, to the predicate of this article--XDimensional Technologies, Inc. (XDTI), located in Brea, California.
XDimensional began developing its agency management system product, Nexsure, about two years ago. "Nexsure's Web-native architecture uses Microsoft's .NET platform, as well as native XML data transport to communicate with agency customers and carriers," says Bill Hunt, executive vice president of sales and marketing. "In essence, we've circumvented the problems created by proprietary Web sites and achieved SEMCI through Web services. We can interoperate with a carrier's system so an agent can get real-time quotes, billing information, policy dec sheets, claims information, or any other function available from the carrier, without entering information multiple times for multiple carriers. I've been surprised at how receptive carriers have been. Since there's no charge to the carrier (or agent), many have given us access to their systems."
XDimensional started out as a technical and operations consulting company helping insurance professionals to better use their systems. It then transitioned to an ASP that Web-enabled third-party legacy systems. "We recognized significant challenges and limitations in making old technology available on the Web," Bill remembers. "It became clear that there was a need for a new mousetrap, a system that was actually built for the Web. Today, Nexsure is a comprehensive agency management system that any type or size agency can use. It can scale from the one-person shop to the international broker. Additionally, the accounting system can scale equally as well. Whether a relatively simple set of books is desired, or the need is for multi-region, territories, locations, branches, departments and individual business unit accounting. "
"In essence, we've circumvented the problems created by proprietary Web sites and achieved SEMCI through Web services."
--Bill Hunt
He continues that since Nexsure includes sophisticated sales management functionality, it handles the full policy lifecycle beautifully. Nexsure starts from suspect all the way through binding and servicing. It covers all lines of business, including life and health and specialty lines. As an example, Nexsure recently incorporated a full aviation database. Having all of that information presented to the agency employee really gives that person the power of a modern CRM system, enabling the agency to easily take advantage of cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
Putting the client first
A growing and extremely critical concern for agencies is communicating with clients effectively. And, at least for some, that has been the deciding factor in the agency's decision on automation. Rough Notes' March cover agency--Roach, Howard, Smith and Hunter of Dallas--opted for Nexsure because it allowed the agency to "upload information from clients and lets clients access functions that aren't available through any other system," CIO Karen Bitzer, CPCU, ARM, points out. She adds: "Clients and employees can access the data from anywhere in the world. We have a number of employees who travel quite a lot and others who work from home so access is very important. It's also very helpful that almost all the client information is available through one program so you have to open only one program to service an account."
She continues, "As we worked with XDimensional, we became comfortable. They've always been responsive and, so far, every update has always added something that's better than anything I've seen out there."
Agency President and CEO Karen K. Farris, CPCU, ARM, adds, "We were looking for a true database-driven system and this fit the bill."
XDimensional's Bill Hunt notes, "Customer access is ubiquitous. If you can get to the Web, you can get to our system, nothing to download locally."
To ASP or not to ASP...
That is the question, or at least may be a determining factor. You need to decide whether you want to suffer the slings and arrows of maintaining your own automation needs internally or oppose that and depend instead on an ASP and the potential pitfalls of that model. (For a more in-depth discussion of in-house vs. ASP, see John Ashenhurst's column in the April 2003 issue of Rough Notes.)
Karen Bitzer says that "transitioning to an ASP did not concern us. XDimensional has been in the ASP market space for several years. They can provide better security and backup capabilities than we could. Besides, we didn't want to spend a bunch of money on hardw are and software." *
For more information:
XDimensional Technologies, Inc.
Phone: (800) 789-2567
Web site: www.xdti.com