ACCESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS LTD.

Case Study: AIMS6i – Merging Business strategy with IT initiatives

Company: Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Co. Ltd.
Location: Chennai, India
Employees: 150
Industry: Non-Life Insurance

Background

Cholamandalam MS General Insurance Co. Ltd. (CMSGICL) is one of the 7 privately held Non-Life insurance companies in India and are a part of the $ 8 billion Murugappa group of companies.

Before the start of their operations, CMSGICL prioritized the selection of a core Insurance software application that would cater not only to realize their Business goals into reality but as well be at par with the latest computing technologies.

Key Challenges for CMSGICL

Some of CMSGICL’s major challenges were to:

Launch Retail Insurance products instantly across India followed quickly by Commercial Insurance products within 3 months.
Roll out Branch operations together with operations at the Head Office.
Create, service and sustain a dynamic Agency workforce.
Distribute information across operations; live and within reach.
Manage Operations in a Centralized or Decentralized fashion.

Solution Adopted

AIMS6i – was selected by CMSGICL to be the IT backbone of the company and complement its Business strategy.

Within the allocated time frame of 3 months, and using Access’s preferred Deployment model, the customized AIMS6i application was rolled out in all the 11 branches of CMSGICL instantly. All required Retail insurance products were promptly available for sale and an all-purpose Agency Web Portal was available for the service and maintenance of CMSGICL’s agents.

With AIMS6i’s built-in basic yet powerful workflow functionality, information flow between departments was smooth and thereby allowed CMSGICL to underwrite business effortlessly and identify bottlenecks immediately.

Outcome

CMSGICL’s Business strategy backed by AIMS6i ‘s deployment model, functionality and features has enabled the management to ‘take stock’ of its entire operation and other feasibilities in a matter of minutes on any given day. Additionally, instant Turn Around Times enable managers to proactively manage and preempt situations and take early corrective actions

Some statistics of CMSGICL’s daily operations and abilities include:

At any time of the day, ascertain accurately the total number of Policy proposals accepted by Branch Offices and their values.
Receive, underwrite and dispatch 99% of all proposals received during the day.
Turn Around Time for issuance of Policy documents right from the data-entry stage through underwriting and reinsurance approvals and finally dispatch is accomplished in less than 6 minutes.
Agents get ‘Real-time’ information on the progress of their clients Insurance policies via the Agency Web Portal as well as their earned Commissions. Additionally, they are provided with information on their respective client’s upcoming policy renewals, policy expiry and pending proposals.
Business Heads are able to track ‘Branch’ and ‘Channel Manager’ Sales Targets vis-à-vis business to date (and minute). Further, a myriad amount of information such as business done per Insurance product, per geographical zone, per branch or per Corporate/Individual agents is available in real-time to managers anywhere.
Call Centers are able to answer ‘up to the minute’ progress to Insureds on their Claim applications.
External service providers can remotely connect to AIMS6i and issue and remote print Insurance Policies.

Procedures Adopted

CMSGICL and Access staff spent a marathon of approximately 800 hours of discussions at various levels of management, end-users, and operations to build a solid integrated IT foundation with AIMS6i. Keeping a constant eye on the Business requirements, Company policies and Insurance regulations; the staff adopted an efficient round-the-clock mechanism of information distribution (after meetings), assembly of feedback and finally instructing the IT team on development.

Simulated integrated testing of AIMS6i before and during deployment was given the highest priority so that all concerned users and their roles, responsibilities and tasks were duly prompted and validated for the smooth progression of given internal business process of CMSGICL.

Data Growing in Size and Usefulness

As detailed information is increasing, underwriters and salespeople will be equipped with more and more detailed intelligence on which to evaluate risks and sales opportunities. Other initiatives under development in CMSGICL includes the deployment of Pre-underwritten Insurance products and information that will allow Sales representative and Service providers to remotely access AIMS6i and adjoining portals in order to further accelerate pre-sales processes on the path to new revenues

Case Study