Logicalis

Web management solution for security, end-customer service and satisfaction

Company Profile

Leading UK car insurance company Admiral Group Limited (AGL) operates a number of brands, including Diamond, Bell Direct, Gladiator, and its recently-launched Internet brand elephant.co.uk. Headquartered in Cardiff, Wales, the group has 1,400 employees, more than 700,000 policyholders, and an annual turnover of £380 million in 2002.

Customer's Business Issues

To develop a highly secure e-commerce Website, fully integrated with back office systems. When planning the launch of elephant.co.uk, AGL aimed to ensure complete security without limiting the functionality of the Website. Furthermore, it wanted an e-business solution that would be easy to integrate with its existing back-office systems.

• Difficult to maintain real-time statistics for volumes of claims at differing stages of the settlement process
• 150 claims personnel - too many people in this area
• Difficult and time consuming searches for correct documentation
• Cost of processing claims was too high

Customer's Business Objectives

• Eliminate manual document retrieval, reducing the cost of processing claims
• Automate the claims process, improving accuracy and consistency
• Ensure a more prompt response to members, improving customer satisfaction

Initial Customer Set up

Supporting the new Web application is INSURE/90 software, a modular insurance solution covering administration, claims, policy changes, new business, payments, management reports and transactional processing. Prior to the implementation of WebSphere at elephant.co.uk, AGL's Websites were not integrated into this back-office software. As a result, visitors to any AGL Website who wanted a quotation had to send an e-mail to the company, then wait for staff to manually enter details into INSURE/90, produce the quotation, and return it by e-mail. This process was slow, inefficient and costly.

The Logicalis Solution

Working with IBM Business Partner, Logicalis Limited, AGL selected WebSphere software on IBM ^ iSeries to power the new Web-based service, which offers fast online car insurance services. elephant.co.uk gives customers secure access to insurance quotations, policy literature, policy amendments and claims registration. In addition to delivering excellent customer service, the WebSphere solution has dramatically increased cost-effectiveness at AGL.

Claire Carrel, IT Manager for elephant.co.uk, comments, "With WebSphere on iSeries, we can offer a highly efficient and secure insurance service via a user-friendly Web interface. This is great news for our customers, and also brings significant administrative efficiency gains." She adds, "65 percent of all our quotes for new business now come from the Internet, and AGL recently won the 'What Car? Magazine' test for best online car insurance. The power and security of WebSphere on iSeries has played an important role in delivering this level of service excellence. WebSphere enabled AGL to integrate its elephant.co.uk frontend quickly and easily with INSURE/90, allowing data to be transferred instantly and automatically between them. Says Carrel, "Customers can get an instant quotation online, which has freed up our sales staff, enabling them to focus on customer service rather than data entry. Integrating our systems on iSeries has also significantly reduced the time taken to process quotes and new business, increasing our productivity and reducing operational costs."

The end-to-end solution from Logicalis involved a combination of Services, Software, Hardware and ongoing support.

Services

• Scoping study
• Design of solution
• Implementation of solution
• Project management
• Bespoke application development
• Training

Software

• IBM WebSphere

Hardware

• IBM iSeries

Ongoing Support

• Logicalis provides business hours based contracted support
• Pre-agreed SLA to deliver rapid response and resolution

Customer Benefits

Elephant have received a number of key benefits from implementing this solution.

• Customer satisfaction has increased, getting instant quotes and power to save and amend their quote
• Customer Service roles have become more varied and challenging with the removal of much of the inefficient routine, repetitive tasks.
• Lower overheads are passed onto end customers, facilitating higher customer loyalty
• Ensuring easily upgradable processes from robust and reliable infrastructure

Why Logicalis?

Logicalis was instrumental in developing a totally secure solution that works seamlessly with elephant.co.uk's back-office software.

Preparing for the future By trading over the Internet, elephant.co.uk keeps its overheads low and passes the cost-savings on to customers in the form of cheaper policies. Typically, the company can offer car insurance for up to ten percent less than its competitors. The success of elephant.co.uk has prompted AGL to implement similar WebSphere solutions in its other subsidiaries.

The scalability and reliability of the iSeries server makes it the perfect infrastructure for AGL's new Web initiatives. As its customer base continues to grow rapidly, the company is confident that data will remain secure and permanently available.

"With iSeries, we can be totally sure that our WebSpherepowered e-business services will keep up with increasing customer demand," says Carrel. "One of our main reasons for selecting iSeries was the high level of security it offers, and that together with its near-permanent uptime and low cost of ownership, when we compared it to competitive solutions, makes it the best platform for our fast-growing business."