Comprehensive specialised motor vehicle insurance underwriter MUA Insurance has tightened management information reporting, honed its business processes and improved workflow with the implementation of Motor Insurance Application (MIA), a customised business management solution designed and deployed by business systems solutions provider DVT.
MIA controls the entire process of the short-term motor insurance business, from quoting through the lifetime of a contract.
The bespoke solution, which was rolled out in March, was tailored to suit the requirements of MUA Insurance, focusing exclusively on luxury, executive, classic and exotic motor vehicles as a specialised niche of the insurance market. The system manages the formal acceptance and issuing of policies, policy adjustments, the processing of claims and policy cancellations and closures.
"MIA controls the detailed history of every client policy," says Ed Vogel, IT manager at MUA Insurance. "The flexibility of the design has enabled us to build our business rules based on a carefully managed yet flexible structure."
The MIA solution replaced Policy Manager 2000 (PM2000). The growing business needs and future strategies of MUA placed pressure on the IT platform to move to a more modern and robust environment.
The implementation of MIA was initiated after a detailed business analysis conducted with DVT documented all aspects of the company`s business process to establish a functional requirement specification. A series of screen mock-ups of the software were exposed to the broad user base across the company from an early stage in the process, before the implementation of hardware and software.
"Putting the platform in place early on meant that all development work thereafter took place using live data. The inclusion of staff in factory and user acceptance testing proved invaluable, encouraging management buy-in and user involvement throughout the process," says Vogel.
The user acceptance testing period uncovered a number of additional factors that had been lacking in the PM2000 system that were beneficial for an integrated system.
"For the first time we were able to bring in quotations from the beginning of the business lifecycle, along with management reports, reinsurance, an audit trail as well as other operational workflow elements," says Vogel.
The system also monitors new business - or strike rate - per broker, as well as the quality of the business brought in.
"MUA Insurance`s value-add is the tailored service we offer. Rather than generic insurance, we provide a detailed analysis at quotation stage and customise the package to suit the client`s needs. Service to brokers is key to this premise and MIA enables rapid turnaround at quotation stage through to support in their business functions. In the future we plan to add online interaction via the Web," says Vogel.
"In the next year most of the paper-based communication process within the business will be converted to electronic, with automated e-mails sending out new policies, statements, information about bulk insurance within schemes and information packs for brokers," says Johan Pieters, DVT project manager for MUA Insurance.
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