Kingsway
Insurance Provider Simplifies Processes with Microsoft Partner Insurity
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Company Overview
With 11 subsidiaries offering everything from personal automobile insurance to commercial truck-fleet protection, Kingsway Financial Services Inc. understands the challenges and rewards of operating a diverse business. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, with 2900 employees, the company’s subsidiaries such as Jevco Insurance, Lincoln General and Hamilton Risk Management cover most of North America, and its various business lines have helped make Kingsway one of the fastest-growing insurance providers in North America.
Business Challenge
But while business-line diversity gives Kingsway a competitive edge, the company was hindered by the diversity of software used to process policies and administer claims. Kingsway employed 23 different processing platforms across its subsidiaries. These stand-alone software sets were difficult to manage, requiring dedicated skills in the IT department to fix and upgrade. They also required a way to extend the technology to business partners through secure Web access to company information, documents, premium payments and policy processing applications.
But while business-line diversity gives Kingsway a competitive edge, the company was hindered by the diversity of software used to process policies and administer claims. Kingsway employed 23 different processing platforms across its subsidiaries. These stand-alone software sets were difficult to manage, requiring dedicated skills in the IT department to fix and upgrade. They also required a way to extend the technology to business partners through secure Web access to company information, documents, premium payments and policy processing applications.
“We wanted a system that would help us bring products to market more quickly, so we needed something that would allow us to assess our financial picture in a timely manner,” says Claude Smith, Chief Information Officer, Kingsway. “We’d done that to a certain degree with our previous systems, but we were looking forward to using a single platform so that managing and leveraging the processing systems would be simpler.”
Kingsway sought a single solution for policy administration, billing, claims management, enterprise-wide business analytics and reporting. The ideal platform would have to be flexible to accommodate Kingsway’s varied business lines, and it needed to provide end-to-end functionality, including: rating, quoting, underwriting, issuance, billing, reinsurance, claims, management reporting and bureau reporting. The solution would also replace 23 separate systems, which would help streamline the IT department’s to-do list.
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Solution
After researching a variety of potential systems, Kingsway selected Insurity, a ChoicePoint Asset Co. company. Insurity offers end-to-end software and services for property and casualty policy administration. The Insurity suite employs Microsoft® software, such as the Microsoft .NET application development platform, Active Server Pages (ASP) for interactive Web applications, Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) to facilitate application interconnection, and SQL Server® 2005 database software. It also leverages SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) for management of Kingsway’s business information and enhanced business intelligence (BI) capabilities.
Insurity is a Microsoft Insurance Value Chain (IVC) partner. IVC is a concept designed to help insurance providers meet common business challenges. By combining Microsoft-based technologies to help end-user organizations manage sales channels, and build customer and partner connections, IVC empowers companies to reduce the cost of deploying and managing business processes, while linking disconnected systems, for an integrated, simplified technology infrastructure for businesses.
The IVC platform fulfills Kingsway’s requirement of providing more reliability and streamlined processes. “Kingsway not only wanted a simplified platform – it also wanted something proven,” says Jim Hatch, Chief Tactical Officer, Insurity. “Our Microsoft-based solution allowed Kingsway to consolidate its processing systems, as the company knew the technology was built on standard, globally supported technology.”
Kingsway first applied the Insurity solution to Lincoln General, a US based subsidiary that focuses on long haul trucking, giving Lincoln General employees access to Insurity’s hosted policy, claims and reporting system through a secure, Web interface. Now the insurance provider is rolling the Insurity solution out to its entire employee base throughout all 11 subsidiaries in Canada and the U.S.
Business Benefits
By combining 23 separate systems into one, Kingsway now finds it easier to manage the processing platform, which translates into lower IT costs. The new platform allows Kingsway to extend its services to business partners through secure Internet access to data including documents, premium payments, and policy processing applications. Employee training has been simplified, enabling front-line workers to get up to speed quickly and become productive team members faster than ever. Most importantly, Kingsway now has greater control over its data and a more consolidated view of the business, helping the company develop new products and bring them to market quickly.
Lower IT costs
The IT department no longer needs niche-software skills to manage the numerous systems. Insurity’s hosted solution puts the bulk of the management burden on the solution-provider’s shoulders, which results in lower administration costs. The Web-based interface means Kingsway’s IT department no longer needs to roll out and maintain the various client-side software programs employees used to access the numerous processing systems.
“The time we used to take for managing the old processing platforms has been clawed back, so technicians now have time to consider the bigger picture, such as how to ensure we’re giving end users the best services to ensure they’re productive,” Smith says.
Simplified user training
Now that everyone has access to the same applications, Kingsway can train users once and enable them to apply their know-how at any office. This helps employees become productive team members more quickly and facilitates cross-subsidiary transfers, allowing Kingsway to retain skilled employees longer.
“If someone in Minnesota wanted to work in Florida, we’d have an easier time making that happen, because the employee would already know the processing system,” Smith said.
Greater data control
Insurity’s single end-to-end, Microsoft-based solution affords a consolidated view of Kingsway’s operations. This has translated into better business intelligence capabilities, including risk-analysis insights, which helps the company ensure its product prices are in line with coverage requirements. The streamlined processing solution also helps Kingsway attain a comprehensive understanding of its customers and their requirements.
“It used to be difficult for us to get that 360-degree view of our business and our customers. Now we have an easier time mapping our products and strategies to customer requirements and our own internal data,” Smith says
Faster time to market
There are now fewer limitations on business expansion with new products and new service areas, because the Insurity solution allows Kingsway to develop and offer insurance protections quickly. New products require only small changes to the processing platform, and Kingsway no longer needs to amend the underpinning applications with unique code. This enables the company to better adapt to shifting business strategies.
“We’re always looking to benefit from unanticipated opportunities and steer clear of emerging market threats,” Smith says. “Insurity’s Microsoft-based system helps prepare us for whatever the market has in store.”
Microsoft Solutions for the Financial Services Industry
Financial institutions continue to seek cost-effective solutions that create rapid and sustainable competitive advantage while laying the groundwork for future innovation. Microsoft and its ever-growing partner community develop solutions that meet the industry-specific needs of banks, insurance companies, and capital markets firms worldwide, and help financial services customers realize their full potential.
For more information about Microsoft solutions for the financial services industry, go to: www.microsoft.com/resources/financialservices
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com
For more information about Insurity products and services, call (860) 616 - 7721 or visit the Web site at:www.insurity.com
For more information about Kingsway Financial Services products and services, call (905) 677 - 8889 or visit the Web site at: : www.kingsway-financial.com
