A .NET-based portal built jointly by Assurant Health and Capgemini has increased revenue and agent productivity at the Milwaukee-based health insurer, while at the same time helping the company trim operating costs.
The portal, called the Electronic Agent Sales Experience or EASE, was developed to drive business by giving the company’s 200,000 independent agents online tools that would improve their efficiency.
“We wanted to automate the policy application process not only to provide better tools for our agents, but also to reduce the number of incomplete applications, increase the accuracy of the data and reduce or eliminate the amount of phone calls required to complete an application,” said Kaye Cingle, director of solution delivery for Assurant Health.
EASE has a service-oriented architecture and was built using the Visual Studio .NET development system. It is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework with Microsoft ASP.NET. The Microsoft tools were chosen for the project to make it easier for the portal to integrate with legacy applications, said Capgemini technical architect Gil Colunga.
The first version of EASE helped agents obtain accurate quotes, submit applications and check the status of applications online. As of July, Assurant Health and Capgemini had already released four upgrades to add to the system user preferences, e-mail notifications for agents, detailed quotes, medical underwriting, and consumer direct functionality.
The portal has contributed to the company’s growth by reducing the time it takes to get quotes and submit applications. In addition, agents are more likely to promote Assurant Health because of their increased satisfaction with the system. Customer service has also improved because now customers can often get coverage in 24 hours. And the system has helped trim operating costs because built-in validation features have reduced errors and improved the accuracy of information, cutting the amount of time information has to be rekeyed or clarified.
“We find that 75 percent of our applications now are submitted electronically, which helps our staff avoid time-consuming manual entry of application details. In most cases, we can begin underwriting electronic applications within minutes of their receipt,” said Lauris Grabeklis, vice president of individual medical underwriting for Assurant Health.