The Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association (MPIUA), also known as the Massachusetts FAIR Plan (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) is using the ImageRight document management system to take its underwriting and claims operations paperless, and expects to see a large financial payback over the next five years.

The system, which includes imaging, document management and workflow functionality, allows Massachusetts FAIR Plan to process incoming mail from start to finish without handling paper documents, and instantaneously and simultaneously access documents in any file in the system. The workflow capability will allow Massachusetts FAIR Plan to redistribute work around the office to more efficiently use resources.

“We had used a document system without a workflow module, and we wanted a workflow tool that would make our office essentially paperless,” said Linus Hart, vice president at MPIUA. “We expect our increased productivity to yield a project payback in less than a year. And we expect a five-year net savings in seven figures.”

According to Ken Elias, ImageRight’s director of sales and marketing, the system replaces a system that took a back-end imaging approach and only scanned documents after the work was completed using the paper documents. ImageRight was able to import all the existing images from the Massachusetts FAIR Plan’s previous imaging system.

One example of how Massachusetts FAIR Plan uses ImageRight is that it received most of its new applications via fax. “During the implementation, the incoming fax lines were integrated with ImageRight so that new applications go directly into the workflow and are on the floor ready to be reviewed in a matter of seconds,” said Elias. In addition, the Massachusetts FAIR Plan was able to assign priorities to their different incoming fax lines, so that more urgent applications could be processed first, he said.

Massachusetts FAIR Plan’s prediction of recouping its investment in less than a year is just ahead of the curve. Elias said clients typically experience full return on their investment within 12 to 18 months. Savings come from reductions in personnel time, filing space storage, floor space and supervisory requirements. In addition, clients see phone savings due to quicker responses and savings in the claims area due to more efficient handling of files, and more efficient underwriting, he said.

ImageRight is based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, .NET Remoting, the C# programming language, smart client functionality and a highly scalable distributed enterprise architecture.