References

Cuna Mutual Group, Madison, Wisconsin

A new P&C solution

Revenues: $200 million in 2003
Activity: Insurance for Credit Unions
Location: Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Organization: 5,000 employees, Credit Union Protection Division is managed by 250 users

Project Overview:

Objectives:

Simplify the information system to increase productivity and reduce time to market by finding a best-fit solution from both a business process and technical design perspective.

Benefits to CUNA Mutual Group:

Improved productivity by redesigning business processes and taking advantage of the integration of different functions
Reduced time to market to launch new products by utilizing the Rules Engine, which is managed by your business users
Can create, copy and customize over 438 product rules using the user friendly rules engine
Product underwriting (workflow policy): 1447 rules
Claim workflow version: 982 rules
Rate 900 rules = 1200 formulas representing 17,000 lines and 6,000 tables representing 350,000 cells
Improved customer service, through all channels
Improved internet initiatives for Credit Union and self-service field staff
A simpler system: Today, several packages are used in addition to many other small peripheral systems. The existing systems have numerous data fields, screens and functions that CUNA Mutual does not use. This unnecessarily increases the complexity of the system, impacting the effectiveness and efficiency of day-to-day use and internal training programs. For example, one particular policy transaction requiring 130 steps in the current system can be completed in 30 steps in the new system.

Wynsure Selection Process:

CUNA Mutual hired a number of vendors in an extensive evaluation process to select the best-fit solution from both a business process and technical design perspective. This process lasted for about one year
An initial RFI sent to 34 vendors
Reviewed 17 RFI responses
Demonstrations by 8 vendors
A detailed analysis included a high-level cost benefit analysis, vendor visits, vendor client teleconferences and visits, and additional research into the technical solutions and development approaches
A proof-of-concept initiative
A final vendor selection, which resulted in CUNA Mutual choosing the team CGI-Wyde

Wynsure implementation:

A fixed bid, fixed schedule project ran by a team of highly skilled developers with both a breadth and depth of experience in insurance, included commercial property and casualty
CUNA Mutual's personal experience in working with the team during the proof-of-concept, gaining hands-on opportunities from both a technical and business analyst perspective
The development phase has been conducted by a joint client/integration team on site in Madison
Completed in 2 phases (18 months) using an iterative approach
In production since March 2003

Business Functions Implemented:

Property and Casualty + Worker Compensation administration system
Rating, Quoting, Issuance
Policy Administration
Customer Relationship Management
Billing / Payments
Claims administration
Value Added Services / Risk Management
Regulatory Compliance
Actuarial
Leverage the internet to sell and deliver CUNA Mutual products
Data feeds to Corporate Financial and Check Disbursements
Systems
Management Reporting

Technical Summary

Deployment Environment:

eWam: A robust and highly effective object-oriented development tool (eWAM from Wyde) which provided high development productivity and flexibility (for more info: www.wyde.com).
Wyde Framework: A highly adaptable component based insurance framework solution which provides the ability to jump-start the development effort and the ability to customize and promote long-term reusability and adaptability.
Onsite - offshore capability easier to manage.

Deployment Architecture:

Rich client applications are offered to internal end-users
HTML applications are offered to customers. The application was deployed to a strictly thin client environment using Wyde's XML/XSL deployment architecture, with some web-enabled functionality
Windows NT Application Server
Management and statutory reporting with Business Objects, Access, Excel, etc.