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From Resource, May 2006
Copyright by LOMA
Wireless
Strategies for an Evolving Industry
Learn how developing a wireless
strategy can help your company increase productivity and improve customer
service.
By Tammy J. McInturff
Wireless technology usage is still not widespread among life insurance carriers
today. There are a number of carriers that have mobile functions. Some companies
also have mobile computing. However, there are few life insurance companies that
have extensive connected mobile capabilities.
At LOMA’s Emerging Technology
Conference, Rod Travers, senior vice president, technology, Robert E. Nolan
Company; Daniel Foster, enterprise data solutions manager, financial and
insurance, Verizon Wireless and Mark K. Lund, national sales manager, insurance
& financial services, Panasonic Computer Solutions Company, discussed the
current state of wireless and mobile technologies and the future trends in
wireless. The panel also explained how developing a wireless strategy can help
your company increase productivity and improve customer service.
Currently there are many
opportunities for innovation in the insurance industry. “Technology is an
enabler to business processes,” said Travers.
“There are a lot of technologies that can enhance customer service,
enhance profitability, reduce cost, and bring about competitive advantage and
wireless and mobile technologies just happen to be two of those.”
Despite the advantages to
implementing wireless and mobile technology many insurers have yet to embrace
the technology. There are a few exceptions; some large and very respected
insurance carriers do have significant wireless infrastructures. However in the
middle market companies are dealing with more challenging connectivity
situations. Some companies are still using paper to do claims work out in the
field. Other companies have some mobile technology but it is not widely used
because of connectivity issues or because of the cumbersome nature of some of
the older technology. In the later case, Travers said that agents will leave the
laptops in the home office and just use paper or some personally homegrown
solution and then the information gets re-keyed back into the laptop when the
agent reaches the home office. “Those kinds of work-arounds are still very
prevalent today,” he said.
Insurers who are embracing
mobile technology are most often automating their sales force or using it for
executive communications.
Emerging
Needs
There are some emerging
needs that companies are seeing. One need is for enhanced executive
communication—e-mail, document sharing and other collaborative kinds of
technologies. Wireless technology can help senior executives be more productive
when they are not in the most ideal office environment. This need is driving the
demand for additional wireless services and capabilities in some companies.
Other emerging needs are
Internet access, network access, improved functional capabilities for the mobile
workforce, and moving laptops and handhelds into the field.
Competitive pressure is also
driving the need for wireless and mobile technology.
Customer service is a differentiator for insurance companies. Giving
agents access to real-time information, so that they can answer any question or
handle any situation quickly, can boost customer satisfaction and retention.
Hardware
Mobilizing
the field workforce requires a variety of different decisions about hardware,
software, connectivity and process dependencies.
“Hardware is the land of the plenty,” said Travers.
“We are seeing every imaginable kind of handheld device, PDA, handheld
printers, laptops and smartphones. The hardware is there to do whatever you need
to do in the field. It is a matter
of applying that hardware to your individual users and business situation.”
Some carriers have wireless technology now that allows automatic routing of maps
to people in the field, helping them get where they need to go on an almost
real-time basis. Travers said this is fairly routine for larger carriers and
some clever midsized carriers are doing this as well. Having wireless map
downloads and GPS receivers are tremendously convenient because the agents do
not have to stop and figure out where they are going.
With
all the wireless and mobile hardware that is available today some companies are
overwhelmed. Travers said one of the issues he hears about is having “too much
of a good thing.” “Companies
tell us that they don’t want to be dealing with an array of devices that is
basically like the wireless Batman’s toolbelt,” he said.
Some companies are dealing with multiple devices, batteries, printers,
security devices, laptops, PDAs, etc. This becomes an overhead problem for the
end users. “That is one area that we expect will improve in the coming year. I
think this is going to be the year of integration to a certain degree and
hopefully some reduction in the number of devices that people find themselves
having to carry with them,” he said. Travers explained that when you are
looking at devices to enable your workforce; you have to make value judgments
around what you really need to be doing with it. Think about whether you need to
be printing, scanning, capturing signatures, etc.
These things might be nice to have but they may not be essential.
Companies must determine the value of have each of these services.
Software
The
software world is advancing very quickly in terms of wireless software
offerings. Functional software vendors are increasing their mobile and wireless
enabled product offerings for the insurance industry. “Some of these offerings
have been around for awhile,” said Travers. “But we are now starting to see
full blown claims systems built with wireless and mobile support from the ground
up.” New software vendors are entering the market and more mature vendors are
growing in presence.
However,
Travers said that wireless software is “the valley of vapor.” “Be sure you
are walking on solid ground,” he advised. “There is a lot of software out
there that has been built but not implemented, not actually installed. There is
a lot of piloting going on so there is some maturing that needs to happen. I
think the promises right now from some of the software technology vendors are a
little bit higher than their ability to deliver. More real-world implementations
will lead to more lessons learned, which will eventually bring promises closer
to reality.”
Connectivity
The
connectivity environment is also evolving. According to Travers when looking at
implementing a wireless or mobile strategy, companies need to determine if they
really need to be connected. “They need to examine what they are trying to
accomplish from a business standpoint and examine how connectivity plays into
that,” Travers said. “Some companies may need connectivity full time; others
may only need an occasionally connected model.
Companies also need to determine the bandwidth they actually need.
Old-style bandwidth-hogging applications will have to be upgraded to avoid
incurring unnecessary communication costs. These are the kinds of questions that
sometimes don’t get drilled down enough during a technology implementation.
Companies need to understand the true business value of any one of these
capabilities.”
Web
applications are taking on a greater importance now. Some companies want to be
able to deploy home system functionality to a variety of devices and a variety
of bandwidth environments. So there is a push for more Web enablement of
existing
applications.
In
the realm of connectivity, the “future” rapidly becomes the “present.”
“Devices are evolving very quickly. For example today wireless
photography is a reality, when just a year ago I think it could have been
thought as rocket science,” said Travers. “This trend will continue as
devices will continue to be integrated. Bluetooth will continue to be an
important technology for personal area networks—integrating these devices and
things like cameras on phones, automobiles, navigation devices, and
authentication systems. The device makers are continuing to push the envelope in
terms of ease-of-use and ease-of-integration, enabling users and integrators to
adopt these devices more readily and benefit from greater functionality right
out of the box.”
Process
Dependencies
According
to Travers process dependencies is another area that is sometimes overlooked.
“If
you are making an investment in wireless and mobile technologies you have to
make a very detailed analysis of what you want to accomplish and what the
benefits are,” he said. “Often times to achieve those benefits you are going
to have to redesign some of your processes, sometimes fairly substantially. You
could spend endless amounts of money getting yourself wirelessly connected but
if your underlying processes are not efficient to begin with, then you have only
sped up access to an old rickety process.”
When
it comes to process dependencies Travers offers the following advice:
·
Don’t force processes to fit the
technology
·
Don’t
force people to fit the technology
·
Business needs must drive the solution
·
Don’t underestimate the importance of
process design
·
People, process, and technology must all
be balanced
·
Security should support the solution,
not hinder it
·
Connectivity is only part of being
connected—achieving business benefits is the goal
·
An integrated and comprehensive strategy
is necessary
“You
certainly don’t want to make somebody follow a bunch of complicated steps to
make a device work just so you can say you have this wireless capability,”
Travers added. “We want to get
adoption of whatever technology we are implementing.
You aren’t going to get that adoption if you make people jump through
hoops to use the technology. If the battery lasts an hour and your users need it
to last three hours that is not going to work. If they have to lug around a ten
pound box and they are always on the go, that is not going to work. Those are
the kinds of things that we can’t force on people because the adoption won’t
be there. The bottom line is you must carefully design a positive user
experience when implementing wireless and mobile technology.”
Security
Security
is an important consideration. In
the mobile environment there are all kinds of opportunities for data to
disappear, with data on flash-drives that might get lost or laptops that might
get stolen. With agents and employees out in the field on a daily basis these
are things that will actually happen to every company. “Certainly security is
a critical issue,” said Travers. “But security is very solvable and
manageable. All the tools are there to manage this to an appropriate degree of
reasonableness. The technology really isn’t so much the issue in this area, it
is the people. People are the
biggest challenge for security. Well-intentioned insiders are often the weakest
link in the security chain. Companies need to establish a policy that fits with
the way they work on a daily basis. For example if one of your biggest issues is
dealing with people changing their passwords and then writing them on a post-it
note on their laptop then you need a simpler password scheme, or better yet a
more user-friendly alternative. Consider security cards with PINs, or possibly
biometrics. You must also enforce your security policy.
This is an area that can be difficult to a degree, because you might have
an agent who is doing a great job, delivering great business but he does not
follow your security policy. But you have to enforce that policy because of the
risks and liabilities associated with disclosure of private information, and you
have to audit regularly. Having employees follow procedures and taking the steps
necessary to secure the data that they are working with is crucial to
security.”
Return
on Investment
The
return on investment is something that companies struggle with. “Companies are
going to have to accept this as an investment in competitiveness and market
parity,” said Travers. “Many of the mid-tier companies out there are just
beginning to invest in this type of technology and they are finding that it is
expensive. Companies may find it difficult to justify the investment in terms of
hard dollars; however you have to consider the improvement in cycle times. You
could be reducing the number of steps and processes and reducing paper. You
could be making employees more productive. Those are all the things that
actually do translate to hard dollars. So there is a fair amount of
justification on this type of technology.”
Travers
said that companies also need to consider the competitive disadvantage factor.
Insurance companies need to be able to deliver the level of service that their
competitors are delivering. “Your agents and policy-owners expect you to be
able to deliver the same level of service as your competitors,” said Travers.
“Having convenient mobile technology can also help with customer service
perception. You can gain goodwill capital by having some of this technology in
place, even if some of it is not as sophisticated as the market leaders.”
Strategy
Travers
emphasized the importance of having a wireless strategy. He explained how some
companies that have implemented wireless have had difficulties because they did
not have a wireless strategy to guide them. “What has happened at some
companies is different areas of the company have adopted different kinds of
wireless solutions or wireless devices and they all have different standards and
maybe even different providers,” he said. “Then before they know it, these
companies have three for four different device standards or lack of standards
and contracts with many different wireless vendors.
So the absence of up-front design becomes a support and cost problem.”
So
having a comprehensive wireless strategy is critical.
“You need to understand as an enterprise where it is that you are going
in terms of your wireless and mobile technology. You may not implement
everything at once, but you need to know what you are trying to accomplish and
who you want to enable,” he said.
Travers
offered some tips to companies considering wireless technology. First, he said
you need to have a comprehensive, cross-functional strategy. Think as far
forward as you possibly can. Define your mobile profile—what is it you want to
be able to do—print, scan, e-signatures, payments, real-time, store-and-sync,
etc. “Then you can build a plan to acquire the right technology and enable
your systems to support it,” he said. “You also need an executive sponsor.
Find someone who has been pleasantly surprised or has become more productive
through the use of their own personal wireless technology, or find somebody who
stands to save a lot of money or increase revenue.”
Evolution
Once
you have identified the wireless and mobile strategy for your organization, then
you need a roadmap, which is basically a short and long range plan. “You need
to identify the first things that you are going to do to capture some value from
these technologies. For example, reduce transaction costs by eliminating
excessive back-and-forth between insured/agent/carrier.
Another example is reducing breakage, which is the loss of business due
to transaction complexity and/or time delays. Make that first step as high
profile as you can, but keep it a small enough pilot to where you don’t go
beyond your competencies and end up disappointing customers or executive
sponsors,” said Travers. “Then
quantify that success as much as you can and build on it.”
Your
long term plan should be flexible because there are emerging and evolving
technologies. But the roadmap gives you something to refer to and stay on course
with.
Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth
“Insurance
providers must increase customer satisfaction, attract new customers, and
improve compliance, while reducing costs at the same time. Wireless technology
can help lower loss adjustment expenses, increase efficiency and help you be
more responsive to customer needs,” said Dan Foster. “If you are not doing
wireless now you should be. Industry
analysts predict that wireless data users will grow to 54 million by the end of
2007.”
Foster
admitted that the world of wireless can be confusing. He said that some people
are particularly confused about Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
WiFi
is the wireless way to handle networking. It works well within a campus
environment. WiFi is also known as 802.11 networking. One advantage to WiFi is
its simplicity. It allows you to connect computers anywhere in your home or
office without the need for wires. The computers connect to the network using
radio signals, and can be up to 100 feet apart.
Bluetooth
has a lower distance range and lower speed than WiFi. It is an industrial
specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth is an
appropriate and affordable technology for communication between smart phones,
PDAs and other accessories. It provides a way to connect these devices and
exchange information between them through a secure, globally available short
range radio frequency. Bluetooth allows mobile devices to communicate as long as
they are within 30 feet of each other.
Basically,
Bluetooth and WiFi address different wireless connectivity requirements.
Impact
of Evolution to 3G
So
what is the impact of this new technology? This new technology is extending a
lot of the capability that people have at a desk out to the field. “Where
people out in the field used to go off and collect the information on clipboards
and go back to their desk and start the workflow process, now they are able to
capture that information electronically,” said Foster. “Collecting this
information electronically in the field reduces cycle time and allows a higher
degree of accuracy in collecting the field data.”
CDMA
User Security
Highlights
Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) security is very highly secure. There are a lot
of levels of encryption. CDMA is difficult to attack. The complicated CDMA air
interface prevents active false base station attacks. Soft hand-off prevents
following and intercepting the user communications link and cryptographic
authentication with pre-cell validation prevents fraudulent access. “This
technology actually comes from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
way back when they were doing satellite communications the defense industry did
not want to have foreign nationals intercept this information,” said Foster.
“You will find that the air channels are scrambled with 40 bit Private Long
Code Mask. To put it simply it is like taking a large encyclopedia, shredding it
up into each individual character, basically making confetti out of it, and then
tossing it up into the air.”
Wireless
Insurance Solutions
Originally the insurance
industry was mostly using wireless technology for collaborative workflow or
e-mail. Now Foster said we are seeing wireless use in other types of
applications. There are a number of uses for wireless technology in the
insurance industry that can help improve employee productivity including:
·
e-mail,
calendar, contacts, Internet access, file attachment/reading
·
Internet
access via secure VPN infrastructure
·
field
applications—claims, application, rates, data capture
·
wireless
alerts/notification/messaging
·
application
CRM access
·
executive
dashboard—adjuster metrics
·
customer
services application
·
remote
hardware and software management
Having
options like wireless notification enables your field force to find out the
status of a claim. This improves customer service because the field force is
able to give the customer real-time information. Options like wireless alerts
let the agent know if he has left something off or if some kind of exception has
occurred. “Being able to notify that person that there is a delay just through
a message on their cell phone, PDA, or wireless laptop would certainly help to
move things along,” Foster said. “The faster
you book this business the quicker you start collecting those premiums.”
Having
remote hardware and software management is also a new trend. “If a device gets
lost or stolen you don’t want your valuable information to be stolen as
well,” said Foster. “You want to be able to reach out across the network and
wipe the data clean. This way you don’t have to worry about the product being
lost or stolen because you have a contingency plan in place.”
Wireless
Project Considerations
There
are many things to consider when implementing a wireless program. Some wireless
project considerations include security, customer service, user functionality,
integration with existing corporate data, cost, ease of use, reliability,
network performance, ease of implementation, and the potential ROI.
“At
Panasonic we have been doing wireless for almost ten years now,” said Mark
Lund. “A lot of people in this industry think that the insurance industry is
slow to change and accept new technology; but some insurance companies have been
doing mobile claims processing for a while now.”
Data
Security
Lund
agreed with Travers that a lot of
security risk has to do with your people. “You don’t want your employees to
have their passwords written on their machines and that still happens today,”
he said. “Your people have some pretty sensitive information on those
machines. There is policy information, claims information, what do you do as a
company to protect that data? What is your security policy do you have one? How
many laptops have you had stolen? What
kind of data was on there? What measures are you as a company taking to make
sure that data is secure? There are a couple of companies these days that
unfortunately have had data lost. That is a big problem.”
“There
are software companies out there now that will actually track your laptop,”
Lund
said. “If your laptop gets stolen there are actually programs out there that
will help you trace the location of your laptop.”
When
to Get Onboard
When
is the right time to implement wireless technology? Some companies are waiting
to deploy this technology because they know the technology is going to change.
“We’ve seen some companies that unfortunately have waited to get implement
wireless or mobile technology and now they are at a competitive disadvantage,”
said
Lund
.
Lund
provided a check list for wireless
data deployments:
·
Define
the objective you are trying to achieve through implementing wireless
communications
·
Outline
a “reasonable” timeline to implement project objectives
·
Consult
with different groups that will be involved and impacted by the
project to gain support
·
Increase
target close data by at least 25 percent of original estimate to
take into account unforeseen issues
·
Get
forecast & delivery dates from wireless equipment providers
·
Conduct
“Proof of Concept” incorporating different functional areas
within the organization
·
Review
Speed vs. Coverage
·
Research
and review options by all wireless carriers in the geographies
that will be affected
·
Speak
with current customers using wireless data about their experiences,
challenges and benefits
·
Get
deployment dates in writing of new technologies in your targeted areas
·
Bundling
or “Pooling” of Data Use
·
Coverage
and technology for end users
·
Local
References
·
IP
Address & VPN Issues and Security
Lund
stressed the importance of outlining a
reasonable timetable for the project. “We
have seen companies set unrealistic expectations and then things start going
downhill quickly—people get on crunch time and start skipping steps they need
to do,” he said.
End
User Environment Considerations
Another
thing that companies need to take into consideration is their end user
environments. Are your employees
going to be using this technology indoors or outdoors?
“A common problem we hear about is that people can’t see their laptop
outside,” said
Lund
. “You have to take into
consideration that you are buying the products for the people who will be using
it in that particular environment. You
also need to consider whether your end user is in a rugged environment or not.
Think about how big the screen size needs to be for these users.
Decide if everyone needs wireless or just some people need it.
Determine whether you can wirelessly enable your existing applications.
Don’t force the technology into a process, make the process work and
choose a technology for that. Understand
that some programs were not designed to be mobile.
When you are doing the deployment take into consideration things like
training. Have a help desk resource
that can answer the user’s questions. These
are some considerations that are sometimes overlooked.”
The
Time is Now
There
are many current uses of wireless data in the insurance industry.
Automation of non-differentiated operations will continue to increase.
For life insurance companies, policy issuance and underwriting will
continue to be the primary focus for automation.
This
is happening today. “The
technology exists to be mobile, to be productive, and to get positive ROI,”
said
Lund
. “Don’t keep waiting. Do a trail test.
Look at what your competitors are doing. Are they more efficient than
you? Maybe you can learn something from them.”
A
mobilized workforce offers significant advantages to the insurance industry.
“Failure to capitalize on these capabilities will serve as a competitive
disadvantage,” said Travers. “It is time to really get serious about this if
you haven’t already. The hardware and software connectivity options are there
and are advancing rapidly. Don’t forget about process as you are doing this.
There will likely be some major process implications. You will leave money on
the table unless you redesign your processes to dovetail with the wireless and
mobile technologies. With wireless and mobile technology a thoughtful and
well-planned approach is needed to optimize the results.”
The
bottom line is that companies are trying to become more profitable and trying to
improve the bottom line of their business and deliver better service for their
customers. Wireless allows you to have constant connectivity when you are away
from the office. It allows constant communication. Implementing wireless
technology can help with employee productivity, efficiency and customer
satisfaction.
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