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Novae

Novae

Overview:

Novae Insurance Company (Novae) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Novae Group plc, created by SVB Holdings plc. Novae’s mission is to provide the London and regional markets with superior underwriting and first-class service levels. Providing a range of specialist insurances to clients based predominantly in the UK and Europe. The company’s return on equity and combined ratio are amongst the strongest in the sector.

Business need:

Being a start up business, it was imperative to Novae that the technology behind their underwriting process was best-of-breed, as it would provide the foundation from which they would effectively deliver their services, and support them in establishing themselves in the UK. Novae wanted to eliminate the manual paper-based processes normally associated with Underwriting and implement a complete web-based solution that would streamline processes, speed application processing and keep costs low.

Solution:

Novae considered a number of solutions from established providers and selected Salmon and their web-based underwriting solution SAFI™ (Salmon Application Framework for Insurance) as their underwriting solution of choice.

SAFI™ gave Novae full end-to-end support of their business, providing the baseline functionality which Novae extended to provide an independent customised solution to meet their unique business requirements.

Benefits:

A fully web-based system written in Java, Novae are leveraging SAFI’s™ unique ability to link together all elements of an insurer’s underwriting business. The solution has allowed Novae to:

Streamline many of their insurance processes
Automate paper-based administration processes
Allow access to the system from any location at any time
Provide users with unprecedented levels of visibility, flexibility and business agility via it’s thin client, J2EE architecture
Concentrate on underwriting and minimize operational resources
Get products to market quickly
Configure the solution easily themselves
Enable brokers to eTrade

Full Case Study:

Set up in Dec 2003, Novae began underwriting in January 2004. Being a start up business, it was imperative to Novae that the technology behind their underwriting process was best-of-breed, as it would provide the foundation from which they would effectively deliver their services, and support them in establishing themselves in the UK. Novae wanted to eliminate the manual paper-based processes normally associated with Underwriting and implement a complete web-based solution that would streamline processes, speed application processing and keep costs low.

Selection Process

In the first instance, Novae looked internally to see whether they could make use of any of the systems in place throughout the rest of the organisation. Iris and Genius, from Xchanging already in use within the Novae Group were evaluated and discounted because they didn’t offer the innovative web based functionality that Novae required. As a result Novae sent out an invitation to tender with the objective of investing in an underwriting solution that met the following requirements:

Offered them all the functionality needed to run the business
Would fully integrate with business critical systems
Was internet based – allowing access from any place at any time

Initially, Novae embarked on a 6 month outsourced contract for the solution with Xchanging, for whom Salmon originally developed the application. In August 2004, having decided that SAFI™ met their requirements and would be their preferred solution moving forward, they negotiated to purchase the solution direct from Salmon. Steve Fookes, IT Director said: “We selected SAFI™ because it helped us differentiate our business, SAFI™ was designed with the web in mind and Salmon’s experience of delivering award winning eCommerce solutions combined with their knowledge in the Insurance market gave us the confidence that they would be the right partner to support us.”

Meeting Novae’s needs

Novae wanted a solution that was at the forefront of technology. SAFI™ met Novae’s requirements providing them with the only truly web-based offering on the market, feeding through to policy production, back office ledgers and claim systems and containing the rich functionality required to meet Novae’s requirements.

It was essential to Novae that the solution automated the typically vast amount of paper-based administration processes that are common to the insurance business.

Working with a partner that was able to demonstrate an understanding of eCommerce and the Insurance market was crucial to Novae. Salmon were able to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise through previous implementations of SAFI™ at major suppliers including Xchanging, WR Berkley, Illium and PRI. In addition they were responsible for a major 6 year change programme for Swiss Re and they had an excellent reputation for delivering eCommerce solutions for customers including Argos, Halfords and Ann Summers. This all helped Novae decide that SAFI™ and Salmon were the right choice.

“The reputation of Salmon at PRI was excellent and we had every confidence that you would deliver on time and within budget, which was rare in the London Insurance market. The quality of your analysts is second to none and all of your staff deal with us in a very professional manner.” Steve Fookes, IT Director

Salmon selected as preferred supplier

It was important for Novae to keep overheads low during their first year. By outsourcing all of the IT development, implementation and support to Salmon, Novae were able to keep IT staff numbers to a minimum. Therefore, they required a partner that offered them a full range of services.

Salmon were able to meet this objective, providing:

The underwriting solution (SAFI™)
Infrastructure management and resources
Implementation services
Hosting
Training
Support and maintenance.

This made the implementation process simple and cost effective for Novae and enabled them to get up and running on an interim solution in very short timescales - just 6 weeks.

Implementation Phase

Commencing with a short gap analysis phase, Salmon then set about branding the front end and developing the areas that were seen as a necessity for Novae to begin using the application, changes were minimal as SAFI™ closely met the majority of Novae’s immediate requirements.

“Our solution was up and running within 6 weeks, outsourcing to Salmon was very cost effective and one of the reasons we were so successful in our first year of trading.” Steve Fookes, IT Director

Novae Leverage SAFI™

SAFI™ gave Novae full end-to-end support of their business, providing the baseline functionality which Novae extended to provide an independent customised solution to meet their unique business requirements.

A fully web-based system written in Java, Novae are leveraging SAFI’s™ unique ability to link together all elements of an insurer’s underwriting business. The solution has allowed Novae to:

Streamline many of their insurance processes
Automate paper-based administration processes
Allow access to the system from any location at any time
Provide users with unprecedented levels of visibility, flexibility and business agility via it’s thin client, J2EE architecture
Concentrate on underwriting and minimize operational resources
Get products to market quickly
Configure the solution easily themselves
Enable brokers to eTrade

Infrastructure

Salmon were also responsible for procuring and installing the hardware required to run the application, consisting of a UNIX operating system running Solaris and an Oracle Database. QuickAddress was integrated to meet the data quality and address management requirements of Novae. Hosting was sourced and provided via Pipex and although the contract is held direct with Novae, Salmon are responsible for managing the relationship and escalating any issues.

Training

This took place during the build phase. Two Novae representatives were educated on how to add new products using the screens provided within the application. Initially Salmon helped Novae build all the products required to go live, leaving them with the skills and ability to easily and quickly add further ones in the future.

Testing

System testing and user function testing took place throughout the set up and implementation of SAFI™, with Salmon taking a thorough approach to mitigate risk during the build, to ensure a timely and efficient go live.

“The management of your testing was critical to your success; Salmon have always delivered a first class product and that continues today. The application is resilient, robust and good quality.” Steve Fookes, IT Director

Unique Solution

Innovation is key to Novae and the technology behind their underwriting process was vital to their proposition - to effectively overcome paper-based inefficiencies and successfully deliver a better service to their brokers.

Flexible Product Definition

One of SAFI’s™ key attributes is the way it allows users to set up and push new products to market within hours. SAFI™ originally supported all of Novae’s classes of business, and has allowed them to add new ones easily themselves, opposed to having to rely on a third party to make modifications to the IT infrastructure. Currently Novae have over 160 products and since the solution went live Novae have added over 110 themselves.

Web-Based Capability – Online Underwriting

The web-based functionality means the solution can be accessed via the internet by underwriters, brokers, loss adjustors and administration staff, enabling Novae to significantly reduce fixed costs associated with traditional policy and claims administration as a result of them sharing information and integrating activities. The flexibility of the system is also empowering employees, enabling administrators and underwriters to work from home when needed.

“In traditional insurance models, information is passed between disparate systems, paper-based documents are used to support the manual input into each system and this leads to duplication of policies and claims across multiple back office systems and associated delays in processing - SAFI™ eliminates this.” Steve Fookes, IT Director

The Broker Portal – Extended User Community

Helping the brokers to process business in an easy and efficient manner was critical to Novae. The broker Portal is extended to over 20 of Novae’s brokers and claims handling community. Brokers can get quotes, bind risks, process renewals and check progress on claims for their clients at the press of a button, producing all the relevant quote and policy documentation required.

Sophisticated Rules Engine

Another key feature of SAFI™ is the integrated rules engine that drives rules based processing for premium calculations and risk entry validation, based on a sequence of instructions set up by the user. This enables the underwriter to quickly react to adjust the product to loss ratio changes and market conditions.

Document Generation and Repository

SAFI™ has enabled Novae to automate their entire business. Novae’s quotes, policies, policy documentation and correspondence are all electronically distributed around the business via email attachments helping speed application processing and reduce costs. A significant step forward in streamlining the insurance process and enabling access to documents from any location at any time, reducing paper based processes and eliminating human error. Some integration was required by Salmon to link Novae’s document repository iManage, holding all their generated documents, scanned documents, and electronically filed documents with SAFI™. The solution also includes a management information system and reporting module to facilitate management reporting.

Security

Security has long been an issue in the insurance industry and it was important to Novae to ensure that only those people that should see documents could. For example, a broker only sees client information for clients he has introduced. In order to enforce this, users are assigned roles and the ability to see/perform functions restricted to their role. This is done by restricting their processing and information access using configurable access rights. Escalation features are also built into the system.

Bureau Messaging

Bureau Message Integration is accomplished by integrating SAFI™ with N-DEX, Northdoor’s data exchange product which provides an interface to Lloyd’s messaging service - another labour saving activity.

Support & Maintenance

Once the solution had been implemented Novae entered into a support phase with Salmon, whereby any fixes, hosting issues or problems that arose were quickly dealt with. Service level objectives were set outlining the time that Salmon had to respond to a call, ranging from low (2 days) to emergency (1 hour).

“We have a great relationship with Salmon; we work very closely with your people who are personable and always available.” Steve Fookes, IT Director

Independent Audit

In March 2007, Novae commissioned an independent Application Review of SAFI™ by a company called UPCO (The Ultimate People Company), with the objective of finding out whether their investment to date was protected. Steve Fookes, IT Director said: “The review looked at the architecture, infrastructure, source code, documentation and system handover process. I was delighted with the results; the solution came out extremely well in all areas, especially quality of code and value for money.”

Going Forward

Because SAFI™ is web-based exposing the system to other parts of the business is quick and simple and as a result Novae’s underwriters whether located down the corridor, at home, or on the other side of the world benefit from being able to focus on underwriting risks rather than administrative tasks. Looking ahead Novae have plans to expand the business in Italy and trade world-wide. SAFI™ will support this by providing Novae with multi-lingual functionality, already piloted in the application.

Novae Group are planning to invest in a new MIS system and Data Warehouse, and in an effort to continually improve manual processes, errors and rework, Salmon will be integrating SAFI™ with the new systems.

“We believe it is the best solution out there, and if I had to choose a solution again, I would make the same decision. There isn’t anything else in the market that offers an all round package solution like SAFI™.” Steve Fookes, IT Director

The right choice

Historically the insurance industry is not renowned for its efficiency or keeping up with the latest IT developments. However, Novae refused to follow this trend and are reaping the rewards from their innovative underwriting solution and seeing significant operational efficiencies. The vast majority of Novae’s business processes are now handled automatically by SAFI™ increasing productivity and reducing staffing costs.

Salmon