Beacon exceeds client expectations with a flexible solution that fulfils their long-term delivery strategy

New Offerings | Industry Compliance | Reducing Paperwork

The Client

Our client provides insurance and insurance related products under a leading brand to many of Australia’s credit unions, as well as white label solutions. The client forges many productive partnerships with financial institutions to strengthen their member offerings, enhance member loyalty and create additional revenue streams.

As a significant insurance provider to the mutual space within Australia backed by over USD$13.2 billion in global assets and approximately 500,000 policies held worldwide, our client is respected as a strong provider of personal and financial protection.

The Challenge

The client wanted to become even more responsive to their customers, and to strengthen their market position by launching a series of new insurance products for the Australian market. They sought a powerful and flexible technology solution that will enable them to bring new insurance products to market at an unprecedented speed, and deliver these products cost effectively to their sales channels across Australia.

This solution must also integrate seamlessly with existing insurance applications, guarantee compliance with insurance company business rules, and accommodate detailed underwriting criteria, without imposing generic system limitations.

The Solution

Beacon custom-built software to provide the core front-end policy management user interface for customers and credit union staff, and a platform for all the organisation’s sales channels to perform key underwriting operations easily over the corporate intranet and the Internet.

Key functionalities realised include quotation of insurance products, cover noting of insurance products, instant policy issuance, comprehensive product information and sales aids, secure “paperless and signature-less” transactions and online policy endorsements, policy renewals, policy cancellations, payment management instalments, collections and arrears, and sales reporting.

The custom software provided full support of the insurance process through a workflow approach, utilised popular Web browsers, and enabled centralised management of the application and the database in real time.

Team & Technology – The software was built on Java/J2EE/JSP, HTML/JavaScript and Oracle, and the initial project team size of two has grown over the years to include up to twenty Beacon staff at various stages of deployment.

The Outcomes

Through this Web-based system that has grown with the client’s business expansion over 15 years, service officers were able to harness powerful custom software to perform their work more efficiently and effectively, through a user-friendly and reliable system that guaranteed compliance with underwriting policies and rules.

The client could thus eliminate unproductive paper handling and data entry, provide better quality service to members through the full cycle of the insurance process, and boost customer satisfaction and revenue, with most users reporting a 30% or higher increase in sales.

Reduced administration expenses and improved sales resulted in a substantial growth in insurance earnings and market share, and reputable external parties were suitably impressed with our client’s capabilities to co-brand insurance offerings that further strengthened their standing in the marketplace and its value to customers.

Today, based on a deep understanding of our client’s business and the strong rapport developed over 15 years, Beacon still provides excellent day-to-day production support, delivers a variety of application maintenance, enhancement and upgrade services, and supports the client’s evolution and expansion to sustain their ongoing success.