How does SurePower Innovation Software Render the Workflow More Manageable?

"P&C insurance organizations can use SurePower Innovation to automate a single function, a single department, or an entire company." (ISCS, Inc.)

ISCS, Inc. has created SurePower Innovation a quasi out of the box workflow automated management software solution customized for the insurance industry that can greatly increase worker productivity, enhance customer service satisfaction, track policy payments, manage claims, and manage customer relationships at a cost that is appropriate for insurance companies of all sizes.

Surepower Innovation has streamlined the workflow process that previously would have been handled through a manual process. In the past, an insurance customer service representative would have to enter a prospective customer’s information into a prospect database and then call the insurance distributor to get a quote. They would then have to re-enter the customer’s information upon their decision to purchase a policy into a policy database. They would then need to forward the new customer policy request the distributor. If the customer was late on payments they would have to call them to remind them to pay. If a customer wanted to review their policy they would have to call or go to the insurance office to obtain that information. The insurance company would have to keep separate financial records and occasionally reconcile them with customer transactions via occasional audits.

"A pressing concern for many manufacturers today is how to ensure a meaningful payback from their spending on information technology. The challenge for management, according to Bob Gilbert, manager of manufacturing systems at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Tactical Aircraft Systems unit in Ft. Worth, Texas, is to determine which IT solutions will add value and which represent overkill. One technology that can have tremendous payback, Gilbert observes, is workflow management - software systems that automatically route documents and notifications to people who must perform various sequential tasks or issue approvals. The Lockheed Martin plant uses a workflow solution from Action Technologies Inc. to manage its quality-assurance reporting process." (Sheridan)

Not all workflow software does a good job of providing a customized knowledge management process for individual industries or firms. However, ISCS, Inc. has succeeded where many companies have failed. By using SurePower Innovation the entire sales and customer management process is streamlined whereby customer, prospect, and accounting transactions databases are linked together and automatically refresh each other. Quotes are obtained automatically in seconds online. If a customer is late on a payment automatic business rules trigger emails sent directly to the customer reminding them of their obligations. Customer account information is available twenty-four hours a day through reliable and secure SSL encrypted Internet connections. When the need for claim management arises, Surepower innovation can document the information passed between the agent and the distributor and automatically inform the customer where they are in the process through automated email updates. On the accounting side the software automatically links every financial transaction with the appropriate customer and can provide customized performance statistics regarding finances or ratios between customer statistics and profitability.

This SurePower Innovation suite enables insurance customer service people to save time performing clerical work and focus on doing what they do best which is guiding customers through the quote and insurance purchasing process as well as getting involved in finding ways to attract new customers through outreach programs.

"The Evolution of Workflow Management consists of the automation of business procedures or "workflows" during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another in a way that is governed by rules or procedures. Workflow software products, like other software technologies, have evolved from diverse origins. While some offerings have been developed as pure workflow software, many have evolved from image management systems, document management systems, relational or object database systems, and electronic mail systems." (Pike)

Rather than relying on the services of individual programmers and system designers to automate workflow procedures, insurance companies can now purchase an out of the box solution which has been designed with the maximum flexibility via parameter adjustment features intended to accommodate the needs of any particular insurance agency. Although, the design behind SurePower Innovation is sophisticated and was created at great expense, it leverages economies of scale because of it fits the needs of thousands of agencies without requiring extensive installation, customization, and training costs.

"I'm looking forward to being able to decrease the support that we currently devote to several of our legacy systems and using those skills and money to do new things," Gilbert says. "I think ERP systems have enormous potential. But it is a matter of how you implement them. You have to understand the mechanics of how those systems are implemented before you actually implement them." (Sheridan)

SurePower Innovation can serve the needs of not only the small and medium size insurance agency large legacy-centric insurance providers as well. By utilizing open Java model driven architecture integration costs between the combination browser-server-database solution with older legacy systems is simplified. Through the use of minimal object oriented programming applications SurePower not only will bring the companies online in an unprecedented automated fashion but serve as a common link between business partners and relevant insurance agencies who are already utilizing this workflow software suite.

SurePower Innovation represents phenomena among many industries whereby software developers have been able to isolate workflow processes common to all and automate them under flexible ubiquitous workflow automation software that makes use of browser, client-server, database, desktop publishing, ecommerce, and online data query programming that many individual firms may have not been able to afford previously. Over the past five years software suites similar to SurePower Innovation have been created to automate workflow processes in industries such as property management, automobile dealerships, financial services, etc.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Works Cited

Sheridan, John. Workflow: 'Unsung hero'., Industry Week. 1999.

Pike, John. Workflow Management Coalition., WFMC.com. 2006.

ISCS, Inc.. SurePower Innovation., ISCS.com. 2006.

II. Works Consulted

Sheridan, John. Workflow: 'Unsung hero'., Industry Week. 1999.

Pike, John. Workflow Management Coalition., WFMC.com. 2006.

ISCS, Inc.. SurePower Innovation., ISCS.com. 2006.

Stewart, Thomas. Knowledge is today's capital: Strategy & Leadership., 2003.

Malhotra, Yogesh. Knowledge Management for the New World of Business. Brint.com 1998.

Barclay, Rebecca. What is Knowledge Management. MediaAccess.com.1997.

KM-Forum.org. What is Knowledge Management. 2002.

Santusos, Megan, Srmacz, Jon. The ABCs of Knowledge Management. CIO Magazine 2001.

Wilson, T.D. The Nonsense of Knowledge Management. Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144, 2002.

Choo, Chen Wei. The Knowing Organization. 1999.

Shein, Esther The Knowledge Crunch. CIO Magazine, 2001.