Transamerica Reinsurance’s private label term business was running into technological obstacles in 2003. A major reinsurance supplier of private label term life solutions, Transamerica Reinsurance counts some of the industry's most recognized companies among its clients. However, its cumbersome underwriting system meant that the company’s underwriters had to navigate through multiple systems for the information they needed.

During a five-month evaluation of available systems, Transamerica Reinsurance concluded that the company needed a flexible system to support its private label insurance business, one that could be modified to meet its diverse business needs. It chose LifeSuite from VerticalPoint in Colorado Springs, CO, in large part because the application was browser-based and could be designed around Transamerica Reinsurance’s requirements for flexible workflow and improvements in case management and prioritization.

The result has been an increase in productivity that provides the firm with a distinct competitive edge. Getting there involved close collaboration between the insurance company and the software provider.

“With LifeSuite, we could sit down with the decision-makers within VerticalPoint and create the solution we were looking for,” explained Dave Dorans, vice president of product consulting and development for Transamerica Reinsurance. “This level of collaboration is essential to our private label business because every solution is tailor made to reflect the needs and target market of our individual client companies.”

VerticalPoint has built LifeSuite on Microsoft .NET technology. Written in the C# programming language, it offers simple-to-use and secure Web browser access to its powerful integrated new business automated underwriting suite.

Incorporated 17 years ago, VerticalPoint, Inc. is a partner in Microsoft’s Insurance Value Chain – a select list of insurance technology vendors whose applications have been certified on the Microsoft platform.

“Windows 2003 Server and .NET provided a fast development platform and secure foundation for the deployment of LifeSuite on the Web,” said Joseph Breakey, president and CEO of VerticalPoint. “This was critical considering Transamerica Reinsurance’s underwriters are located in Charlotte, NC, case managers are located at LabOne in Kansas City, MO, and in-force administration is managed in Indianapolis, IN.”

Additional tools, such as Microsoft Word, that are integrated with LifeSuite provide correspondence management. Transamerica Reinsurance uses LifeSuite in an ASP/BPO environment. Vector Technology hosts LifeSuite and a legacy policy administration system.

Working with Transamerica Reinsurance’s team, Vertical-Point built an interface between LifeSuite and the legacy policy administration system, built the new business and underwriting rules, then configured their workflow and interfaces with their evidence providers and call center.

Underwriters took to the new system quickly. “This was the critical test because our business model also includes private label solutions that a client company can use with its own in-house underwriters,” said Dorans. “We wanted a system that we knew would improve the productivity of an underwriting team.”

“The ability to refer among team members, request second signature, track cases and communicate within LifeSuite really took away the busy work and the need for extra staff,” said Dorans. “Everything is right at their fingertips.”

LifeSuite is user configurable and has a powerful insurance industry focused rules engine. In most cases the end user, with minimal IT support, can set up products, define new business and underwriting rules and configure a workflow all without the need for IT or VerticalPoint assistance, said Breakey.

“We are very impressed with LifeSuite's systems capabilities," added Shelly Mueller, underwriting director for Transamerica Reinsurance’s private label life solutions. “It is very production-driven, user friendly and powerful. I have been in this business for 32 years, and VerticalPoint is the best I have seen.” Transamerica Reinsurance now relies on Life-Suite to process term insurance for three major clients.

“With LifeSuite, Transamerica Reinsurance can successfully meet its goal of increasing volumes significantly while maintaining current underwriter staffing levels,” Mueller said. "While many underwriting departments require two support staff members to each underwriter, with LifeSuite we feel that as our volume ramps up, we will need only .5 to .75 staff members per underwriter.”

Earlier this year, Transamerica Reinsurance deployed a second copy of LifeSuite to replace its in-house developed facultative reinsurance system, which is used to underwrite specific risks that fall outside the existing contract with a carrier. With this deployment, LifeSuite is used by Transamerica Reinsurance’s worldwide facultative reinsurance operations, with offices located in various locations in North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America. LifeSuite is centrally located in Charlotte, NC, with the remote offices accessing LifeSuite over the Web.

Transamerica Reinsurance’s improved productivity is not unusual, said Breakey. Another client, Old Republic increased the number of applications it processes by 215 percent with just a 33 percent increase in staff head count, resulting in a per application savings of $45.

Another example of the success of LifeSuite in helping to streamline new business and underwriting processing can be found with a large New York-based insurance carrier. It was processing 25,000 new business life, disability and critical illness applications per year on a home-grown system. With Life-Suite, productivity has improved and turnaround time has dropped, although the company hasn't yet done a benchmark to quantify improvement.