Business Insurance RMIS Article

"Use of Online Portals Growing Rapidly"

June 2, 2003

by MICHAEL BRADFORD

Computer portals that allow insurers and agents to bundle a wide variety of applications and information resources for easy access by clients are the latest technology trend.

In fact, portals are expected to become "the desktop of the future," according to Richard Hoehne, Atlanta-based solution executive in International Business Machines Corp.'s financial services sector. He referred to a study that said developing portals soon will become so commonplace as to be considered "a cost of doing business."

The number of Web portals is growing dramatically, Mr. Hoehne pointed out, and they are "becoming a business-change agent for a number of organizations."

Speaking at the Assn. for Cooperative Operations Research & Development's 2003 conference in Orlando, Fla., last month, Mr. Hoehne explained that a portal provides a "single point of access to different types of information and applications, and aggregates it in a way" that makes it easy to use.

Most computer users think of Internet services Google and Yahoo! as portals, he noted, because they provide access to information and services. But such portals are strictly gateways, Mr. Hoehne said. "They're not doing anything in and of themselves."

While early portals were no more than an "electronic brochure," today's version puts a number of applications in front of users, Mr. Hoehne said. "Portals have come a long way; they're no longer just a gateway to access a Web brochure."

Prudential Financial Inc. is an insurer that embraced portal technology as a way to deliver more responsive customer service while lowering operational costs.

Prudential policyholders until recently had to access a different Web site for each line of business they did with the company, and customer account information was not consolidated. Using IBM's WebSphere Portal software and other IBM services, a portal was developed that supports 300,000 users.

Through the portal, which took five months to develop, Prudential policyholders and investors can access consolidated account information, learn about the insurer's products, read analysts' commentaries and more. A transactional component allows customers to handle asset reallocations, request coupon books for making premium payments, buy and sell mutual funds and submit changes such as new addresses.

A case study by IBM showed that Prudential's call center costs have dropped significantly since the portal was introduced, and the insurer claims its customer-agent relationships have been strengthened.

Mr. Hoehne said agents and insurers also see significant savings by developing portals that can be used by employees.

Portal applications-which include such things as electronic meetings, instant messaging, virtual help desks and electronic learning-allow organizations to realize returns on their investment into a portal infrastructure, he said.

IBM's human resources costs, for example, have dropped by more than half since it began using portal technology, Mr. Hoehne noted. The company has saved $350 million by giving employees access to electronic training programs and has handled 87 million customer transactions that would have been handled with telephone calls.

As for insurance agents, most have computer desktops that are a mess, Mr. Hoehne said, with a lot of different functions accessed through various programs and sites. A portal, he contends, allows the user to consolidate all those functions into one space and gives the agent a way to easily navigate through information. "The portal gives a clean look and feel," he said.