Colonial Life IT Modernization Overview
Alan Whelchel
Assistant Vice President
Global Business Technology
UNUM / Colonial Life
Who We Are
Founded in 1939; more than 50 years of workplace
marketing expertise
Market voluntary benefits to employees at the
workplace through career agency system
Experts in employee benefits communication and
enrollment
Focused on small and mid-sized commercial and
public sector accounts
Products include accident, short-term disability, supplemental health, life,
cancer and critical illness
10,000-member independent contractor sales organization supported by
1,100 home office employees primarily based in Columbia, S.C.
History of financial stability and profitable growth
60,000 accounts and 3.0 million policies in force
A long-time industry leader in voluntary benefits provider
Operational Efficiency is Key to
Profitability
Sample Transaction Volumes
– 65% of New Accounts Enrolled within 5 Days
– 70% of Individual Applications Issued Automatically
– 300 Million transactions per year
– 800,000+ policies issued each year
– >4 Million payroll deducted premium payments processed per month
– 600,000 claims resolved each year
– 2,000,000 customer calls each year
Colonial Life IT Strategies
• Business Driven Approach
• Invest in proven technologies
• Insure that tools are a fit for architecture /
environment
• Incremental Implementations
• Re-use of logic within multiple contexts
• Layered Application Designs
• Minimize “rip and replace”
• Web Services Implementation
Colonial Life IT Modernization
“Evolution”
1980’s
• Core Systems – Sequential Batch COBOL base
• Realtime Access and Update
• Enhanced Product Line Support
• Automation of Underwriting Functions
1990’s
• Automated Policy Print / Assembly
• Implemented Laptop Enrollment capabilities
• Integrated Imaging and Workflow Systems
• Automation of Call Centers – IVR/Graphical User Interfaces
• Created Data Warehousing Capabilities
• Architected Principles of Application Re-use
• Y2K Remediation
Colonial Life IT Modernization
“Evolution”
2000 - Present
• Established Public Internet Presence
• Enhanced Underwriting Capabilities
• Message Transport Conversion using IBM Websphere MQ
• Deployed Web and IVR Self Service Capabilities
• Implemented Web Based Enrollment Capabilities
• Integration of OCR Payment Processing
• VOIP and Telephony Suite Modernization
• Implemented Service Oriented Architecture Infrastructure
• Began Web Enablement of Re-usable Components via SOA Infrastructure
• Installed Business Process Management Tools
– Rules Engine
– Workflow
– Process Orchestration
Colonial Life IT Modernization
“Evolution”
Current Challenges
• Stresses of Insurance Marketplace
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Economic Anxiety
Health Care Reform
Increased Competition
Shrinking Business Cycles
• IT and Business Cultural Acceptance
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Services Design
Business Process Design
Messaging
Agile Methodologies
• Shrinking Talent Pipeline
• Specialization of Skills
• Pace of Technology Advances
Colonial Life IT Modernization
“Evolution”
Short-Term Technology “Opportunities”
• Alignment of Business Architecture and IT Architecture
• Focus on Business Event Processing
• Expand Use of Rules Engines
• Expand Self Service Capabilities
• 24 x 7 Availability
• Expand Business Intelligence Capabilities
• Expand Device Support (mobile applications phones, tablets
etc.)
• Cloud Computing