<- Back to Studies

1st Generation Pool Administration System

Background
A third party administrator providing turn-key outsourcing for public entity risk pools (policy administration, claim administration, accounting, and investment management) needed a way to double the number of pools they could administer without doubling the size of their underwriting staff or decreasing profit margins. This business goal was driven by the need to compete effectively with larger competitors as well as the pools themselves. The business processes had many manual steps and required considerable insurance knowledge, thereby requiring high levels of supervision and review of documents prior to sending them to the prospect or member. TPA management Growth was limited by how fast new staff could be hired and trained.

The Challenge
While claims administration was supported by an off-the-sheld claims administration system purchased from Gensource Corporation, policy administration was based around multiple, non-integrated spreadsheets and on paper documents that required a extensive specialized training and considerable effort to use. Data that needed to be posted to several different lines of coverage frequently only got posted to one line of coverage, which caused under billing and inconsistent claims handling. TPA management saw the need for an integrated database approach but could not find a commercially available software package that could handle self-determination of rates and rating calculations, reinsurance agreements, and run on a client/server local area network.

The Solution
Synergistic Solution Technologies, Inc. (SST) was hired in August 1990 to re-engineer the TPAs existing business processes and to develop an automated system implementing the new business processes. SST designed and developed the Risk Pool Management System (RPMS). RPMS is an integrated system supporting the marketing, underwriting, rating, contract management, and bordereaux-reporting requirements of risk pools. RPMS performs rating for Property, Auto Physical Damage, General Liability, Auto Liability, Professional Liability, Errors & Omissions Liability, Excess Liability, and Workers Compensation lines. RPMS is a Client/Server application that operates on a local area network and utilizes an On-Line Transaction Processing (OLTP) database system to ensure system reliability and data integrity.

The Result
JI has increased their business volume without increasing its labor resources. Renewal time has dropped from months to weeks as a result of using the RPMS software. Some expectations of members can now be met that were not possible before RPMS was installed. Amendments are now processed immediately upon receipt which has substantially increased cash flow. The timeliness and accuracy of renewals has increased while more data has meant better reinsurance negotiations.

The manager of MIS at the TPA has said, “... the software is bulletproof ... it runs our entire business ... we could not have built this system without SST.”