Isle of Man-based Zurich Financial Services, which offers
investment advice to British expatriates, expects to recoup a
£500,000 investment in a customer management system within 18
months.
The company, which plans to roll out the system to 300 users by the
end of the year, will use it to digitise about 80,000 customer
records currently held in paper files.
Zurich took the decision to buy the system, called Starfish,
following concerns that, with a customer base growing at the rate
of 20% a year, the company would soon run out of storage
space.
"We have increasing volumes of business but we are capped on the
amount of storage we have," said Peter Taylor, e-programme manager.
"We had quite an urgent demand to get something up and running
quickly."
The software, designed by Filenet, will allow the company's
branches in Dubai and Hong Kong to access customer details and
answer phone enquiries without creating duplicate paper
files.
Ultimately, the system could allow the group to offer a
round-the-clock service, by giving Zurich the ability to redirect
customer calls to whichever office is open at the time of the
enquiry.
A pilot study two years ago, using off-the-shelf software, showed
that using digitised records could dramatically improve turnaround
time for customer enquiries.
"The files are stored three miles away from the office. If staff
were on the phone to the customer, they had to send someone to get
the file and arrange to call the customer back," said Taylor.
Zurich looked at two alternative systems, but opted for Starfish
from Filenet, which had more customer reference sites. "Insurance
companies don't do risk," said Taylor.
The company hired systems integrator Oceanus to install the system
and commission it in 10 weeks, under a fixed-cost contract.
The system, which went live at the start of the month, has 60
users, but this will increase to 260 by the end of the year.
A team of people will digitise paper files as and when customers
call in to Zurich. In the future, the company plans to digitise
other paper work including copies of customer cheques and
investment slips.
The system runs on Compaq Proliant servers and links into to
Zurich's AS/400, which holds details of premiums, customers, and
their investments.