– In the Picture – Document Management Case Study at Surrenda-link Bruce Spicer / Peter Gallienne Information Management Services Department

– In the Picture – Document Management Case Study at Surrenda-link

Bruce Spicer / Peter GallienneInformation Management Services Department

© 2008 Keystar Consultancy Services

Surrenda-link / KCSIn-Confidence

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Contents

About Surrenda-link The Problem The Solution What was (is being) achieved The Costs and Benefits So – how was it for you? Next Steps



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About Surrenda-link Surrenda-link Investment Management is a UK financial services sector

enterprise pre-eminent in the traded life assurance policy marketplace for both UK and US products.

The company is based in Chester, Cheshire, England and has around 170 specialist staff.

The traded policies (Traded Endowment Policies – TEP’s in the UK and Traded Senior Life Insurance – TLI in the US) are invested in funds and similar vehicles.

Currently Surrenda-link has just under £1Bn Funds Under Management / Funds Under Advice (FUMA).

The company has seen dramatic growth in the last three years and looks forward to major business, especially in the US marketplace.

Systems within the company are largely bespoke, using a mixture of Microsoft technology (C#, SQL) and older technology (Delphi).

In 2008 / 9 Surrenda-link aspires to re-engineer business processes, acquire a packaged based systems architecture and attain ISO9001:2000 certification for Customer Services.



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The Problem Trading in existing life policies is a technically complex and skilled business. At

any point in time more than 30,000 policy files are active, either in the pipeline of the purchasing cycle or invested in one of the funds.

Each policy file is a multi-document paper based folder containing on average 35 x A4 pages, and is associated with data files held on four separate internal IT systems.

Procuring policies is a complex business with interleaved processes worked on by different staff in teams and locations.

The overall cycle can take several weeks before the policy file settles to regular monthly processing. Files move through the business process(es) and often pass through a number of technical staff hands.

The opportunity for files to be delayed, lost or misfiled is growing along with the business.

The overall costs of records handling are growing with a per annum, per file cost of around £10 currently.

Mixed paper and systems based records increase complexity in the business and limit the possibilities for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and impact Business Continuity Planning (BCP).



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The Solution The solution to the problems being encountered emerged during a review of

IT Strategy Development, undertaken in Surrenda-link by external consultants, during Q4, 2007.

The review determined that the business would benefit from both re-engineering key business processes and a refresh of the Business / Systems Architecture, based around packaged solutions and components rather than difficult / expensive to maintain bespoke systems.

A key link between re-engineered processes and IT enablement is records and document management, and the key software requirement was for reliable, functionally rich and low-cost image processing.

However, whilst application areas were defined reasonably easily during late 2007, caution and unfamiliarity with active use of the technology in Surrenda-link demanded that a clear benchmark for using imaging be achieved via a Proof-Of-Concept (POC) project.

The project area (TEP Customer Services) was defined and a proposal put to the IT Strategy Development Project Board during late November, 2007. Approval to proceed was given and Image took its place as part of the emerging new architecture – see overleaf.



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Surrenda-Link New WorldBusiness / Systems ArchitectureImage is a key element…

Workflow Backbone

LegacyEtc

Web interaction with Customers

and Clients

Web interaction with Customers

and Clients

Money In / Out

Cust /Client

Contact

MI / Reporting

BankRecon

Fund Acctg /Admin

Image DataFunctional Application Areas

User Experience



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Surrenda-link – Imaging – Conceptual Process



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What was (is being) achieved What followed was, it is believed, one of the speediest and smoothest

imaging implementations on recent record. Following the initial IT Strategy Review recommendation to undertake an

Imaging POC, in November / December, 2007, a procurement exercise selected and tested the chosen software, Alfresco, by the end of the year, and serious process definition, software configuration, MFC set-up, user training and UAT took place in January.

During early February the system went live with a limited sub-set of users, and back-scanning of active WIP files kicked off and completed in a six-week window, scanning more that 15k documents with c.50k images.

The system bedded-in during late Q1 / early Q2, and development work kicked-off integrating Alfresco with the Delphi based Policy Processing System.

By late July nearly more than 70 users were using the system (albeit, many casually) and more than 80k documents with c.300k images were active.

Stress testing has shown the system can cope with up to 1700 documents in a working day (scanning / indexing / cataloguing / allocating).



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The Costs and Benefits The POC Project was time-boxed and tightly managed, as has

been detailed. Initial rollout to 20 users, followed by a further 50 “enquiry only” users has cost c.£50K, excluding VAT. These costs include MFC scanner upgrades, large monitors for selected staff and software support and implementation costs.

Business benefits are estimated, through staff-time savings, to be providing a payback from the POC (if left in production) inside of three years. Other benefits (so called “soft benefits”) include:– Provide a “slicker” business process;

– Improve records security;

– Enhanced Business Continuity / DR capability;

– Improved, speedier customer service.



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So – how was it for you?

In Customer Support and Customer Contact Service a user survey was undertaken with the summary results, as follows.

(See graphs on following pages)



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Do you feel that the introduction of IMAGING is helping/will help us to offer better levels of customer service?

0123456789

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Definitely Yes Unsure I don'tthink so

No way!

TEP Support

TEP Service



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When you first heard that IMAGING was being implemented in your team what was your initial reaction? Now IMAGING is live within your team is it what you expected, better or worse? If worse please state why you feel this is the case?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

It's great It's OK So-so Not great Scrap it!

TEP Support

TEP Service



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Have you found IMAGING beneficial when dealing with Customers on the telephone?

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Very useful Useful No change Hinderance Agonising

TEP Support

TEP Service



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Next Steps Following the success of the POC Project, Image is being rolled-

out across Customer Services in Surrenda-link. At the time of writing Phase 2 – the full establishment of a Centralised Mail Handling / Records Management Centre (with corporate post room, document printing, scanning and indexing capabilities) is well advanced.

Once Customer Services is complete in Q4 of 2008, the lessons learned will be taken across to the new US business side of the company (TLI), and integrated with the new Workflow system (another Proof-Of-Concept Project is “in-flight” there.

Continual monitoring of the value, methods and utilisation of image technology will ensure Surrenda-link maintains poll position to be the most professional traded life investment specialists in the world.



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For further information, contact:

Bruce Spicer / Peter GallienneHead of Information Management

Surrenda-link Investment Management8-11 Grosvenor CourtForegate StreetChester CH1 1HGTel: 01244 317999Fax: 01244 318142Email: [email protected] Institutional: www.slinvest.co.ukWebsite Retail: www.surrendalink.co.uk

Documents

– In the Picture – Document Management Case Study at Surrenda-link Bruce Spicer / Peter Gallienne Information Management Services Department