S T R A T E G I C

W H I T E

P A P E R

Putting the pieces together

Offering customers an integrated insurance experience
Reaching clients swiftly, responding to new requirements and opportunities, and offering a seamless transactional experience are all key to securing customer loyalty for insurance companies. Just as important are privacy and security ensuring that personal information is never unprotected as it flows seamlessly among customers, brokers and insurers. This paper explores the challenges faced by insurance companies and other financial institutions, and looks at the ways IP technology answers those challenges today, and for the future.

Table of contents
1 1 2 2 3 6 Ensuring success in todays insurance marketplace Insurance company musts Managing customer relationships Improving business operations Enhancing security Insurance in the future

Ensuring success in todays insurance marketplace

Communications technologies have become essential to answering the needs of todays insurance companies. Integrating networks of brokers and agents with insurers themselves and third-party service providers enables truly dynamic enterprises in which people, processes, knowledge and networks are efficient, purpose-driven and mutually supportive. When communication is instant and transactions are seamless, insurance organizations can focus on fulfilling the following prerequisites for success:
Maintaining customer loyalty

Customers expect outstanding service at every point of contact whether interacting with selfservice systems, contact centers or remote resources.
Ensuring compliance and strengthening security

Increased scrutiny demands sound governance practices that meet contractual obligations and regulatory requirements such as TCPC (Telemarketing and Telephone Consumer Protection Act), Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The latter two have direct implications for banks IT and communications infrastructures and business processes. Protecting information in use and at rest is critical. Secure, reliable networks must be deployed to minimize risk at every location throughout the insurance company.
Continuously improving performance

Responsiveness, competitiveness and cost- and task-efficiency all demand streamlined, frictionless, instant communication. Insurance company musts Every insurance company must achieve seamless, reliable continuity of service, business processes and interaction to maintain customer loyalty and compete effectively. The prerequisites cited above outstanding service, continual performance improvement, regulatory compliance and security all pertain.
Continuity of service

Whether a client is engaging with an agent or broker or dealing with a contact center, the experience should be consistent from end to end. Smoothly and successfully transitioning the client from one channel or player to the next is key. At appropriate steps the client should be encouraged to make decisions that will be profitable for the insurer and its partners.
Continuity of business processes

Every insurance companys chain of services relates directly to its business processes. Real-time communications and business applications must ensure that all processes are handled appropriately and efficiently.
Continuity of interaction

While other financial institutions such as retail banks have branch networks, insurance is even more diverse and disparate and therefore complex. Insurance companies must bring together networks of independent partners: agents and brokers as well as intermediaries such as adjusters, appraisers rental car businesses, auto body shops and alarm companies. Simple, seamless and ubiquitous interaction is critical.

Putting the pieces together | Strategic White Paper

Managing customer relationships Acquiring and maintaining fruitful customer relationships is a direct result of achieving the three continuities of service, business processes and interaction. Gaining new customers often involves the combined efforts of marketing teams within insurance companies the attractors of new clients, contact center staff who handle outbound and inbound calls related to marketing campaigns and who offer customer support. Contact centers may also responsible for closing the deal with new customers making links between separate inbound and outbound contact centers and the companys CRM applications and databases extremely valuable. Building on existing customer relationships requires ongoing training and coaching. Todays collaborative audio and web applications provide nearly effortless means of training staff making learning available flexibly and in appropriate formats when and as needed. Agents, brokers, customer service staff and other insurance industry staff require strategies for upand cross-selling. Agents and brokers in particular must be transformed into financial experts to better sell sophisticated financial and banking products and services. Insurance companies therefore need to establish networks that route calls and data intelligently between their own offices and those of their partners. Implementing dedicated multimedia contact centers for voice, email and web, and integrating these with existing CRM applications, can produce numerous efficiencies and benefits. Client retention management programs must be administered not only to manage valuable relationships but also to identify the motivating factors when customers decide to shift to a competitive provider. Here again, a multimedia contact center with self-service applications (e.g., IVR and voice portals) is an effective offering. So too are collaborative applications for front-office teams that, with the assistance of the mid back-office, can provide VIP service to preferred customers. With the right infrastructure, new fixed and mobile applications can be introduced to give VIP customers access to sales teams in or away from of the office.
The Alcatel-Lucent solution set for improving customer relationship management

Alcatel-Lucent offers a range of solutions that ensure seamless call handling throughout distributed organizations and enable enhanced customer service. These include: Omni Touch CC Premium Edition, which provides mid-size multimedia contact centers with a fully centralized, graphical management environment. Omni Touch CC Premium Editions advanced features include an embedded solution for call qualification, management of real-time business conditions, and innovative collaboration capabilities that link agents, experts and customers. The solution offers a low total cost of ownership (TCO) and ease of use and management as well as email functionality and CRM integration. OmniGenesys Contact Center Solutions, including Dynamic Contact Center (real-time optimization), VxML Voice Portal Leadership (the industrys first with SIP and multi-modal capabilities), and RSI with OmniPCX Enterprise (enabling superior integration for lower TCO and greater scalability) ideal for large operations. Improving business operations The combination of collaborative multimedia, unified communications and mobility solutions ensures a smooth flow of real-time information in support of business operations and training activities. Multimedia applications such as voice, web, video and instant messaging give teams access to current information on products and marketing campaigns at any time, from any terminal. Internal company interactions are enhanced when web services incorporate telephony and unified communications tools into business applications, portals, client databases and office applications.

Putting the pieces together | Strategic White Paper

Some key examples of these applications include: Collaborative audio, video and web applications for internal office communications. Desktop unified communications, incorporated with business applications and fixed/mobile convergence applications (e.g., cellular extensions for desktop phones). IP application phones with alphanumeric keyboards capable of accessing information sources such as directories and client databases, and equipped with advanced calling services such as intelligent rich calling, call by name and call by skill. All of the above support voice-enabled business processes that take advantage of the latest broadband technologies and networking services (e.g., virtual private LAN services and commuted MPLS) as well as session initiation protocol (SIP)-based devices and interconnections that provide both presence information and direct communication. Service-oriented architectures that standardize the interactions of diverse applications also have application in such a context. The use of loosely connected web services accelerates application integration and enables middle-office bank employees to interact with branch advisors and back-office staff from within (or without disengaging from) the credit and risk-management business applications that are their primary focus.
The Alcatel-Lucent solution set for improving business operations

As the worlds financial institutions continue to merge combining not only their businesses but also their communications infrastructures their requirement for platform-independent solutions continues to increase. Ensuring seamless integration of insurance companies communications networks, Alcatel-Lucent offers a range of solutions including: Vital Suite / VitalQIP multi-vendor performance and IP address management solution OmniGenesys multimedia high-end contact center Genesys Voice Portals (GVP) Self-service customer interaction system MyTeamWork Multimedia collaboration tool Enhancing security Protecting transactions, communications and personnel and ensuring that an attack or disaster does not impede the smooth flow of operations demands efficient management of network security. Endto-end security for insurance companies requires:
Secure networks

Alcatel-Lucent recommends incorporating the following proven network security features architecturally: Distributed DMZs (demilitarized zones) Separate VLANs (virtual LANs) for different flows with automatic assignment Access control lists on switches 802.1x terminal authentication for PCs and IP application phones 802.1x multi-session authentication (several terminals connected to the same switch port are authenticated) A firewall, intrusion detection and quarantine engine A TCP wrap to filter flows on the network Dynamic opening of ports to block voice traffic until a handset has been picked up Use of a media gateway solution

Putting the pieces together | Strategic White Paper

Secure applications and communications servers

These are based on Linux for its superior performance, reliability and relatively low attack attraction. Communications servers are spatially redundant (and can be linked by low-bandwidth solutions to keep costs down).
Secure transactions, data and communications

Ensure the privacy of customer data and communications through: Strong user authentication (Radius) so that unified communications and telephony applications are highly available. User authentication for free seating applications on shared telephones. Wirespeed encryption solutions and exclusion of software-only applications, which are more easily hacked. Whole-network voice and data encryption for users working on confidential files. Use of policy enforcement and audit/compliance tools to ensure adherence to corporate governance requirements as well as governmental regulations. Maintenance of critical data, integrity and security even when that data is distributed to a mobile or remote work force.
Securing operations

Achieve full security while maintaining unimpeded continuity of operations by including: A communications server capable of handling a large volume (~300 k) of concurrent calls (BHCA-Busy Hour Call Attempt), ensuring that the flow of internal and external communications is maintained. Media gateways, passive communications servers and fixed and mobile communications (along with cellular extension) in remote sites. Specific disaster recovery functions. Downloadable software patches that do not disrupt service. Perimeter and network security capabilities that protect against internal and external threats. The network should also safeguard current voice calls during switchover from main to backup servers and permit hot switching of cards and power supplies.
Securing network management and control platforms

Preserving control over the network and its applications via: Systematic use of SSL, SSH and SNMP V3 protocols to maintain management and administration applications. Organized logs that include details of actions on the platforms and who conducted them. Profiles of administrators and managers along with the administration rights they maintain. A single database image that captures the entire network and that is allocated to all networks nodes.

Putting the pieces together | Strategic White Paper

Securing personnel

Through integration of: Fire alarms, access controls and other systems within the communications server to simplify the process of alerting staff of emergencies. Mobile-phone notification applications for security staff. Security Operations Centers (SOCs) complement todays shift from traditional fortress security to an airport approach that allows companies to offer clients and partners their services while maintaining a high level of privacy and protection.
The Alcatel-Lucent solution set for enhancing security

A key question for many insurance organizations today is how to ensure security and privacy throughout transactions. Alcatel-Lucent brings an extensive portfolio of security products to help meet these challenges. The Alcatel-Lucent 8550 Web Services Gateway is a business process enforcement tool that sits between the organizations users and applications, providing user identity federation, business policy enforcement, auditing and logging of all web-services based transactions. The Web Services Gateway is powered by a sophisticated policy enforcement engine that not only ensures policy compliance in particular applications, but also has the ability to perform multi-application and multi-transactional enforcement for adherence to corporate and regulatory policies. The Web Services Gateway presents institutions with detailed transactional information for authentication, authorization and auditing. Another product in Alcatel-Lucents security portfolio is the Alcatel-Lucents OmniAccess 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian. The Nonstop Laptop Guardian (NLG) is an always-on security solution for laptops that monitors the location and health of individual devices regardless of whether theyre switched on or powered off. The NLG ensures that a laptop adheres to corporations security policy and eliminates the risks associated with personal use of the laptop. The solution allows a companys centralized IT department to enforce security policies remotely, update software when the system is operating or powered off and, if necessary, kill a device from a central location to prevent compromise of the information stored on it. The Alcatel-Lucent security portfolio also includes the Alcatel-Lucent VPN Firewall Brick portfolio. This portfolio provides a comprehensive set of perimeter defense devices, integrated around a centralized management platform. The VPN Firewall Brick provides extensive firewall and VPN services, coupled with specialized VoIP security features to mitigate attacks, eavesdropping and theft of services around VoIP implementations. Further capabilities in the security arena are focused on network access control and ensuring that network-connected devices are compliant, based on the specific security policy. The Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess Safeguard provides a role-based network access control solution, whereby all users can be classified to specific roles and provided with fine-grained access controls to specific applications. This ensures that only authorized users have access to authorized applications. Through a partnership with InfoExpress, Alcatel-Lucent offers a host integrity check solution that integrates with the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch portfolio. This creates a seamless, cost-effective solution for ensuring that the insurance organizations laptop and desktop systems conform to the companys security and IT policies.

Putting the pieces together | Strategic White Paper

Insurance in the future

With a network infrastructure capable of providing the kind of connectivity and security outlined in the preceding pages, insurance companies can engage in truly collaborative multimedia interactions that accelerate and enhance their business. Consider the following example: A claimant has just had a car accident. He uses his 3G mobile video phone to call his insurance contact center for support. The contact center automatically sends an SMS message to inform the nearest garage that the customers car needs towing and checks on the claims adjustors availability. The claims adjustor places a video call to the claimant to assist him online. The two arrange for an appointment at the designated garage with notifications and confirmations sent automatically using SMS and email. All information is sent securely to the insurance agent or broker for record keeping and also to support future upselling including offers of superior coverage to the client. The one continuous video call is eventually transferred to a car rental company to ensure the driver is not left stranded. Essential to making this vision real is implementing a communications network architecture that enables agile communication between the various components of the insurance continuum from the customer through associated parties (such as the garage in the example above), to brokers and ultimately the insurer itself. This requires a shift from legacy TDM networks to flexible, scalable IP-based networks that accommodate new modes of working and multiple media. IP networks are considerably leaner than their predecessors, more easily and efficiently centralized. Alcatel-Lucent is a world-leading expert in such network transformations. The company has worked extensively with insurance and financial organizations around the world to meet their communications needs. Its sector-specific knowledge combined with a deep understanding of networking and communications technologies has produced a constantly growing portfolio of carrier-grade solutions ideally suited to the competitive delivery of financial services.

Putting the pieces together | Strategic White Paper

www.alcatel-lucent.com

Alcatel, Lucent, Alcatel-Lucent and the Alcatel-Lucent logo are trademarks of Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information presented is subject to change without notice. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. Copyright 2009 Alcatel-Lucent. All rights reserved. ENT2913080903 (02)