XDimensional Technologies, née Fuher and Associates, headquartered in Brea, California recently announced a next-generation, hosted agency management system, Nexsure. See the interview with Craig Fuher, CEO, for details on the company and its business strategy. This review focuses on the product itself — new software, designed from the get-go to operate on and take advantage of the Internet. One of a very small number of native-IP (Internet protocol) management systems available today, Nexsure is hugely scalable and very flexible, important considerations for the next generation of independent agencies.
Though Nexsure is compelling in a number of ways, as we'll see below, it currently has a failing many agencies would consider fatal; it includes no agency accounting package. Under development, that software is projected for release in the first quarter of 2003. Nonetheless, Nexsure does, it seems to me, raise the bar in a number of areas and can provide agents with a benchmark against what they now have as well as what else is available. XDTI is making an effort to change the game and is having some success in the attempt.
System architecture and user interface
Since Nexsure is hosted, it doesn't require particularly powerful PCs to access it, but they must be connected to the Internet, preferably via high speed connections (DSL, cable modem, T1, etc.). The application is, however, reasonably responsive with 56K and even slower dial-up connections — good news for traveling producers. Nexsure needs Internet Explorer 5.0 and newer running on Windows 95 and newer. The service runs inside the browser using HTML and JavaScript and requires no downloading of thin client support programs.
XDTI is committed to Microsoft technology, using SQL Server 2000 as its database engine and built on the .Net platform using Microsoft's .Net Visual Studio. What's the significance to an agent? Microsoft is betting its future on .Net and has pulled out all the stops to make it a top-notch development and production environment. .Net Visual Studio is the most complete, integrated development environment Microsoft has ever offered, making developers more productive and thus potentially providing the end user with more functionality at a lower cost.
Though it's certainly somewhat a matter of taste, I found Nexsure screens clean, clear, and easy to understand. They're designed for 1024 by 768 resolution, but the columns narrow automatically at lower resolution so that horizontal scrolling shouldn't ever be (or rarely) necessary even at somewhat lower resolution. XDTI reports that some prospects have complained about the 1024 by 768 standard since they have older, lower resolution monitors. I have to agree with XDTI. Monitors are so inexpensive now — even LCD versions are available for $300 — that it makes sense to provide all agency employees with adequate digital desk area. And, of course, flat panel monitors save a great deal of physical desk space, which is a great advantage.
Since XDTI considers even vertical scrolling a reduction in usability, large forms are handled in sections with tabs across the top and bottom as well as (when relevant) an expandable outline/tree in a right-hand column that provides another method of navigating among a form's "pages." Users can also move from page-to-page within a form by using next and back buttons on the form. Page design seems to encourage quick painting and intra/inter form re-painting/flash doesn't seem to be a problem.
The top of the XDTI screen sports a three-level tab control that changes its contents depending on where you are in the system — as well as who you are. A very flexible security module allows system administrators to specify who can go where and do what to which. The top level and broadest tab set includes Home, Help, Setup, Support, and Login (at least potentially, depending on your system rights). The next level down, at least for the Home screen, includes Search, Organization, Reports, and Accounting.
Organization refers to the structure of the agency/brokerage/entity and can include five levels: the entire organization, regions, territories, branches, and locations. Department is not part of the organizational hierarchy since XDTI views departments as being product oriented, not necessarily organizationally meaningful. Production and other reporting can be applied to departments, but not the general ledger.
To help users keep track of their wanderings within the system, as one descends from one layer to the next (e.g., customer to policy), the path is displayed at the top of the main screen work area (the top band and right column being devoted to navigation as relevant). Breadcrumbs (remember Hansel and Gretel) are common in portals like Yahoo to help you understand where you are, how you got there, and then make a change if needed.
XDTI prefers to host Nexsure rather than having you do it, though they will listen. Their view, and it's probably correct, is that they'll likely do a better job since that's their business. And since they are the people that update the software and integrate other software, letting XDTI handle the load means dealing with less operational redundancy and the chance for problems to creep into the picture.
Nexsure handles printing via PDF files. That means that everything that's to be printed is output as a PDF file and can then be viewed prior to being printed on paper or attached as an e-mail for transmittal.
Since graphic, photo, word processing, spreadsheet and other files/information sources are very important elements of the client and policy picture, XDTI provides a way to store them right in with fielded data. These ancillary data elements are stored in the database, not casually in some folder or other. That's an important change from some management systems, where digital attachments are an afterthought — supported more or less, but not in the way one would do it when designing a new system from scratch as XDTI has done.
System functionality
Home: Home provides each user with a center of operations, that is an overview of all actions (past, present, future) across all customers and policies for each of the eight policy life cycle categories (more below). A filter allows the user to subset any of the action lists and a link on each item provides for drill down to the detail below the summary item. XDTI considers Home to be a kind of desktop (calendar blotter) to which users will return constantly to focus and organize their work. Because Home is organized around the policy life cycle concept, it doesn't consist of a hodgepodge of random items the way a typical agency queue or to-do list might.
Clients: XDTI believes that traditional agency management systems are woefully inadequate in being able to store client information. As we'll see below with the policy life cycle concept, XDTI aims to support a sales process that can begin with general information about a prospect and conclude with a sale and follow-on service. To that end, Nexsure provides a very rich environment for entering and using client level information. Among other things, that means being able to use agency-invented coding with a difference. An agency can make up its own special classifying codes and store them in a code list, and all entry of agency-defined codes must conform to that list. No more inconsistency CSR-to-CSR. The system also makes it possible to describe and track complex interrelationships among clients.
Policy life cycle: I mentioned above that Nexsure is based around the concept of policy life cycle, something that's both clever and useful. Most management systems understand and support the idea of binders, endorsements, claims and so on, but XDTI takes a broader view of the policy life cycle. That cycle starts not with the sale of a policy, but with the perception of opportunities relating to a prospect/customer and line(s) of business. The capture and flow of information and effort begins way ahead of the actual sale in Nexsure, a powerful CRM/marketing insight and capability.
Nexsure supports eight life cycle steps: opportunity, marketing, binder log, edits, expirations, endorsements, cancellations, and claims. Users are not constrained to follow the steps in any particular sequence and may go backwards when they like. Once at the policy level, the user can call up the policy life cycle page to begin a wizard-like process for completing a stage. The form consists of a table with eight rows (one for each step) and columns providing explanation, further specification, high-level data entry and so on. Though I don't pretend to know whether Nexsure actually correctly captures all policy life cycle steps or whether it handles each step correctly, the concept and organizing form go a long way toward making what is often murky and confusing crystal clear and convenient. I think the Nexsure policy life cycle concept and implementation is very useful and a great example of how creative thinking can be applied to a 30-year-old software genre to come up with new solutions.
The first policy life cycle action is opportunity; the second marketing, i.e., placing business. Most management systems ignore marketing or placement tasks, starting the process with the binder. XDTI thinks the marketing process should be built into the system and part of the workflow supported. That makes sense to me. Thus information entered at the opportunity stage (or from the existing policies when marketing a renewal) can be supplemented, grouped, duplicated and then sent off to markets for a quote and response. The system can create and track multiple submissions per case and then advance the winning quote along through the binder and other stages.
Nexsure supports all common lines of business with policy detail and a number of uncommon lines as well. And it supports Employee Benefits census, policy, and commission tracking. XDTI tells me that it can set up a new policy type - with forms and data entry in one day. My guess is that may not be possible with complex policy types, but in any case, it does imply that XDTI will be able to extend Nexsure in any relevant direction handily, with little effort and thus will be able to support agents, brokers, and other customers with special needs. XDTI doesn't intend to do custom, customer-by-customer work, but it is in a position to satisfy needs of reasonably small populations in a practical way.
Nexsure tracks policy history, something many systems now do. But Nexsure also provides a side-by-side comparison with changes highlighted to make visual comparisons straightforward — a good idea, certainly, and one I haven't seen before in management systems. The system provides basic claim tracking as well as a first notice of loss form.
Accounting: As I pointed out above, Nexsure does not provide an accounting system though one is under construction and is scheduled for production early in 2003. But the system does contain elements to support policy direct bill so that a small agency that goes the direct bill route and uses generic accounting (e.g., QuickBooks) could make do. I have no sense for how many agencies would find Nexsure sans accounting acceptable. My guess is that it would be a small percentage of the agency population. From my point of view, Nexsure won't be a complete system until it includes complete agency accounting.
Customer self-service
Some vendors handle customer self-service as something separate from the agency management system itself. For XDTI, customer self-service is just another way of providing access into the agency system. Since Nexsure is hosted and agency personnel access it via browsers and the Internet, it's a small matter to extend those services out to agency customers or business partners, like company underwriters.
Nexsure includes a security module that makes it easy to add new users and then specify what parts of the system they're allowed to use and then what they can change or only view. Though it may make sense to allow a risk manager customer to have access to vehicle schedules, for instance, many screens designed for agency use just aren't appropriate for customers. XDTI is in the process of creating "dumbed down" or appropriate customer access screen layouts but they're not part of the current release.
Integration and interface
Because Nexsure is a .Net application, it's built with the idea of integrating data and functionality from other sources, such as remote Web services. To demonstrate how integration can work, Nexsure is integrated with Expedia's mapping service, so, for instance, one can quickly create a map showing a customer location right from the customer address record.
Nexsure integrates with Access CoverageCorp, an online service for small business submission to multiple carriers and Nexsure integrates with a rating vendor in California. XDTI is in the process of establishing relationships and integration with other rating vendors. Since
the system is built with the capability of importing and exporting XML streams, and since XDTI has also created the ability to handle AL3 batch transactions (the mainstay of interface download and third party integration today), it should be well positioned to create interconnections. As far as I can see, the vendor will do integrations based on actual customer needs rather than speculation.
XDTI has not taken a position on whether or how it intends to handle edited upload (via Transformation Station and WebSEMCI?) and what it plans to do about real-time, XML interface. The vendor believes the interface situation is much too unsettled to justify placing a bet. Some agents are likely to find this lack of clarity and commitment troubling. I do understand the XDTI position and the rationalizations offered, but since Nexsure is intended to pioneer a new generation of management systems, and since all hands agree that the world of the future will be more connected than ever, I don't understand why Nexsure isn't more aggressive about establishing a policy and then connecting its system to the wider world.
Support and help
Nexsure provides a rich online help environment. Screen by screen, context sensitive help is available along with what amounts to searchable online manuals in a format familiar to Windows users. Nexsure also provide online chat, i.e., real-time messaging with Nexsure support staff. Explanatory video lessons are also available, a good idea and certain to make help more accessible.
XDTI will do Nexsure training via sessions over the Web, generally in one-hour increments or less, having found that people can set asides one-hour blocks without much disruption and can digest — and not be overwhelmed — by an hour's worth of learning.
XDTI will provide minimum conversion of existing data into the Nexsure environment, bringing in customer data and policy headers, but not much else. XDTI points out that because Nexsure is hosted, agencies can continue to have access to their existing in-house system and at the same time begin using Nexsure; thus, it's not so crucial to bring over all data into the new environment.
XDTI has contracted with Iron Mountain to store data center backups off-site in a secure location. XDTI will provide agencies with backups on CD ROM, if agents think that's important or in the event an agency wants to leave the Nexsure service. Because the data will be in a SQL Server format, a third party would be able to extract it on the agent's behalf to use in another system.
The buying process
Nexsure pricing includes both a set-up and ongoing monthly fee per user. Though XDTI isn't quite ready to make a public announcement about pricing, what they told me they have in mind is competitive and would be attractive to many agencies. The user fees are intended to cover training, set up, the monthly per user fees, ongoing support, software upgrades, hosting services, and so forth.
In order to keep sales expenses manageable and thus subscription prices affordable, XDTI uses a remote sales process, doing demos via the Internet and discussion via the telephone. When larger sales opportunities present themselves, a sales person will get on a plane (or in a car) and make a sales call.
And in conclusion…
I haven't tried to cover the advantages of a hosted versus locally installed system. We've covered that elsewhere and most agents now know the drill. Today, perhaps as many as 1,000 agencies access their management system over the Internet. It works. It can provide better response time than a local system. It's a flexible, scalable environment. It can easily be fitted to an increasingly networked world. It allows agents to get back to a preoccupation with insurance rather than managing technical infrastructure.
XDTI has had a great deal of experience taking care of agencies (infrastructure, software, and operations) and that's evident in the Nexsure product. It's a great pleasure to see what the vendor has been able to do by rethinking agency management system design and creating a new architecture that better suits changes in agency business patterns, especially a broadening of product offerings.
Clearly, XDTI has a way to go with accounting (that's under construction) and with interface/integration (I'd like to see a definitive position and more connections soon). On the other hand, it's done good things with its product life cycle concept, its ability to add new policy types quickly, integration of the submission process right into the system, good usability, and sensible handling of digital attachments.
In some categories at least, XDTI has raised the bar, providing an important new choice for agents and valuable, new competition for entrenched incumbents. Given the conservatism of the industry and a mature vendor landscape, XDTI has a difficult row to hoe, though it could do well as a business even with only 10% of the market over the next five years. Given support from The Hartford, XDTI has positioned itself for the long haul and it has garnered significant interest from some agents and brokers, including large ones. XDTI has a good start with a well-thought out system and now needs to finish fleshing it out, wringing out the bugs as they appear, and perfecting its sales process and ongoing support. Given their long history of technical support and helping agents, they should have the background and stick-to-it-iveness to challenge existing competition, provided of course that agents are willing to change while existing vendors aren't. It will be interesting to see how things turn out.
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