How Fraternal insurance carrier GCU transformed into a pioneer of digital transformation

Introduction #

The following case study examines how, GCU - a 127-year-old fraternal benefit society located in Beaver, Pennsylvania, implemented Equisoft/manage and Equisoft/apply as part of a their strategic initiative to reduce operational & technology costs by implementing a state-of-the-art, cloud hosted, digital policy administration system and eApplication solution for their members and agents.

The Challenge #

GCU needed to upgrade its core legacy policy administration system to enhance member and agent experience. #

Like many insurance companies, GCU had an aging core policy administration system that was hindering its ability to effectively service its members.

The technology challenge for GCU was that their old legacy platforms made it difficult to develop new policies tailored to the new audience they were looking to attract. The older PAS slowed the rate at which product changes could be made in response to market shifts or regulatory changes. And, beyond causing drag on speed-to-market, they lacked the ability to effectively share data with modern sales and service solutions in real time-which was a stumbling block to creating superior digital agent and member experiences.

In order to make the application process more streamlined for members and agents they also wanted to explore an eApp solution that would integrate with a new PAS.

Why GCU chose Equisoft #

After a detailed due diligence, GCU selected Equisoft as their modernization partner, citing their extensive experience, proven implementation methodology and comprehensive cloud solution.

Equisoft’s ability to deliver integrated back-office systems and front-end tools was key differentiator versus other vendors. As a result of their search GCU selected the Equisoft/manage solution, featuring the Oracle Insurance Policy Administration (OIPA) platform with its end-to-end policy admin capabilities. It was clear that the new rules-based system would make it easy to make changes and create new products. And its integration with the digital front-end tools like Equisoft/apply would support the delivery of world-class customer experiences they desired.

The Equisoft/apply solution is an easy-to-use, sales-flow-oriented wizard for electronic insurance applications resulting in fast and seamless policy approvals.

One of the advantages of choosing Equisoft/manage is that it’s a cloud-based SaaS solution. This means that GCU doesn’t have to commit a lot of resources to maintenance and on-going support of the technology and can focus on their core business of delivering valuable life insurance products to their members and agents.

Results #

Equisoft manages GCU’s entire PAS infrastructure and went live on August 1 of 2020 with a brand new final expense product on the Equisoft/manage system. #

• They are processing 450-500 applications per month.
• More than 4000 policies are now active in the PAS.

Not only does Equisoft manage the new system and conduct all updates as required, but they also manage production support. This means that Equisoft creates new products for GCU ‒ for example a new fixed index annuity has been created and is now live in production on the new PAS.

Integrations have enabled Automated underwriting: #

• The solution was successfully integrated with Milliman and MIB to enable automated underwriting on over 600 policies a month.
• KYC integrations cut back on a lot of the manual entry that was previously required.

Same day policy approvals #

Policy applications can be submitted via paper and then converted to digital within Equisoft/manage using appCapture. Or they can be submitted directly via the integrated Equisoft/apply solution.

The old 20-day process that involved intake of paper apps and processing through underwriting, now takes one to two days.

On average about 50% of new business is handled through automated, straight-through, hands-off processing

Cloud Pioneers #

GCU are now one of the pioneers in the US in taking their PAS to the cloud.

And that’s a great go-to-market message. Being an industry leader in technology and digital processes enables them to retain current members who can be sure the company is focused on the future‒and it also makes it more appealing to the new generations of mover tech-savvy, digital -born consumers.

Download the case study #

Find out more about how GCU implemented Equisoft/manage and Equisoft/apply as part of a their strategic initiative.