Berkshire Life
The Challenge
Berkshire Life specializes in insurance products that are uniquely suited to the needs of highly skilled professionals, executives and business owners. Following its merger with The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America in 2001, Berkshire Life took on responsibility for all individual disability insurance (DI) products for the merged companies. A top strategic initiative of the newly merged company was the creation of a new product offering that addressed the multi-life disability insurance market. Its challenge was how to leverage the web as its primary marketing and enrollment channel, grow the business, and roll out new products such as “buy ups” that could gain traction in a fiercely competitive market.
The Objectives
Both serving information to one audience through two websites, along with measurably improving its competitive positioning in the Multi-Life DI market, were overarching objectives for Berkshire Life. They needed an enrollment system flexible enough to accommodate different industries and employer demographics, as well as discrete groups of employees within its target companies. They required a web enabled system that was simple to use and maintain, easy to customize, and capable of supporting the delivery of flexible, targeted, and conversion-oriented DI educational content. Specific objectives included:
- Streamline the case setup process, using web services to swiftly create product offers, pricing schedules, contact data and user profiles.
- Improve case management and statistical reporting, including data export and review protocols, microsite assignments and product lifecycle management.
- Facilitate web content management and site administration, including support for microsite registration and authentication, workflow configuration and dynamic content dissemination across microsites.
- Enhance Berkshire Life’s brand through the delivery of persuasive educational content and value-added tools such as cost calculators and consumer tools.
- Support online enrollment including electronic billing, eSignatures and all aspects of the application submission, review and approval process.
The Solution
To gain a deep understanding of Berkshire’s business drivers, Bridgeline met with many of Berkshire’s key stakeholders, including several end-users of its products. Bridgeline solutions architects also met IT stakeholders to identify baseline requirements and critical touch points for the enrollment system. Using clickable prototypes, Bridgeline’s designers conducted extensive usability testing based on six distinct employee personas, the results of which informed the user interface design and site functionality.
Bridgeline developed Berkshire’s new enrollment system using it’s flagship iAPPS Framework and iAPPS Content Manager. Using service level APIs built into the iAPPS Framework, the new system employs web services between the online applications and Berkshire’s legacy technology environment, including its back-office mainframe and imaging systems. iAPPS Content Manager allows Berkshire’s business users to easily update and customize content for new customers or to address specific needs, such as custom branding to ensure a seamless user experience for employees already acquainted with their own company’s web properties. Interactive widgets developed by Bridgeline’s application developers were integrated to educate employees on the benefits of Multi-Life DI. Online calculators were created to assist employees in determining how much insurance they would need to replace lost income due to a short- or long-term disability.
The Results
In the first two months of operation, Berkshire completed a voluntary case with greater than 35% participation, a higher level than previously achieved. In addition, Berkshire accomplished an industry first – the successful sale of a Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI) DI product with buy-up through the online enrollment system.
Administrators of the system are now able to quickly and easily upload case census data and create new, individually branded customer enrollment sites without the need for IT intervention. Berkshire today showcases its enrollment site to independent brokers and successfully use it as a tool to sell cases.