An insurance carrier, particularly one offering commercial lines, often finds itself in the publishing business. Like most large insurance companies, Firemans Fund has a wide variety of safety, regulatory, and training programs for its customers. The insurers old distribution system did not allow the company to monitor who received the materials or whether they were even received by the customer. We had quite a large operation printing and developing these programs, says Tom Alteri, director of product development for Firemans Fund, the Navato, Calif.-based carrier that is part of Allianz AG. Our distribution center sent the materials directly to our field consultants, who then delivered them to our customers. We had no reliable data indicating where, when, and to whom these materials were actually being delivered.

Firemans Fund researched some fulfillment houses in hopes of finding a solution to its distribution problems, but it was an association with interlinkONEs president and CEO, John P. Foley, Jr., that sealed the deal. Foley and Alteri were asked to make a joint presentation at a technology conference, and they ended up presenting a model for the solution Firemans Fund ultimately bought from interlinkONE.

The idea interlinkONE proposed was an Internet-based ordering system connected directly to the warehouse. Products would be shipped directly to the customers. The system would also be able to capture important information such as company name, contacts, products delivered, shipping data, and feedback. They designed a system specifically for our needs and made a proposal, Alteri says. They convinced us they could do it, and they sure enough did.