Regional insurers, such as Southern Farm Bureau Casualty (SFBC), spent a lot of years insuring risks in their primary market area, but the advent of Internet technology and call centers has allowed carriers from all over the country to open new markets with a minimal investment. It doesnt always matter to policyholders what the locally based insurer has done for the region when it comes time to renew a policy. People want the best deal. So SFBC figured whats good for the competition is good for SFBC.

Speeding up policy issuance didnt used to be a problem 20 years ago, says Dane Truhett, manager of media and communications for SFBC. But its getting to be more and more of a problem when customers can dial 1-800 or apply over the Internet and have automatic underwriting done, approved, and have a product purchased in one day versus somebody taking two weeks. Moving quickly has benefits for both the insurers and the insureds. Your costs are reduced. Labor is reduced, he says. More important, customer service goes way up.

Like most insurers, SFBC felt it also needed to do something about the volume of paper it was producing. Combine that with streamlining processes to reduce the amount of time needed to approve applications, and SFBC had some important issues to face. The main issue that had to be resolved, though, was putting images in front of multiple people so they could make quicker decisions.