Abracadabra?
There was no magic solution to solve the marketing and sales needs of a life insurer and its agents, but an integrated solution? Thats no illusion.
Insurance carriers often look for a charmed solution to their problems. Everyones always chasing the magic system, the magic solution, says John Kawauchi, senior vice president, marketing, for Jackson National Life (JNL). What JNL found, though, is it needed an integrated solution to bind together the carriers vendors, internal groups, and technologynot magic.
Within Jackson, many of the marketing procurement, operations, distribution, and fulfillment services were under the direction of the marketing staff. In our department, we happen to control it all, which presents us with a unique situation, states Kawauchi. The mantra Ive used for the past few years is better, faster, cheaper, which I think, if you can do all that simultaneously, will put you in the drivers seat with respect to your capabilities vs. those of the competition.
But performing a task better, faster, and cheaper sometimes can bring up conflicts, Kawauchi says: It wasnt about just cutting costs. If that were the case, wed print in black and white. It wasnt about just doing things better, because we all know doing things better often means a higher price. Usually, you cant do all three at once, because if you want to try to do all of this faster, it gets very difficult.
There are several print management technologies available to control a businesss print-on-demand needs or loop the business into vendors that can do traditional offset printing. JNL has internal print capabilities via its home office, which does a lot of the simpler print jobs. All of this needed to be managed under one virtual capability, explains Kawauchi. From this emanated our dual-distribution strategy, which helped solve our shipping equation. We found rather than ship from one point, the key to managing the shipping equation was to reduce the amount of air shipping. You really can do that only if you have strategic distribution centers placed close to your customers.
What JNL found valuable about Arasys Technologies is the vendor links all the internal and external parties to create one virtual capability, Kawauchi notes. Compared with many of the products and vendor solutions we looked at, its a total supply/demand-chain management system, he says.
Arasys gives the customer real-time views into availability, usage, and spending with decision support and Web-based ordering. Existing and future suppliers are integrated into the system to support business processes and rules.
JNL didnt use a traditional RFP pro-cess. We were introduced to [Arasys] by Towne AllPoints Communications, our distribution vendor in L.A., Kawauchi says. Rather than build an in-house capability, we chose to go with Arasys. After also viewing other competitive products, we readily accepted, because the solution allowed us to set up two distribution centers. We implemented it in about three months. If you look at a conversion or transition of this magnitudewe certainly didnt stop business and close up shop for a whileit happened rather quickly. Once we tested it, the decision was made not just to sublease it from Towne but to engage in our direct relationship with Arasys. JNL has distribution centers in Los Angeles and Chicago, and Kawauchis marketing staff works in Denver. It allows us to operate here in Denver despite the fact we are several thousand miles away from our facilities, which many companies are reluctant to do, he adds.
Kawauchi leaves no doubt this has been a successful implementation for JNL. Our shipping budget was $1.7 million at its height, and now were running about $950,000, he reports. As a management tool, it has saved us a considerable amount of money. Our print budget has gone from $9 million down to $4 million. Back orders no longer are a problem. We were totally reactionary before. We couldnt even anticipate what was going to be out of stock or the magnitude of it.
Even more important is how Arasys affects the JNL operations. Most of our anecdotal evidence suggests complaints are way down, says Kawauchi. Sales- people do not want a lack of material getting in the way of their sales, so we clearly hear complaints when that happens, and [complaints] have pretty much gone away. ROBERT REGIS HYLE
Case File
THE PROBLEM
Life insurer needed a better tool to
manage marketing and sales functions.
THE COMPANY
Jackson National Life Insurance
Web Site: www.jnl.com
Total Revenues: $3 billion
THE SOLUTION
Enterprise Solution from
Arasys Technologies
Web Site: www.arasys.com
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