For the AmFed Companies, a workers' compensation and homeowners insurance carrier located in Ridgeland, Miss., the initial goal was to find a way to automate the claims and bill review departments. But as the carrier looked deeper into its needs, company leadership discovered opportunities to enhance underwriting, allow the accounting area to retrieve quickly copies of checks and other documents from the claim and policy files, and reduce overhead by eliminating some of the space dedicated to paper files, according to Jennifer Muse, director of special projects for AmFed.

"We also wanted to create a virtual work environment," she says. AmFed has a number of remote employees–nurses, case managers, a doctor–who are scattered around Mississippi. By creating a virtual environment, the workers could collaborate on information concurrently with the home office.

Making a dent in the paper processes of an insurance carrier involves a huge shift in the culture of the company, explains Muse. She credits AmFed's president, Billy Roberts, as a visionary. "He knew we needed to do this long before most people would think about it," she says.