When Carol Denzer took over as CIO of RLI Corp. nearly two years ago, she had minimal IT experience. But after working for almost 20 years in a variety of accounting and reinsurance positions for the specialty insurance company, her skills and knowledge of how the firm operated proved invaluable.
"Business has its language, and IT has its language, and you've got to learn both so you can jump from one to another and cross the divide smoothly," she says. "Having worked on the business side, I had seen and been exposed to all facets of the organization. I knew who our customers were and what they needed. I was able to bring those relationships to bear on the IT side."
Denzer joined RLI Corp. in 1987 as a reinsurance accountant after working as a treaty accountant for Minneapolis reinsurer E.W. Blanch Co.
Formed more than 40 years ago to sell replacement contact lens insurance, RLI began selling niche-market property and casualty insurance through both independent agents and managing general agents in the late 1970s. Today, the Peoria, Ill.-based company operates in all 50 states, with 27 office locations. RLI employs 720 people; about 65 work in IT. In 2007, its net written premium was close to $540 million.
During her tenure on RLI's business side, Denzer rose through the ranks in accounting and reinsurance. She served as chief property/casualty accountant and vice president of reinsurance and catastrophe management before becoming CIO in 2006. Throughout her career, Denzer built relationships with most of her colleagues within and outside of IT, a valuable asset as she acclimated to her new role.
"I've had to learn a lot about technology during the past two years, and my staff cut me some slack in the beginning," she admits. "We have some very skilled, highly intelligent people in IT. Every day I'm humbled by what we get done."
Projects completed during the past few years include updating the company's legacy systems with Web-based front-end applications using Microsoft .NET and implementing Vignette software to integrate document management and workflow processes. The document management system organizes and categorizes all claims documents, images, audio, and video files.
"There's almost a gold mine if you can improve back-office processes even a little bit," Denzer says. "We pick our spots where we can best enable the business."
In late 2007, RLI implemented STG's Renaissance Billing solution to streamline its billing processes. Agency and wholesale billing currently run on the new system, and Denzer expects to move additional areas over in 2008. "Improving billing and collections is on everyone's radar," she remarks.
IT also has focused on deploying Web-based underwriting submissions systems for the company's underwriters. "The systems allow our underwriters and certain agents to quote, rate, and bind new and renewal policies right at their fingertips," Denzer says.
"We need to make the agent's experience working with us as friendly and responsive as possible," she adds. "We have highly skilled underwriters out in the field underwriting daily. Our goal is to help them be as productive as possible."
To that end, Denzer and her team deployed a data warehouse in 2007 that includes all of RLI's core insurance information. Employees can easily access companywide data through various dashboards and reports. "This really has helped us push out more information to our underwriters and producers and provide clearer insight into our data and business," she contends.
To further enhance productivity, Denzer and her team plan to implement Microsoft's SharePoint collaboration and document management platform this year.
In today's soft insurance market, Denzer acknowledges the industry as a whole is examining how to boost efficiency while continuing to grow. "We're all going to have to think smarter, act smarter, behave smarter, and do our jobs better so we can provide greater throughput," she says. "IT should be able to enable that."
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