Case Studies

MMA Insurance URL: www.mma-insurance.com Application: Business Extranet

MMA is a major European insurance group established over 170 years ago. MMA Insurance plc was established in the UK in 1958 originally under the name Norman Insurance and currently employs more than 300 staff at their offices in Reading, Berkshire.

They offer a range of insurance products spanning motor, home, travel, commercial property, construction and professional indemnity insurance and these are sold through a national network of insurance brokers and intermediaries.

MMA Insurance plc do not sell insurance direct to the public. Their policy is to make their products available through a UK wide network of full time professional insurance brokers and intermediaries.

Broker Online Services

Continuing the MMA policy of utilising available technology to make improvements in the service for their network of brokers, they approached Discover IT to set up not only their web site but also a private extranet for their brokers called "Broker Online Services" (BOS).

BOS has for several years been providing the brokers with instant online quotations and printed copies of both the quotation and the completed proposal ready for their customers to sign. MMA has now launched their new Broker Online Version 2, developed with Discover IT, and offering some exciting new features.

BOS V2 provides full cycle functionality - quotations and binding of cover are fulfilled instantly. Brokers can also renew cover, access policy details and make common adjustments without referral to MMA. Prices and acceptance can be accessed instantly and renewals can be identified online and policies renewed immediately. Above all, with a unique Documents Generation and Management System, developed by Discover IT, brokers have access to all the full policy documentation at point of sale.

The additional functionality will help brokers to work faster, reduce paperwork and have more control over their business.

 

The web site and the Broker Online Services run on a Windows 2003 server. It is developed using Microsoft ASP.Net 2.0 technology and utilises a SQL Server 2005 database. The Documents Management System (DMS) was developed using Word ML, a markup vocabulary at the heart of Microsoft Word's XML features. Word ML combined with AltSoft's XML2PDF software enables the BOS DMS to dynamically generate and stitch the policy documents in PDF format. A Document Template Generator add-in for Word 2003 and Word 2007, was also developed, to allow MMA to generate all their own document templates.

In complex applications such as this one, it is important to help the Broker fill in forms in a speedy and accurate fashion. This application uses a postcode look-up XML web service from Postcode Anywhere which allows Brokers to enter only the postcode and the full address is entered onto the screen automatically. For more information about this web service, please visit .

The BOS site is held in a password protected area and is not available to the general public. Broker login is controlled on an individual user basis, assigns rights and privileges and audits important actions.

The MMA web site receives thousands of hits each day from hundreds of users throughout the UK and is undoubtedly an essential resource for MMA brokers in the UK.

If you have an application that requires the dynamic generation of Word or PDF documents, our Documents Management System with its Document Template Generator may be just what you need. Please call us on 0118-971-3975 to find out more.