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SUTTON BARNARD GOES FOR THE TOKOPEN
ARCHIVE SOLUTION
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Using TokOpen to manage and archive insurance related documents
Specialising in scheme insurance, with specific packages for
a variety of market sectors, Sutton Barnard - www.suttonbarnard.co.uk
- is one of the UK's leading insurance brokers. Key business
areas include Commercial Insurance packages for motor traders,
hotels, public houses, offices, professional indemnity for
Management Consultants, general commercial insurance and Wedding
insurance for private individuals
A mature
and experienced user of IT - based in Godalming, Surrey, and
employing over 30 professional staff - the company is part
of the Sutton Group of companies, established in 1978. The
schemes are marketed through a direct sales force situated
in various locations around the country and a network of regional
brokers.
Sutton
Barnard manages its entire administrative, quotation, documentation
and client management processes through an in-house developed
system. This is a Microsoft SQL Server based system. It holds
data on clients, insurance companies and sub brokers. The
process demands the generation, collection and storage of
thousands of paper and electronic documents every week.
The company has now taken Tokairo's TokOpen document management
system and integrated it with their in-house developed system
to provide a complete business solution including archiving
and document retrieval.
Benefits include faster production of quotes and insurance
processing, improved access to all documentation for all staff,
vastly increased office space following the removal of numerous
filing cabinets, improved customer service. The integrated
solution is now being marketed into the insurance broker market
with Tokairo's support.
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A highly successful and rapidly growing company, Sutton
Barnard faced the typical challenge of gearing up its
business processes to cope with increasing business
volumes. In the case of a firm reliant on a large amount
of paper, this was especially true in the area of document
management.
"Historically, we built up huge quantities of manual
files," says Sutton Barnard IT Director Allison
Barnard "This was stored in scores of filing cabinets
occupying most of one of the floors of our office. The
business expanded very quickly and we were focused on
the day-to-day processing of documents using a reasonably
proficient database designed by a local Software House".
"The system had the capability to store and rapidly
retrieve client records and display basic policy calculations,
but all other documents were kept in paper files,"
says Allison. "This meant that files often went
missing. We work in a competitive marketplace and we
wanted to stand out from the crowd. Our system did occasionally
let us down".
"Our options were, to develop additional functionality
ourselves, or go out and buy a solution. Frankly, we
didn't have the resource or expertise to develop it
ourselves so we looked at numerous external solutions.
We didn't just want a product, we wanted a partner relationship
with a solution provider who would be with us through
implementation, further development and the inevitable
difficult times. We also wanted to capitalise on our
investment in our own system and ensure that the document
management functionality would be fully integrated with
it and provide a 'total' business solution".
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Tokairo's TokOpen system was selected on the basis of product
performance, advanced functionality, support capability and
a perceived ability to see the project through to implementation
to ongoing maintenance. There was also a close match between
the TokOpen technology and Sutton Barnard's in-house developed
SQL server system.
"Technically, to link TokOpen to our system, Tokairo
needed to be very open about the structure of their code to
develop the interface. This was accomplished very professionally,
with Tokairo carefully considering all aspects of our system",
says Allison Barnard. "Implementation has never been
so painless, achieving 'going live' to time and budget.
The key objective was to be able to scan client files as
well as store live documents. Another issue was the ability
to satisfy the requirements of market regulators. The insurance
industry is tightly controlled. For example GISC and FSA (Financial
Services Association) rigorously enforces rules and regulations
on how to conduct business. TokOpen ensures that documentation
meets the standards required.
"TokOpen is ideally suited to deliver this capability"
says Allison Barnard. "It delivers a robust and reliable
solution to managing the rapidly increasing volume of documents.
It integrates ideally with our system and it has provided
a system that we are now actively marketing to other brokers.
The potential market is around 7,000 Broker firms and Tokairo
is actively assisting us".
"The bottom line is, a system that provides reliable
administration, gives us immediate access to any file or document
in an intelligent and practical way, saves time and frees
our professional staff to focus more effectively on sales
and customer services" says Allison Barnard.
Any user has instant access to the entire database from his
or her desktop PC - no need to trawl through filing cabinets.
That means we can process and issue insurance quotations more
quickly and have ready access to records to quickly resolve
any queries. We can also process claims more efficiently,
which means our clients are receiving a more quality focussed
service. For general client enquiries, our staff can call
up database information instantly alongside images of associated
paperwork - all on one screen, easily and quickly. This provides
a valuable business edge. Clients recognise the quality and
speed of our service and this provides us with a strong competitive
edge".
"There are three aspects to the project's success: the
TokOpen product, Tokairo's technical ability and the partner
relationship between us. Essentially, we have built a business
benefit system from a mere client database. We also have a
solution that we can market and make profit from".
"We definitely owe some of our success to Tokairo"
says Allison Barnard.
Tokairo Ltd
20 Linford Forum, Rockingham Drive, Linford Wood,
Milton Keynes, MK14 6LY, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1908 695 569 | Fax:
+44 (0) 1908 696 961 | E-mail:
info@tokairo.com
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© Copyright 2004 Tokairo
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