Nautical Insurance Services

The Company

Operating since 1991, Nautical Insurance Services is an independent marine insurance intermediary specialising in arranging cover for yacht and motorboat insurance with recognised insurance companies.

The Challenge

Nautical had been using an existing software system for a number of years; however leading up to the year 2000, Nautical’s Operations Manager, Jan Crumpen, was becoming increasingly frustrated with its limited capabilities. It did not offer all of the functionality the company needed to support its business growth, and it was not possible to make changes to the system to reflect both internal requirements and those imposed on the company by external bodies such as the FSA.

The company had simply outgrown its existing system and therefore began looking for a replacement which would enable them to efficiently and effectively manage their day-to-day operations in the way they wanted, removing the restrictions placed on them by the limitations in their current system.

In addition, given the ever-changing regulatory requirements of the insurance industry, it was important that the system could be customised and developed to meet future requirements.

The Solution

Nautical’s search for a new system was short after meeting Mandon Software’s Managing Director, David Allaway.

Jan comments “Mandon Software was the obvious partner for us as they clearly understood the insurance business and spoke our language.”

With their in-depth industry knowledge and bespoke software development offering, Mandon Software was commissioned by Nautical to initially develop a policy system with an integrated accounts package; a claims system was added at a later date.

This system came to be known as mPACS.

The Implementation

The system was built around Nautical’s current business operations; therefore the starting point was for Mandon’s business analysis staff to spend time with Nautical to:

• capture the flow of their business processes from an initial customer quote through to renewals, including the issuance of cover notes and policies, making mid-term adjustments and cancellations, diary and processing accounts;
• understand how the existing system was used and its limitations.

It was only after Mandon Software had gained a thorough understanding of Nautical’s requirements that system development began.

For the first 12 months of operation, Nautical maintained their old system alongside mPACS, transferring individual policy details onto mPACS as the policy came up for renewal or mid-term adjustments were made.

Development

mPACS was first deployed at Nautical in 2000. Since then a number of developments have been made to the system to ensure that it continues to meet business requirements driven by changes to internal processes and external legislation.

Examples of system developments include:

• the addition of a complete claims function;
• emailing from within mPACS including the ability to send signed documentation;
• enhanced workflow including document rules;
• the two-way seamless integration of the mPACS database with the Nautical website;
• adjustments to the data capture screens when a requirement to add foreign insurance premium tax was introduced.