Case 4: Modernization of NTUC Income

Question 1: What were the problems faced by Income in this case? How were the problems resolved by the new digital system?

• Income’s insurance processes very tedious and paper based. 
• The collection schedule could introduce delays of two or three days.
• Investment to upgrade the HP 3000 mainframe that hosted the core insurance application broke down – took several months to restore the data loss if hardware crashes
• In-house IT team – Broke multiple times, halted the system’s and caused temporary interruption 
• Started with customers meeting an agent, filling in forms and submitting documents 
• Then submit forms to branches from couriers to the office service department 
• Office service would log documents, sort them, and then send them to departments for underwriting 
• Proposal allocated to underwriting staff then sent to computer service department lastly redistributed 
• For storage all the original document packed and sent to warehouse, staff log and store the document

Question 2: What types of information systems and business processes were used by Income before migrating to the fully digital system?  

• In 2002, upgrade the HP 3000 mainframe that hosted the core insurance applications as well as the accounting and management information systems but still frequently broke down.
• HP 3000 only backup system allowed restoration of   previous day’s backup data.
• The COBOL programs were also developed in early 1980s and maintained by Incomes in-house IT team. 
• To be quite cumbersome and time taken to launch new product ranged.
• New customer application for motor insurance.

Question 3: Describe the Information System and IT Infrastructure at Income after they migrating to the fully digital system

Information system

• Income change to Java based eBao life system from eBao technology
• It’s compromised 3 subsystems which is Policy Administration, Sales Management and Supplementary Resources
• Consist of customer-centric design, seamless integration with imaging and barcode technology
• Immediately on high availability platform  

IT infrastructure

• Has been replaced with a more robust, scalable architecture 
• All servicing branches has been replace with scanner
• Monitor changed into 20inches
• PC Ram size upgraded to 128mb
• New software and hardware for application servers, web servers, and disk storage system were installed

Question 4: What benefits that Income reap from the new system

• 500 office staff and 3400 insurance advisors could access the system anytime, anywhere 
• Staff member who telecommute enjoyed faster access to information almost as fast as those who accessed the information in the office
• Improve cross sells and customer service
• System become more flexible
• Cut the time and cost needed to design or launch new product
• Support agents and brokers
• Customer can do online services easily

Question 5: How well is Income prepare for the future. Are the problem describe likely to be repeated

• Income has continuously upgrade their software system according to the evolving of technology from paper based system to digital web-based system
• This is to ensure the easiness of their services 
• Income also ensured that their customers will always get the best service from them
• Those problem would not likely to be incurred if Income continuously analyzes the problem and drawbacks of their system
• And if Income keep on finding the best and new ways to solve the problems, it might never occurred again