case study: PSLA Electronic Filing System

From start to finish
On time and on budget
Six-month development cycle
Rapid Application prototyping and development

The Setting

PSLA is a state agency tasked with registering all surplus line—high risk—insurance policies for Pennsylvania. For this development project, we replaced PSLA’s paper-based filing process with a modern web-based Electronic Filing System, increasing efficiency and reducing the cost of processing policies.

The Challenge

Policy filings were being filled out on paper and mailed or faxed to PSLA. Then PSLA staff would retype all of the information in an outdated Visual Basic application. Complex insurance rules had to be followed, and often the filings were returned to the customer, restarting the whole process over again. PSLA wanted to improve efficiency of the data entry staff and offer a way for customers to file electronically on the web, providing them insurance rules validation at the point of entry. PSLA also wanted to enable XML-based uploads of policy filings by more sophisticated customers.

Due to inefficiencies in the paper workflow, PSLA had amassed a backlog of filings to process by its internal data entry staff. The new system had to be significantly more efficient to allow the staff to catch up with the backlog.

Finally, PSLA needed to interface the web-based application with its existing document management system.

The Solution

e-brilliance led the effort to implement a web-based electronic filing system. Our project team assisted in requirements gathering by providing technology guidance and rapid prototyping. We then leveraged our architecture and design expertise, application development services, and application support to build the system. The application was delivered on time and on budget and continues to be maintained and enhanced by e-brilliance.

Project Highlights

e-brilliance implemented the solution in the Microsoft .NET framework, utilizing the Enterprise Library Application Blocks.
Designed a user interface that made complex insurance rules easier to understand and follow
Delivered the project live to production on time and on budget
Integrated with the existing electronic document management system. This allows customers to upload and review filing paperwork and the internal filing management team to access the filing paperwork when processing or auditing data.
Significantly increased efficiency of internal data entry staff by working side-by-side during the prototype phase to ensure each web form was designed as efficiently as possible

Key Benefits