Phoenix Enhances Producer Compensation Systems and Support

Carrier Manages Complex Distribution Program with Advanced Software
The Phoenix Companies offers a range of wealth management products to high-net worth individuals through various subsidiaries. Its distribution model has evolved over time, leaving the company with multiple technical and business issues regarding incentive and compensation management. Phoenix was among the first carriers to license CSC’s PerformancePlus^® to manage compensation in 2001 but never implemented a release update. Then, in 2008, Phoenix approached CSC about upgrading PerformancePlus.

CSC worked with Phoenix to develop an affordable upgrade plan to emerge from the legacy space. Because Phoenix relies on CSC’s resources in India for PerformancePlus application support, the carrier returned to CSC’s offshore team to leverage its existing knowledge base and capabilities for the upgrade. The project entailed bringing more than 5,000 modules of code into production. “Any time we had issues, right up to the finish line,” said Rob Montecalvo, second vice president of Phoenix’s Information Technology, “we would discuss the issues with CSC onshore. CSC onshore provided direction to CSC offshore, adjustments would be made, and we would review the results in the morning and start the cycle again.”

Giving Producer Service Greater Functionality

Phoenix gained immediate benefits, such as the ability to support time-consuming commission chargebacks with a table entry in the new system. Customer service can change drop-down menus to display values, rates, text and rules, and they are better equipped to retrieve producer information. PerformancePlus also keeps the staff from having to look into each policy administration system to check on commission results for individual policies.

Tailoring Compensation to Distributors

One of the biggest benefits of PerformancePlus is the ability to support complex hierarchies that split compensation easily and accurately. “Since upgrading to PerformancePlus, our product sales, life distribution and the sales force are taking advantage of the flexibility we have to split compensation,” said Anne Llewellyn, project manager of Phoenix’s Distribution Administration. “The sales force area is able to tailor agreements by distributor.” PerformancePlus also has eased the process of making rate changes and is providing a higher level of integrity and detail than Phoenix’s legacy systems could provide.

The greatest advantage since the upgrade, according to Montecalvo, is that Phoenix is “better positioned to streamline our environment and consolidate our footprint over time. We’ll be better able to take advantage of opportunities than we were before.”

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