Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Builds Highly Efficient Business with CSC’s Systems, BPO Services

Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, one of the largest writers of private passenger automobile and homeowners insurance in Tennessee, has one of the best efficiency ratios in the nation, earning it an A++ rating from A.M. Best Company, the highest rating available. The Ward Group, an insurance management consulting firm, has included Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance on the Ward’s 50 list of insurers that have excelled at balancing safety, consistency and performance for the past 13 years.

Extending 28-Year Relationship to 2010

“Efficiency is something that we talk about every day, and it’s in our business plan on everything we do,” said Steve Burt, vice president of Information Systems for Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance. “The CSC systems we’re running now are very stable and automate a great deal of our business functions. On a daily basis, we talk about efficiency and how we can continue to cut costs and run as lean as we possibly can, and CSC’s systems help us do that.”

The relationship between CSC and Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance dates back to 1975 when the company installed an integrated system for processing property and casualty policies. Tennessee Farmers serves more than 1 million P&C policyholders across 11 lines of business using CSC’s systems. The company also administers $15 billion of in-force life insurance with CSC’s systems.

Creating End-To-End Processes for Agents

Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance in 2004 extended its software contract through 2010 and licensed CSC’s Exceed, an integrated set of software components designed to extend, enhance and evolve insurers’ legacy systems. The company plans to extend Exceed’s browser-based screens to 400 agents in 143 county offices across the state.

“This new system will enable personnel in our county offices to perform some of the data entry, which will enable us to continue to grow without increasing the size of our home office,” Burt said. “We’re very excited about this project because it will make us even more efficient.”

Expansion into Nonstandard Auto Market with CSC’s BPO Services

In addition to standard automobile, the company also offers non-standard auto insurance to Tennessee drivers through its subsidiary, Tennessee Farmers Assurance Company.

Under a business process outsourcing (BPO) agreement, CSC provides infrastructure, software and selected business function support for the carrier’s non-standard auto business. The relationship, which was extended through 2010, has enabled the company to capture new business that would have gone to another carrier.

“We’ve had our best technology years ever with CSC,” said Matthew M. Scoggins Jr., chief executive officer of Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance. “In recent years, we have significantly increased the size of the company without having to increase the size of our staff. CSC’s systems have proved that they can handle large volumes and drive down processing costs.”