A life assurance company

        The company is searching for a new way to improve its customer
relationship management. One idea is by providing a tool for the
insurance sales agent to be able to respond to all sorts of customer
needs wherever they are. The tool must be mobile and has the capability
of remote accessibility to the company's central server, so the
salesperson can easily connect and communicate to his/her office.

        Traditionally each sales agent has a personal database of his/her
customers. When approaching a potential prospect, the sales agent
needs to identify whether the customer can become his/her customer.
Once the customer has been identified, the sales agent presents to
him/her a plan that may fits the customer's needs. Although there are
more than 20 plans available for selection, the agent will only sell the ones
that he/she is comfortable with. This leaves the customer with fewer
choices to choose from.
        Furthermore, it will typically take time and effort for the agent to send
back a customer's application to the office for processing or approval.
At the same time, a sales agent in the field usually faces difficulty
communicating with or commuting head office in order to gather
information or update customer information.

        The company is facing three major tasks:

                1. How can a customer select the right insurance plan from multiple offerings available?
                2. How can a sales agent sell more plans?
                3. How can a sales agent communicate back his/her achievement and get approval from the head office?

        As a result, we have designed three programs to support these requirements,

                1. A program that enables a sales agent to ask the customer a particular set of questions to gain more insight into his/her requirements (term of insurance, term of payment, face amount, maturity value, dividend, etc.), to derive at recommended plans.
                2. A program that enables a sales agent to calculate cash value, benefit, premiums, and payment for all plans available by the insurance company.
                3. A network that enables a sales agent to communicate back to his/her head office by means of synchronization gateway technology. The network will enable the agent to obtain company news, sales performance, and target plus programs and database updates.

        All the programs ultimately work interdependently. The first program will select plans that are suitable for the customer. The appropriate plans will automatically show up on the second program. The sales agent then can calculate necessary numbers (benefit, cash value, interest, discount, etc.) and give his/her customer a satisfactory choice of plans. Once both parties agree on the initial result, the sales agent can send the information back to the head office through various connection methods available and wait for approval.