Overview
Fidelity Investments is one of the nation's largest mutual fund companies, with many corporate offices and a global investment staff of more than 600 money-management professionals. In June of 1999, Fidelity Investments recognized a key vacancy in the market and created the website insurance.com. Offering consumers an unbiased online insurance resource with products from a variety of insurance carriers, the site immediately found a niche. In addition, Insurance.com utilized the insurance marketplace of Fidelity Investments and Fidelity.com, and offered its resources and products to Fidelity's 15 million customers.
Challenge
Insurance.com offered consumers a compelling proposition:
- One-stop comparison-shopping for multiple insurance products in an unbiased marketplace.
- Easy access to insurance-related information and proprietary analytical tools.
- Convenience, control, and privacy without sales pressure.
The company had several objectives for its forecasted website accomplishments:
- Establish Insurance.com as the Internet's leading insurance brand.
- Represent the site as the trusted insurance advisor and info-mediary, and translate that relationship to policy sales.
- Portray the company as the best overall channel for purchasing and managing insurance.
- Leverage the Fidelity brand.
- Market to the Fidelity customer base.
- Outsource all major components of the business model.
The goal was to transfer the current Insurance.com system to the content management system Eprise. The monumental task required the organization of approximately 500 static pages, as well as implementing the inherent application into the tool schema within a logical framework.
The goals of this project were:
- Reduce overhead on maintenance of the site
- Simplify management of all content
- Automate co-branding functionality to the extent possible.
- Implement a co-branded sub-site of Insurance.com content and functionality for Fidelity.
Solutions
We constructed Insurance.com's secure, flexible e-business system to guide consumers through the entire process of buying insurance - evaluating different types of policies and selecting from multiple quotes to purchase the products. The project was developed and maintained using a complex three tier web-based application, consisting of ASP, COM, and SQL stored procedures. Insurance.com was designed and implemented using a real-time B2B XML transfer applications, integrating with third parties for comparative online insurance quotes. Due to the complex nature of the project careful attention had to be given to the custom development of all database tables, stored procedures, and customized data flow
After the creation and testing of the site all maintenance had to be automated for ongoing service. The solution was the creation of a web based content management system (CMS) for maintaining and changing Insurance.com content. This CMS allowed work secure access to the site and allowed on technical users to keep the site up to date.
Results
Insurance.com and Fidelity.com now share a primary engine that was developed for their specific demands. Visitors can now go to two separate sites to request real time insurance quotes, provided in real time by XML feeds that check numerous carriers for updated insurance quotes. Both sites reported significant gains in traffic while maintaining a fluid, dynamic system that leaves both their clients happy and staff members satisfied. With increased accessibility of pertinent information and design that is both functional and aesthetically appealing, the project succeeded in meeting its objectives in all regards. Whether visitors are looking for Home, Auto, Life, or Health Insurance, they can get all their real time quotes though the Insurance.com website.