Medical Screening Architecture
About Travel and Medical
Travel and Medical is a privately owned Company specialising in the field of Pre Travel Risk Assessment and Health Screening. The company operates a purpose-built state of the art call centre, offering the highest level of service. Its own bespoke software system TAMIS® is now recognised as the UK’s leading Risk Management System, providing ease of use, detailed Management Information and full web access.
http://www.travelandmedical.co.uk
Leading supplier of health screening to the insurance industry, Travel and Medical, has worked with Octavia Information Systems over the past two years to develop a new online version of its market leading TAMIS health screening solution which is now being white labelled to insurance companies.
At the same time, Octavia has designed and implemented a new, secure and standardised network infrastructure, to deliver the resilience and reliability required to operate in a challenging, highly regulated marketplace.
Health Insurance
Founded in January 2002, Travel and Medical Insurance Services is a privately owned company specialising in the field of pre travel risk assessment and health screening. The company operates a purpose built call centre responding to over 40,000 calls in peak months and manages in excess of 250,000 cases a year.
Its customers are the country’s leading providers of travel insurance including The Post Office and Yorkshire Building Society and the company is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Industry (FSA) and is a member of the Association of Travel Insurance Intermediaries (ATII).
Underpinning the success of Travel and Medical’s business is its own bespoke software system TAMIS, which is now recognised as the market’s leading risk management system. Created by the company’s initial founder, TAMIS is an underwriting tool designed specifically to evaluate the risks associated with insuring pre-existing health conditions under travel insurance policies. It automatically calculates the recommended additional premium and/or increased excess for that travel insurance policy based upon the assessment of risk produced from the completion of an online questionnaire.
The tool is currently used by up to 80 call centre staff throughout the day at Travel and Medical to take callers through the health screening process of behalf of insurers.
In 2006, Travel and Medical responded to demands from the insurance industry and started to create a version of TAMIS that could be used online, allowing customers to undertake self-screening as part of the insurance purchase process. As Rob Pole, CEO Travel and Medical, explains, “With the huge shift towards individuals purchasing all types of insurances online, there was a growing feeling amongst insurers that they needed to offer consumers the chance to undertake self-screening for health conditions.”
Business Crisis
Unfortunately, the untimely death of the company’s founder and main IT expert late in 2006, curtailed the development. Worse, while the company had a strong management team with a Finance Director, Call Centre Director and Chief Medical Officer, there was no strong IT knowledge within the business.
Pole says, “Travel and Medical had to find a third party organisation to provide some clear IT guidance and expertise. With a 50 workstation call centre, complex networks and a Voice over IP telephony system, the company was highly dependent upon technology.”
Furthermore, the company had a number of non standard solutions in place, adding complexity and risk to the business. While the network was based on Microsoft technology, Travel and Medical had deployed a non standard email solution rather than Microsoft Exchange. In addition both the server gateway and firewall were not standard technologies.
He continues, “Rather than attempt to employ an individual in house to decipher the IT infrastructure, the decision was made to go with a managed service provider that could deliver a complete solution. Critically, the company wanted a continuity of service: Travel and Medical had relied on one individual before and it was essential to avoid that risk and opt for a company with breadth of expertise and experience.”
Skills Breadth
Travel and Medical opted to work with London based Octavia IT Services. “We were extremely impressed with Octavia’s approach,” Pole says. “The company came in, surveyed the systems and rapidly proposed changes to create a more standard, lower risk infrastructure.”
Octavia’s plan was broken down into manageable stages that could be handled by the small management team without any risk of business disruption. “It was essential that business continued as usual,” says Pole. “Travel and Medical’s screening contracts with insurers are all based on Service Level Agreements which have to be fulfilled daily – business interruption was not an option.”
Over a six month period Octavia undertook in depth design and testing prior to cutting over to a new network, and the implementation of Microsoft Exchange, on a Sunday to avoid any business disruption. The process was made more complex by Travel and Medical’s tight security processes for its 85 staff, which underping compliance with both the Data Protection Act (DPA) and Financial Services Association (FSA) requirements.
Pole confirms, “Travel and Medical is dealing with sensitive personal data so it is essential that systems are robust and extremely secure. Octavia managed the migration smoothly, on time, to deliver a resilient, secure and standardised network environment.”
Online Solution
At the same time, Travel and Medical was looking for a supplier that could take on the development of the new, web based version of TAMIS. Because the core system was built using an unusual development tool – Alpha Five – the company could not recruit staff internally. Instead it went to the market to look for a partner. Following an extensive review, Travel and Medical opted to work with Octavia.
“Travel and Medical wanted to ensure development consistency,” he says. “Octavia has several large development teams and a broad range of skills which provided the company with real confidence in the development.”
In addition, Octavia brought both enthusiasm and ideas to the process, rapidly grasping the complexity of the health-screening process and introducing several innovations. He says, “Travel and Medical ended up with a product specification that not only met the requirements for an online screening environment but also delivered an improved call centre product running on the same TAMIS engine.”
Self Screening
Octavia worked alongside Travel and Medical to develop the risk management system which now allows Call Centre Operators to intervene in ‘real-time’ via telephone, web chat or email whilst an application is being completed online.
The new system has been developed as a hybrid solution which will allow insurance providers to balance the efficiencies of web-based self-screening and the medical expertise of trained telephone operators. The web-based self-screening also ensures that applicants are not required to leave the sales process whilst making their travel insurance arrangements.
“This new integrated service will allow insurers to offer self-screening, and where necessary, seamlessly transfer customers to a trained call centre operator if they encounter any difficulties. This will allow insurers to reduce their loss ratios while allowing travellers to make full declarations with the minimal amount of fuss and bother,” Pole confirms.
TAMIS is also available as a white labelled solution to the insurance industry and a major City insurer is now making the revised TAMIS solution available online for all of its broker offices.
Conclusion
Over the past two years, Travel and Medical has seen a major transformation. The non standard network has been replaced with a more reliable, resilient and secure standard infrastructure supported by Octavia under a managed service contract. In addition, the company has developed a major extension to its core TAMIS product and is now poised to exploit pent up demand from the insurance industry for self-service screening.
As Pole concludes, “Travel and Medical has proved how dangerous it can be to rely on one individual for IT support and development. Octavia’s breadth of skills in both managed services and software development has been instrumental in not only creating a fantastic new online health screening solution but creating the IT resilience required to operate in this challenging, compliance driven environment.”
