(Image source: Merchants Bonding Company homepage.)
Merchants Bonding Company (West Des Moines, Iowa), a mutual insurer ranked and as the 14th largest surety writer in the U.S., has deployed Insurity’s (Hartford) SIMS Claims to support administration of its surety bond claims. In production after a six-month implementation phase, SIMS Claims has replaced Merchants’ legacy claims system to enable simplified and streamlined claims processing and an environment able to support future growth, according to an Insurity statement.
Steve Dorenkamp, VP, Claims, Merchants Bonding Company.
Merchant decided to replace its in-house built legacy system environment to meet growth-related demands and eliminate inefficient processes that required multiple entries into different systems, according to Insurity. With SIMS the insurer is able to handle all of its surety bond claims processing needs on the single Insurity system, which is integrated with Merchants’ existing accounting system and compatible with the company’s database. Given the particular capabilities required to manage surety bond claims, Merchants found SIMS Claims configurability an important selling point.
“As a company, we are looking to increase our overall premium and market share, but our previous claims technology did not meet all of our growth plan needs,” comments Steve Dorenkamp, VP, claims, Merchants Bonding Company. “Making the transition to the SIMS Claims management system has proven to be a very good business decision. Since going live on the system, we have already experienced the efficient, simplified and streamlined environment necessary. We are confident our constant evolving needs will be met, while maintaining a cost-effective operating environment and continuing to provide only the highest quality of service.”
Jose Tribuzio, SVP, SIMS Claims, Insurity.
Merchants’ implementation staff worked closely with the Insurity SIMS Claims team and was able to stay on schedule and meet its go-live timeline, according to Jay Stukerjurgen, assistant VP of IT, Merchants Bonding Company, “The SIMS Claims implementation has been a big win for us,” he comments. “We were especially pleased with the ability to configure the system to support the unique requirements for surety bond claims—which was one of our key reasons for selecting the system. From reporting to analytics to customer service, we’ve seen improvements in all areas of claims processing.”
Flexibility to Support a Unique Product
“Surety bond claims are a unique animal and our ability to configure the system for the line of business’ specific requirements demonstrates the flexibility of SIMS Claims as well as the depth and breadth of functionality,” comments Jose Tribuzio, general manager and senior VP for SIMS Claims, Insurity.
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