Modernization of Ntuc Income

1. Modernization of NTUC Income CASE 2.1
1 MBA_Batch2_UMK_Kch/M7/GST5803/Information Systemand E-Commerce/P14D397P
CASE STUDY 2.1
MODERNIZATION OF NTUC INCOME
a) What were the problems faced by Income in this case? How were the problems
solved by the new digital system?
Incomes insurance processes were very tedious and paper-based. This resulted to
humongous Income also experienced frequent breakdown of the HP 3000 mainframe
which hosted the core insurance applications and the accounting and management
information systems. In addition to this, HP 3000 back-up system only allowed
restoration to the previous day’s back-up data. Hardware failures caused six days of
complete downtime. COBOL programs also encountered frequent breakdowns that
halted the systems and caused temporary interruptions. At the same time,
development of new products using the COBOL is quite cumbersome and took
weeks, even months, to accomplish. They also lost opportunities to cross-sell
because transaction processing for policy underwriting was still a batch process and
information is not available to agents and advisors in real-time. Through the new
digital systems, these problems were addressed. The paper-based insurance
processes were replaced by a paperless platform. Under the new system, all
documents are scanned and stored on ´trustedµ storage devices. Frequent
breakdowns were addressed by the high-availability platform. Multiple servers are
hosted and connected to more communication lines that are ´load balancedµ. The
new system also addressed downtimes due to breakdowns by its hot back-up
disaster-recovery centers. The new digital system also addressed the slow
development of new products by COBOL through the straight through processing
workflow capabilities of the new system.

2. Modernization of NTUC Income CASE 2.1
2 MBA_Batch2_UMK_Kch/M7/GST5803/Information Systemand E-Commerce/P14D397P
b) 2) What types of information systems and business processes were used by
Income before migrating to the fully digital system?
The insurance process of Income was very manual and paper intensive. Filled up
application forms of clients were sent by agents through courier. Their collection
schedule causes delays of two to three days. The Official Services log, sort and send
documents to underwriting. Proposals were allocated to staff randomly. There was
no system for proper assignment tasks per staff. Voluminous document are manually
sorted and stored and store by a number of staff at their warehouse. Since there was
no clear document management systems, retrieval of documents take days to
accomplish. Income also made use of HP 3000 mainframes which were very
unreliable due to frequent breakdowns that resulted to downtime, decreased
productivity and wasted manpower hours. COBOL programs were also used which
also encountered technical failures. At the same time COBOL programs were very
slow in developing new products for company resulting to lost sale opportunities.
c) Describe the Information Systems and IT infrastructure at income after
migrating to the fully digital system?
The new information system comprised 3 sub-system which are Policy
Administration, Sales Management and Supplementary Resources that fulfilled that
company requirement. This system contain:
1. Customer Centric Design
2. Seamless integration with Imaging
3. Barcode Technology
The software runs on multiple high-availability servers which connected to multiple
communication lines for load balancing to minimized down-time. Entire IT
infrastructures were replaced with robust, scalable architecture for example faster
LAN cables with a fiber-optic backbone and wireless capability. A real-time hot
backup disaster-recovery center implemented. All paper records were digitalize by
scanning and storing into a reliable storage devices.
d) What benefits did Income reap from the new system?
The system can be access by all their staff and insurance advisors anytime and
anywhere. Faster access to information and improved customer services. Cut policy
processing time and cost by half and reduce the time to design and launch new
product.
e) How well is Income prepared for the future? Are the problems described in the
case likely to be repeated?
NTUC Income has created a new dimension of system since they overcome they
problem and weakness through the execution of eBao technology and they are
prepare enough for their future.
Before switched and implement to the java based eBao life system, NTUC income
faced lots of difficulty in term of insurance application, accounting and management
information system. But after implemented eBao Life System to eBay technology

3. Modernization of NTUC Income CASE 2.1
3 MBA_Batch2_UMK_Kch/M7/GST5803/Information Systemand E-Commerce/P14D397P
income has restore its IT infrastructure by upgrading their system through increasing
PC RAM size, installing scanner and etc. which help them store more data.
They also implement hot back up disaster recovery center so that all the data cannot
be lost easily and remain storage and they do not need to depend on restoration of
previous day data. Under the new system all document stored as well on “trusted”
storage device.
For IT infrastructure NTUC Income need to replaced or upgrade from time to time
due to technology change are faster from day to day. If they didn’t prepare for the
future, it possible that the same problem will occurs.