AXA Insurance consolidate intermediary messaging
Orbit UK’s Managed Gateway for Insurance (MGI) helps AXA Insurance reduce data transaction costs by 30%, by streamlining EDI messaging and standardising security
Organisations that are dependent on the exchange of EDI messages to carry on business need to be prepared for changing circumstances. External factors such as evolving standards or even internal issues like reorganisation can sometimes cause real problems when existing EDI platforms need to be adapted to cope.
Faced with such a scenario an organisation has to be able to evolve its infrastructure to ensure business is not impacted by the change. Such a situation was faced by AXA Insurance. AXA is a successful global company with operations in Western Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. It has over 80 million customers worldwide and is widely viewed as a world leader in financial protection.
Migration from existing VANS
AXA had been a customer of Orbit UK since 2001 using the EDI VAN service information Exchange. In 2009 the providers of software for the Open GI and CDL hubs that AXA used declared their intention to move away from their respective EDI VANS (Information Exchange for Open GI and Tradanet for CDL) and Orbit UK were chosen to help with this.
Following on from this as part of an ongoing account review process with Angela Silva, Head of Electronic Trading, Orbit UK outlined the benefits of consolidating AXA’s VAN EDI traffic onto the Orbit UK Managed Gateway for Insurance (MGI). In addition to a projected cost saving of more than 30% these included
- Improved visibility and reporting
- A streamlining of the internal messaging infrastructure offering additional savings
- Standardised secure connectivity for internal compliance
- Greatly reduced maintenance overhead for AXA technical teams in managing the EDI services, dealing with outages, etc
- Allowed AXA to speed up the development cycle for new products and deliver new functionality to the brokers
“We were impressed with what Orbit told us,” said Stephen Olley, Project manager personal lines IT, at AXA, “but wanted to look at what other options were available. After a thorough analysis we decided to go with Orbit because they were a known factor and we were very happy with their service and approach.”
Tight restrictions on third party connectivity
As part of the initial investigation phase AXA highlighted the fact that they had imposed tight controls around access to third parties; only three options were supported, two of which required the use of OEM software. Orbit UK were able to comply with AXA’s strict security standards and Secure File Transfer (SFTP) was implemented between AXA and MGI.
Insurance Messaging HUB
The MGI is an Industry specific implementation of the Orbit UK Managed B2B Service. It enables insurance businesses to consolidate all of their EDI data feeds onto a single platform, via one secure connection and under a single contract. It also provides a platform on which they can implement:
- New products and services
- Channels that utilise more contemporary technologies such as XML and Web services
- Support for Polaris EDI standards
- Direct connectivity options - FTP, SFTP, HTTPS
It offers extensive reporting and visibility capabilities as well as message tracking and alerting. As the service resides on the GXS network it integrates seamlessly with both of the existing VANs utilised by the UK general Insurance market: Information Exchange and Tradanet (or Brokernet). It also has direct links to the messaging hubs of software houses Open GI and CDL.
Single AXA mailbox makes EDI connection easier
Like many general insurers AXA had legacy connections to both Tradanet and Information Exchange, each being used to communicate with different software houses and broker networks. Orbit UK implemented a solution whereby all AXA’s inbound EDI messages were re-routed automatically on the GXS networks into a single AXA Mailbox on the MGI. Equally AXA posted all outbound messages into the same mailbox for delivery to brokers and other trading partners who are connected via two different VAN services, each using a completely different architecture and technical infrastructure.
In nearly all instances the trading partner did not have to make any changes at their end and the messages were delivered unchanged. Once migrated AXA were left with a single Orbit UK contract for all their messaging and were able to arrange payments in a way that suited them best. Orbit UK also provide a monthly report of usage which is broken down by partner and message type according to AXA’s needs.
Stable and low-maintenance EDI platform
Commenting on the experience of working alongside Orbit UK during the project Stephen Olley said, “I was very impressed with the knowledge of their technical team. They were responsive and able to deal with any issues as soon as they came up. Coupled with this their overall management of the project ensured things went according to plan. Without doubt, choosing Orbit was the right solution for AXA as the benefits we have realised since completion have shown.
“As well as the expected cost savings of the consolidation we now enjoy a very stable EDI platform. Previously we had to be continually coming up with workarounds for new issues and this was proving to be very expensive and time consuming. Now we get very few failures and so have been able to make significant savings on our maintenance costs.
“Orbit are also very proactive. They are continually looking at what we do and coming up with ideas and solutions in other areas of EDI that will help AXA. I now view them as a true partner who will enable us to improve our service and reduce our costs in this area going forward.”
As well as providing a stable and flexible platform for existing EDI messaging and future B2B implementations, the service has also brought benefits to the business users within AXA, by providing them with extended Management Information which is readily available.
A member of the AXA EDI Team said “Since migrating to the Orbit managed service we have found the Web tracking service an invaluable tool with the ability to track batches of data through the network to and from the destination mailboxes. This has improved our ability to service our customers and to ensure that the timely delivery of data is being achieved. The Web service has also enabled us to pinpoint any delivery failures to track where data has not been delivered and to identify and escalate any issues quickly. The tool allows us to track data both in the live and the test environments. Having the ability to track data in the test environment also speeds up our development cycle and can assist the delivery of new functionality with our customers”.
“In support of this the Orbit Helpdesk has provided a quality and timely level of service, confirming receipt of daily transmissions and providing Early Warning Notifications when appropriate. All issues reported to the helpdesk have been investigated and responded to rapidly enabling fault resolution to be progressed ASAP. The Helpdesk Team have also always been courteous, helpful and patient when dealing with both issues and general queries and are happy to assist where they are able.”
