Support
Customer support has been the lifeblood of LISS Systems for its whole existence. One of the main aims of LISS is to offer a support service to our customers which enables them to maintain and develop their systems to meet the changing needs of the business. Between 1996 and 2001 we grew our customer base from 5 to 10 - an achievement mostly based on reputation and word of mouth.
We believe that it is important to develop and maintain long term relationships with our customers and will tailor our support for our customers to meet the differing needs and strategies of the individual businesses, varying from daily operational involvement to support during major changes. This reflects a key attribute of LISS - we understand that different companies will want, or need, different levels of support. Our aim is to adapt to individual customer's needs wherever possible.
We take pride in an excellent reputation for relationship management. Each client is assigned a dedicated Customer Service Manager who is responsible for growing and developing the relationship to ensure customer satisfaction. Customers benefit from regular project reporting and management which is focused on the needs of their business.
In addition, we are happy to discuss alternative support provision and development of partnerships with more local support providers where this will be helpful for the business.
Implementation
Gap Analysis
The Implementation process begins with an initial consultancy phase involving discussions with the product or service developers, who have a new concept to bring to market (or with the product managers for a conversion project). Our aim is to understand how the system can best meet their business requirements.
With LISSIA this is a two-phase approach
- can we achieve it using LISSIA's extensive parameter driven capability and existing external links
- if not, what development work will be required
A great majority of requirements will be covered under the first category in which case the design will be worked out between our consultant and our customer contact and implemented by customer staff.
Following the gap analysis we will prepare a report which will provide a good guide to the timescales and cost for any software tailoring which is required for that individual company.
Typically this initial gap analysis stage could be completed prior to the decision to purchase a LISSIA system licence.
Development
If development is required, then the customer decides in discussion with their Customer Service Manager how this part of the project will be handled. Here different approaches according to the needs to the company may be taken. Some examples of various approaches will be available soon in our Case Studies Downloads section.
If no development is required, the project proceeds to the next stage:
Model Office
This is the knowledge transfer process we use to enable skilled, experienced, insurance professionals and managers to carry out the set up of LISSIA to support their business. We provide a system populated with typical product, client information, rates etc, which can be used as a basis for setting up LISSIA for their business.
The customer staff will need an understanding of:-
- the products they will be selling
- the agent relationships to support the sales
- the processes needed to run the business
- the documentation to communicate with the clients
- the management reporting requirements
- the accounts information for the corporate ledger
Typically, over a period of five to six weeks, the users develop the processes and documentation, with the aid of LISS staff. This is normally carried out on the customer's site. By the end of the period the customer has a working set of business processes, aligned with the LISSIA functionality and strengths. The cutover to production is then straightforward.
Installation
We support a range of possible installation options for the LISSIA system. Every company is different and therefore your installation can be tailored by you to the appropriate level of involvement from LISS. We will support:
- Installation entirely by the client (no involvement other than supplying the LISSIA software)
- Installation managed by the client with support and advice from LISS (support may be on or off site as required)
- Installation entirely by LISS and support partners (client provides the hardware and required configuration)
This flexibility applies individually to each of the following areas:
- Installation of the LISSIA system in appropriate n-tier architecture
- Integration of LISSIA as part of the wider IT solutions map (connections with external systems)
- Provision of IT support services for the database set up and management
- Hosting of the LISSIA system and database (ASP solutions)
Development
Although LISSIA is functionally very rich, it is likely that customers will want to add specific additional functionality from time to time. We have developed a specific approach to evaluating and supplying new required function.
The Release process
For LISSIA, we expect to build up a set of new requirements into a release. The requirements to be included in each release are determined by the customer. We believe that this approach to releases provides a strong and stable system, and also means that clients can plan their own testing resource to release deadlines.
Specification
Each requirement is fully specified and estimated so that the client knows the likely cost of the development, how it will be implemented in the system, and how long it is likely to take. Our business facing approach is essential to producing these specifications, since we can take a purely business requirement and produce the best solution for implementation of the required functionality within the system.
Testing
Once the release content has been determined, the programming work is completed, and the release then goes through a rigorous QA process. New function is tested against tests determined by the business analyst. Again, information about what will be tested is included in the specification, so that the client has the opportunity to assess the proposed testing and suggest changes or additions if required. In addition, the system will then undergo a full regression test, ensuring that the new functionality has not adversely affected any existing functionality. We also consider performance issues, so that wherever possible new developments do not heavily impact the performance of the system.
Delivery
The release is then shipped to the client. Full documentation of the new functionality is provided as part of the release, as well as information about the testing performed and results of those tests. All developments are warranted for a period of three months, and any problems which are discovered will be fixed free of charge within this period.
Maintenance
Provision of support to customers with Live sites is usually covered by our Maintenance Agreement. The maintenance licence is annually renewable and covers not only general provision of support to the client (see Help Desk) but also provision of some additional services:
Release Management
We create and maintain a business model for each customer who purchases a licence. If changes are needed for a customer they will be made to that customer's model. If that function is generally applicable, we will move it from the customer model to our 'core' model.
Under our normal Maintenance Agreement we publish details of new function added to the 'core' LISSIA system twice a year. Customers may then review the sorts of changes which they may wish to consider for their own system. If the customer selects any of this function, LISS can then retrofit the changes into the specific customer model. This means that customers can achieve functional updates on a regular basis at a reduced cost from standard development.
Technical Updates
The Maintenance Agreement also covers testing and updates to the AllFusion Gen development environment. Whenever new versions of the development tool or patches are released, these will be applied and tested by LISS and any required changes to the customer model completed before we recommend that the clients move to the new release. There is no additional charge for these technical releases. This ensures that LISSIA is always able to operate on current platforms, and supports future IT developments.
Help Desk (local or remote)
We offer a full application help desk service from our London offices, incorporating technical support as second level help; this is available 09.00 to 17.00 UK time each working day, excluding UK Public and Bank Holidays. Our help desk staff are trained to provide business as well as technical support - another example of the change in emphasis from IT to business based solutions, using the parameter driven characteristics of LISSIA.
However, customers may want to run their own help desk, if so we normally recommend that they also use LISS technical support as second level help. LISS is happy to work in partnership with local support providers to achieve the most appropriate support for the business.
Provision of support via the Help Desk is also monitored by the Customer Service Manager to ensure the clients get the best possible support for their business needs.
Training
As well as training provided at Implementation, in the form of a Model Office process, LISS can also provide additional training at any point tailored to the client's requirements.
Since staff have a good knowledge of the Life Insurance industry in general, they are able to engage with the business users, and provide training specifically related to the business issues arising, as well as sharing knowledge of the administration system. For example, in training for an Operations department, we would always recommend that a review and update of procedures be an integral part of the training process. We would expect the training to cover areas which may not be directly related to the administration system if this was seen as beneficial for the users.
Training would usually be provided on a departmental basis: the training required by a Systems team, for example, would include testing procedures and external technical system issues, whereas training for a Finance or Sales team would concentrate more heavily on improving understanding of the system areas in use, as well as providing additional information on how to achieve required business results using those areas of the system.