1. Document Overview
This document in which we present our case
as to why we are the best business service
provider for you in respect of insurance
products, service and technology is provided
by the Atlas Group. A partnership with the
Atlas Group will enable you to maximize your
insurance and supplier services for the
benefit of your clients.
2. Introduction
Atlas Group is a dynamic, expanding
Insurance provider that specialises in
managing Travel Insurance at a variety of
levels. The reputation of its Directors and
employees for fast, efficient and
professional service has ensured that the
Group's list of working partners has
increased rapidly.
The key to this success is based on the
following principles: 
Expertise. Through the direct experience
of the Directors and Employees a complete
understanding of the 'life' cycle of the
Travel Insurance sector has been gained,
incorporating: underwriting, policy wording
development, broking, distribution, medical
screening and claims management.
Technology. The Group has, through UK
Solutions, developed a fully integrated
computer system that is accepted as one of
the leading systems available. This
investment ensures that the services offered
to our business partners operate at maximum
efficiency and enables us to provide
detailed up to date information for
analyisis when requested.
Employees. All our employees have a wide
experience of this and other industries and
are all committed to the success not only of
Atlas Group but also of our partners.
Flexibility. W e are experienced in
working with different partners with
differing needs and with the aid of our
staff and technology; we can cater for all
your travel insurance needs.
Cost. With a thorough understanding of
your needs and the aid of leading edge
technology we are able to work more cost
effectively than many of our competitors.
With the above points in mind we know that
we can work together with you to provide a
high level of service and support and fulfil
the service requirements as set out in
section 3 of this presentation.
3. Atlas Group History
Atlas Insurance was established in 1992 from
a small office in West London. Three years
later, after a dramatic growth in business,
it was necessary to move to a modern
three-story office block in North London,
where Atlas Group continues their business
operations.
To adapt to market requirements Atlas
Insurance has developed six separate
autonomous, yet tightly integrated companies
that provide services and solutions to a
varied customer base, from individual policy
holders to tour operators, travel agents and
tourist boards.
Atlas Insurance provides, through
various Lloyds based intermediaries and
non-Lloyds insurance companies underwriting
facilities and wholesale administration of
travel insurance to brokers, travel agents
and direct specialists. Working closely with
the industry regulators, the GISC, the ABI
and the FSO we ensure that all our travel
insurance products are sold within the
ever-tightening codes of conduct.
Atlas Direct was formed in 1993, in
response to demand within the UK for travel
insurance to be sold directly to the public.
'Atlas Direct' has grown into a full call
centre with sophisticated integrated
telephone and computer systems which along
with our highly trained staff enables us to
manage the direct sale of both our own and
affinity partner products.
UK Solution Systems Ltd was founded
following our recognition of the importance
of technology in the modern travel insurance
market. Atlas has always been the first to
utilize technology and have developed the
Liberty Travel Insurance System which is now
used throughout the industry. This has
resulted in Atlas becoming the first truly
integrated travel insurance intermediary,
with Atlas Travel Insurance for Agents and
Affinity Partners, the Atlas Direct call
centre and a Web Engine designed to support
both companies. Today 'UK Solution Systems'
Ltd continues to develop and market their
systems throughout the UK and Europe with
Atlas remaining at the forefront of any
technical developments.
Atlas Claims, was established in
accordance with the Atlas philosophy, of
offering a complete travel insurance
services package. It ensures that the high
level of service to which clients are
entitled is maintained after they have
purchased their Atlas policy. Claims
handling is perhaps the most complex and
sensitive aspect of travel insurance, with a
number of issues that have to be resolved to
ensure that a client's claim is dealt with
efficiently and compassionately. The manner
in which scheme claims are handled can have
a major effect on the reputation of both the
issuing company and agent.
Atlas Healthcheck again follows the
Atlas philosophy. Atlas Healthcheck takes
detailed medical information from
policyholders to establish whether medical
conditions suffered by the policyholder,
their travelling companions, or relatives
can be fully covered under the policy or
whether additional terms are required before
cover can be provided.
Together these companies compliment each
other and employ over 50 staff with many of
our Directors and managers have over 10
years experience in insurance and the travel
industry. All the Atlas companies have been
highly successful in their own right and
combine to provide one of the most complete
service providers within the UK travel
industry.
4. Management Summary
Atlas Group believes that, in conjunction
with your company, it can deliver the very
highest standard of service and support for
the travel insurance services that you wish
to offer your customers, by providing:
To the Insured
Quality insurance products and services in a
fast, efficient, personal, friendly and
above all professional manner.
An efficient claims service that settles
valid claims swiftly and with as little fuss
as possible. Our professional staff and
advanced computer systems allow us to
minimise the time taken to deal with claims,
thereby reducing the need for the claimant
to contact us, which greatly reduces the
inherent stress caused when making a claim.
Advice on the policy wording to ensure that
the possibility for misunderstanding at the
point of sale or claim is negligible.
To the Business Partner
An assurance that your clients will be dealt
with in the same highly efficient manner as
you deal with them, which increases
satisfaction and retention.
Information in relation to the claims made
by your clients.
Assistance with policy wording and
stationary to produce the optimum product
for your clients.
Proper and professional management of the
premium income and claim payments in
conjunction with you and the insurer to
allow development of a high quality yet cost
effective insurance product.
In addition due to Atlas's commitment to
providing innovative solutions, as shown in
the sections below, additional benefits
could be achieved to those detailed above.
5. Partnership Working
The Atlas Group provides a flexible,
efficient and more importantly an
effective solution to suit your needs
and those of your business partners. We
will provide as much or as little
assistance as you require. In order,
however, to ensure that a quality
service is provided, we feel that a
minimum level of involvement will be
required as follows:
Contract agreement. To ratify the
business agreement between our two
companies, which would include details of
reporting requirements, remuneration,
working practices and service standards.
Initial briefing. To discuss your
'client ethos', interpretation of wording
and the methods of managing the travel
insurance services - which will be tailor
made for you.
Technology issues. Due to our high level
of involvement with technology, it will be
important to ensure that reporting and
control systems are compatible with those of
your company and it's business partners, the
flexibility afforded by our system should
ensure that this process will not impact too
greatly on you.
Review meetings / Renewal process. We
feel that periodic review (especially at
renewal) is essential. All parties should
meet at least annually to discuss the
success of the relationship, to ascertain
how much or how little progress is being
made and to discuss whether the service can
be improved.
6. Insurance Products
Product Overview
With various Lloyds and non-Lloyds
underwriters we strive to produce the most
comprehensive, yet competitively priced
policies in the market.
Working closely with our dedicated team of
underwriters, the Atlas Group has
established a portfolio of insurance
policies designed to meet particular
customer requirements. The following
examples are policies we would recommend to
you.
Comprehensive Cover. Continues to be our
core product providing full cover under 15
benefit sections for clients travelling to
destinations in Europe and the rest of the
World. There are pricing structures for
individuals, families, single parents,
couples and for different age bands, which
combined with various optional covers like
winter sports and golf allows us to provide
cover appropriate to each individual clients
needs at highly competitive rates.
Flight Cover. Is most appropriate for
clients, it provides a good level of cover
and excellent value for money for the
policyholder. Accommodation cover is limited
and so this product is best suited for those
travelling on flight only, mini-break or
short stay trips or for the independent
traveller.
Annual Multi Trip. This policy is
designed to give the frequent traveller
greater freedom by removing the hassle and
expense of having to arrange travel
insurance prior to each and every trip. It
has the same level of cover as the
comprehensive policy and includes 17 days
Winter sports cover.
Pioneer (backpacking) Cover. Is
specifically designed for those aged under
35 years, traveling on a tight budget and
requiring a reasonable level of cover in
respect of certain key areas, such as
medical expenses, for an extended duration.
Coach Cover. Provides low cost cover for
clients wishing to travel by ferry and
coach, primarily within the United Kingdom
and Europe. Policy limits in respect of some
sections of the policy are reduced for
example cancellation as the greater sum
insured provided by the comprehensive policy
is not necessary, however excesses are also
reduced.
Bespoke Products. We can arrange
tailored insurance products that meet the
needs of an individual agent and their
clients, even to the extent that the policy
carries your brand rather than that of the
Atlas Group!
Please note that the upper age limit for
travellers is 65 years, should your customer
base include a significant number of this
age group, a Bespoke Product can be
arranged.
7. Sales Support
Account Maintenance
We consider the provision of the highest
quality customer service to be of paramount
importance. To ensure this, each of our
accounts is assigned to an individual
account manager, which enables prompt action
should any issues arise. Training and
marketing support are also made available
where appropriate and regular contact is
maintained with all account holders.
Our attention to detail and commitment to
providing high quality services has earned
us the reputation for being one of the
leading companies in a highly competitive
industry. We provide travel insurance
services for over 300 travel agents and tour
operators and pride ourselves on retaining
our business partners - many of our leading
accounts have been with us since the early
days of the company.
The Group has maintained a good working
relationship with its underwriters over the
years, which has resulted in Atlas's being
the most cost effective travel insurance
product on the market. Remarkably, for a
period of 7 years between 1993 and 2000, our
rates remained unchanged while competitors
were applying substantial increases.
Sales Support
As a result of high growth in our first
three years of operation, we established
ourselves as a major player in a fast
growing market. In the year 2000, Atlas
Travel Insurance serviced over 175,000
transactions. Our ability to adapt quickly
to changes in the market will ensure the
continuation of this trend of rapid but
sustainable growth.
Our sales support team only deals with
travel insurance products and is backed by
the same integrated phone and computer
system used in the Atlas Direct call centre.
This allows us to provide a dedicated
telephone line and answering service to all
our commercial business partners together
with personal banking and stationery to meet
your requirements. The Internet servers are
situated on-site and integrate with our main
database allowing for true web integration.
8. Web Integration
Web Strategy
All of our web servers are hosted within our
own offices allowing complete control of the
internet package. The Web Engine that we use
transacts thousands of polices a week for a
number of sites in the UK, Spain, France,
Australia and Netherlands, in 4 different
languages. The Atlas Group continues to view
the Internet as the largest potential outlet
for travel insurance in Europe over the next
10 years. Whilst being concerned about
making price 'hiking' claims and so called
'e-business' potential, travel insurance
genuinely lends itself well to being
transacted over the internet with great
ease.
Web Sales
The 'Atlas Direct' website
(www.atlasdirect.net) provides a portal into
our offices as an alternative to using the
call centre. The Atlas site has been
designed to offer tailor made quotations,
based on our many pricing options. This is
not a simple 'days*adults=price' site. The
information entered on the site goes
directly into our central database and is
available to call centre staff immediately
should the client have any questions or
issues with the transaction. All
documentation is automatically emailed and
posted to the client.
Web Claims
An Online claims facility is currently under
development. This additional service is
scheduled to be launched by the end of the
summer season, and as with all our
developments, is carefully designed,
implemented and integrated.
Web Reports
Uniquely we are also working on online
reports for affiliate partners so, with the
correct security, they can view daily sales
and volumes on a real time basis.
Commission Structure (Affinity Partners)
Our partners are afforded an agreed level of
commission. This provides partners with
useful revenues whilst increasing the
awareness of their own products and services
and leads to added value for the customers.
9. Implementation Plan
The Atlas Group expects to be able to offer the
agreed service within 30 days of
notification that it has been awarded a
contract. The areas, which are seen as
important to this process, are:
Recruitment and Training. Whilst we have
an existing team of experienced staff. It is
recognised that this team will need to be
increased to service an additional contract
of the level indicated. To this end we have
already identified a significant number of
key personnel that would be approached on
the award of the contract. Once the
dedicated team is assembled, training will
take place in conjunction with you and its
business partners to ensure that all staff
are conversant with the needs of the various
parties.
Systems amendments and compatibility. As
indicated in "3. Partnership Working" above
the current systems will need to be modified
as appropriate to ensure reporting
requirements are met and that the data is
compatible with all parties' systems.
Legal Agreements. These will need to be
negotiated and entered into to ensure a
thorough understanding by all parties
concerned of their duties and
responsibilities.
Working practices. The Group will ensure
that client-working practices are
implemented. These first need to be defined
and then staff trained (see above) prior to
implementation.
Accommodation / Space planning. We will
ensure that the dedicated team works in an
efficient environment and so reorganisation
of the office will be required.
Consideration has already been given to this
issue however plans cannot be confirmed as
they will need to consider the working
practices and service standards agreed
between the parties.
Communication. The Group will arrange
appropriate facilities for telephone, fax,
e-mail and post. These will depend very much
on your requirements.
Brand issues. Should you require, we
will arrange for stationery to be branded
with your logo. In addition, amendments to
computer generated insurance policies and
telephone-answering methods will be tailored
to your requirements.
Each of the above areas will be worked on
concurrently and we are confident that the
issues can be addressed within the 30 days
time scale.
10. Technology
Atlas uses the Liberty X-32 system in its
administration process. This system has been
developed in conjunction with U.K. Solutions
who also produce Active Liberty a front-end
system for sales and distribution of Travel
Insurance.
The system is written using a Microsoft SQL
6.5 Server with a visual basic 6.0 front
end. This provides an extremely flexible and
scaleable solution to both our current and
future needs. By working closely with U.K.
Solutions we have the added benefit of
having access to industry leading solutions
that would normally only be available to
significantly larger companies.
The system is highly efficient and amongst
other things has the following features:
Personalised claims form production
Call Logging
Full claims reporting system e.g. by
agent, area, section, period,
amount, adjuster
Recoveries module
Multi-currency facility
Reserve facility
Risk Analysis
Data import and export facilities
Premium income Vs claims report to
show scheme profitability
As a result of our close links with U.K.
Solutions almost any client requirement
can be catered for within the system.The
system works over a network and is
flexible enough to deal with any volume
of insurance product and hence
unexpected increases in activity can be
dealt with easily by the system. The
multi-currency facility will ensure that
when the ECU is introduced that the
system will be able to cope with this.
We are able and U.K. Solutions are used to,
producing Interface Modules for our systems
to allow communication with both Principles
and Business Partners.
11. Customer Services
We fully understand the delicate issue of
Customer services in relation to Travel
Insurance Management.
As outlined previous all of our staff are
experienced and trained in dealing with
claimants in an understanding and empathetic
manner. This enhanced by regular meetings
between the dedicated team and Management
together with regular meetings with our
business partners. Early feedback for new
schemes will ensure that possible
improvements are highlighted and resolved at
the earliest opportunity and aid customer
service throughout the life of the scheme.
We will tailor our service to meet your
requirements, in addition to the
requirements of section 3 of this
presentation incorporate the following if
required:
Personalised call answering - both
to the client and claimant using our
technology and ISDN telephone line
technology.
FREEPHONE telephone number facility.
FREEPOST service for claim form
return.
Automated phone routing system.
E-mail claim facilities.
Customer service surveys.
Issue of ABI code of conduct at
point of issue of the policy.
Produce reports on levels of calls,
times of calls, and speed response.
Produce reports and analysis on the
level of claims, premium and speed
of response.
Payment of Claim by either cheque or
transfer.
In addition to the above there will be the
facility for you to have direct on-line or
off-line access to clients files on an
enquiry basis.
12. Claims Handling
The Atlas Claims team is very experienced
and has skills and knowledge gained from a
full understanding of the Travel Insurance
Market at different levels and capacities.
Apart from adjusting claims, Atlas Claims
regularly becomes involved in the review of
the policy wording. This involvement not
only provides feedback from claimant's
misunderstandings; it also assists in
gaining an understanding of the intent of
the wording on behalf of the underwriter and
distributor.
Atlas Claims produces personalised claims
forms from the system addressed to the
individual claimant and which only asks
questions related to the section of the
policy under which the claimant is claiming.
Claims are allocated a number at this point
and reserves entered into the system. This
facilitates tracking of claims and also
adjusting as a number of points can be dealt
with at the point of claim form request.
We liase and deal with appointed Medical
Assistance and Cost Containment Companies as
required and can assist with their
appointment if necessary. We recognises the
importance of the Assistance Company in the
whole process of medical care, customer
service and cost containment and will
therefore work together with the Assistance
company to ensure that the appropriate
service levels are not compromised.
13. Recoveries
Atlas Claims has a wealth of experience in
the area of recoveries. However we initially
concentrate our efforts on claim mitigation
rather than on obtaining recoveries, in this
way there is a cash flow benefit to the
insurer thereby reducing their involvement.
Of course, Atlas Claims would be happy to
pursue recoveries and reduce the necessity
for claimants to claim from other parties,
if required.
The level of recoveries to be achieved will
differ from account to account depending on
the type of trips covered and the profile of
travellers. In addition the claims
mitigation process will have an impact on
the level of recoveries. In all instances we
will ensure that the claims cost is reduced
as efficiently as possible.
The level of recoveries will also be
affected by the level of involvement, and
relationship, with the Assistance Company.
The Assistant Company can assist the process
of recoveries and claims mitigation in the
way it deals with the medical institutions
(particularly in the USA and Spain),
collection of excesses, purchase of flights
and many other areas.
14. Reporting
Our systems can be adapted as required by
you to report on any facet of the claims
handling process. The following areas can be
reported upon:
Claims reporting system e.g. by
scheme, product, area, section,
period, amount etc….
Customer service statistics e.g.
level of claims, speed of response.
Recoveries.
Reports can be run as frequently as
required and can be on both cumulative
and / or incremental basis. All claims
can be produced on paper, disk, or
downloaded as required.
15. Staff
We only employ highly qualified and
motivated staff, with regular 'on the job'
training undertaken and team meetings ensure
information and communication are
disseminated effectively. If necessary we
will operate a shift system to ensure that
the required hours of operation are met.As
mentioned in "4. Implementation Plan" the
company will supplement its team to provide
a dedicated team to deal with this contract.
In order to deal with short-term increases
in activity Atlas is developing a team of
Part time administration and adjusters.
These part time staff will be trained to
meet your requirements prior to them being
assigned to the dedicated team so that any
learning curve is minimised in the event
that their services are required.
We will discuss with you whether the upturn
in claims notifications is short term or
long term. In the event that the increased
is seen to be a permanent increase in
activity then recruitment will take place
accordingly.
16. Emergency Contingency Plan
The Group has detailed plans in event of a
disaster and routinely carries out duplicate
daily system back-ups. These backups are
then taken off site and transmitted by modem
to an alternative site as required.
We also have longstanding arrangements for
alternative accommodation and equipment to
ensure our business could be up and running
within 24 hours
The Group has a full 8 hour response
maintenance agreement with U.K. Solutions to
ensure systems are up and running in a
timely fashion should systems fail.
17. Telephone adjusting - Pilot scheme
Atlas Claims is equipped with the staff and
technology to provide an ideal platform for
a pilot scheme for telephone claims
adjusting.
The company already produces individually
tailored claims forms having taken details
from the telephone. This process is a very
important first step towards being able to
adjust claims over the phone. Travel claims
are high volume / low value and are
therefore ideal for an adjusting process of
this type.
18. Conclusion
The Atlas Group offers our partners the
ability to deliver added value its existing
and new customers. We operate within an
increasingly regulated market and excel in
conveying to the public and corporate bodies
by way of the web, display materials and an
informative call centre the complexity and
necessity of travel insurance protection.
A good, healthy and profitable relationship
between partners is achievable only by
delivering excellent service to the
partnerships mutual clients at all times and
this is Atlas's core objective when entering
any new business relationship.
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