SUCCESS STORY
Bankers Insurance
Industry• Insurance

Solution• OpenText™ Fax2Mail™

Insurance agency reduces costs
and improves productivity with
Cloud Messaging from OpenText

Bankers Insurance uses OpenText Fax2Mail for cloud-based fax services

Results
Eliminated telecom charges,
software fees and maintenancewith a 100% cloud-based solution
Greater reliability, availability
and security
Improved productivity with
reduced cycle times
Industry-standard encryption
and data security“We love the simplicity ofOpenText Fax2Mail. Not
having to install software andmanage and deploy upgradeswas a big driver for us.”EJ Fogarty

Director of Information Technology
Bankers InsuranceInsurance agency reduces costs and improves productivity with Cloud Messaging from OpenText

Bankers Insurance was formed in 1999 by a consortium ofcommunity banks throughout Virginia. Bankers Insurance now
operates in 18 communities throughout Virginia and North
Carolina, offering commercial, personal and employee benefits
insurance. With more than 200 insurance professionals, Bankers
Insurance is currently the 5th largest insurance agency based inVirginia and the 93rd largest insurance agency in the United States.
At Bankers Insurance, the client comes first. Even in today’s
challenging economic times, the company strives to delivercomprehensive and competitively priced insurance products
through financially strong insurance companies. Over the years,
Bankers Insurance acquired multiple independent insurance agencies.
Integrating acquired companies can be challenging from both anoperational and a client perspective. Bankers Insurance, however,is committed to maintaining the dedicated service level of a small
agency, backed by large agency resources. As the director of
information technology (IT) at Bankers Insurance, EJ Fogarty has
spent many years supporting that commitment to client service
through operational and strategic IT initiatives, such as the recent
move to OpenText™ Fax2Mail™.

Challenge
In 2013, Bankers Insurance switched to a new agency management
system to handle its operations. But the fax offering through thisnew line-of-business system was limited. The previous application
had a fax server that the company used primarily for outboundfaxing. Since faxing continues to be an important part of operations
at Bankers Insurance, Fogarty saw an opportunity to ease the ITburden, improve employee efficiencies and reduce costs by moving
to an email-based faxing solution.

Cloud-based fax messaging—secure, reliable and easy to use
Bankers Insurance had several requirements for a new fax
solution, beginning with the cloud. Fogarty saw a cloud-based
solution as a way to address several major concerns, one ofwhich was disaster recovery. “The existing solution wasn’t very
recoverable because it was a physical line going to a physicalserver,” he explained.
By taking the fax service to the cloud and avoiding the installationand maintenance of software, Bankers Insurance could also free
up valuable IT time and money. Moreover, Fogarty hoped to solvea problem that arose when the company switched the main lineof-business application. Bankers Insurance was using a cloudbased customer self-service portal for insurance certificates.
“The existing solution was expensive. We had to pay for thephysical fax lines, as well as maintenance for the server
equipment. We also wanted our new fax solution to be able tofunction with our customer portal solution,” explained Fogarty.
Security was also at the top of the list of requirements. “If we weregoing to use email to fax, we needed the necessary encryption.
We needed to know that whatever we were faxing was protectedjust like a normal fax would be, when it comes to any HIPAA [Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act] or BII [Business
Identifiable Information] guidelines,” added Fogarty.
Not to be overlooked were other key solution requirements such as
management and usability. From an IT perspective, Fogarty wanted
a product that would allow them to have central administration ofusers and, from a user perspective, the solution needed to help
improve staff productivity.

“Getting the rightkind of security
documentation fromvendors was difficult,
but OpenText wasable to provide us
with the necessary
kind of support on
encryption and data
center security.”
EJ Fogarty

Director of Information
TechnologyBankers InsuranceInsurance agency reduces costs and improves productivity with Cloud Messaging from OpenText

Solution
Fogarty described the process of finding a solution to meet theirrequirements: “We went out and searched and it was a difficult
process for us to find the right vendor. We went through a lot ofvendors.” Bankers Insurance ultimately chose the OpenText Clouddesktop fax service, OpenText Fax2Mail. Fax2Mail is a cloud emailbased faxing service that allows companies to receive and send faxes
as electronic messages directly from their email accounts.
Greater security, reliability and availability via cloud computing
Fogarty checked off the reasons for choosing OpenText: secure,cloud-based, disaster recovery. “Getting the right kind of security
documentation from vendors was difficult, but OpenText was ableto provide us with the necessary kind of support on encryption anddata center security.” Fax2Mail uses industry-standard encryption,
redundant systems and components that are in place for security
and backup service. The solution is supported by a network ofmultiple geographically diverse data centers that provide service
availability 365 days a year. The cloud-based solution will safeguard
the company’s fax services in the event of a disaster, ensuring
uninterrupted service anywhere at any time.
Since the product is email-based, the company did not need to install
software on the user machines. “We love the simplicity of Fax2Mail.
Not having to install software and manage and deploy upgrades
was a big driver for us,” noted Fogarty.
Also important was that Fax2Mail could work with their insurance
certificate portal application. “That was another big sell for us,” said
Fogarty. “It makes that process a lot cheaper because we havestaff that will still utilize that cloud-based application to send
certificates to clients. They log on to that portal when a client needsa certificate of insurance and they can use the Fax2Mail solution.”
Easy to use for staff and administrators
Fax2Mail management and usability also stood out over the otherproducts that Bankers Insurance looked at—centralized administration,
reporting, user management, cover sheet management, billing
attributes as well as delivery report options. Fogarty wanted a solutionthat was quick and easy for users. “We wanted to simplify as muchas possible. Need to send a fax? Just put the fax number in at
Fax2Mail and off you go,” he explained.
A product feature that was particularly popular was the way
Fax2Mail processed fax confirmations, by confirming message
details and providing a thumbnail of the cover page in theconfirmation. “Users really liked that because that way thepeople who send faxes back can attach that confirmation backinto the client record. Some of the other solutions did not offerthat level of detail in the fax confirmations. That was anothernice feature that Fax2Mail had,” said Fogarty.

Implementation
With a cloud and email-based faxing solution like Fax2Mail, deployment
was simple and users were quickly able to receive and send faxes directly
within their email accounts. Most outbound and inbound faxing at Bankers
Insurance now uses Fax2Mail. For example, inbound faxes now come inthrough a main fax number and are consolidated into one mailbox, where
they are then routed to the appropriate staff. Fogarty explained: “Theyprocess the faxes that come in from the inbound side in email. They

“Initially, we
hoped just to
break even on
cost or at least
not increase
cost that much.
But we’ve ended
up drasticallyreducing ourcosts withFax2Mail.”
EJ Fogarty

Director of Information
Technology
Bankers InsuranceInsurance agency reduces costs and improves productivity with Cloud Messaging from OpenTextprocess it right in our system—they take that email and put it in oursystem as an open activity.” With Fax2Mail, the electronic messages canalso be securely archived and are available for audit.

Benefits
Eliminating fax infrastructure costs and complexity
While cost reduction was not the primary driver for Bankers Insurance,
Fogarty is pleased that the Fax2Mail solution has saved the company
money. “Initially, we hoped just to break even on cost or at least notincrease cost that much. But we’ve ended up drastically reducing
our costs with Fax2Mail,” he explained.
Bankers Insurance no longer incurs the ongoing cost of maintaining
physical fax lines, long-distance charges and supporting theserver and software. “Looking at our old telephone bills, weaveraged around $450/month in phone line costs alone. Software
maintenance on the fax server was approximately $1500/year. All
said, it was roughly $6900/year plus IT support time, which wasmuch more than it is now,” estimated Fogarty.
Reliable cloud messaging network
Fogarty sees major benefits in the cloud-based fax solution. “Interms of disaster recovery, the recoverability is great, as is thefact that it frees up our IT folks because they’re not supporting
the back end for the solution. It’s just way easier with this solution
than it was before and the reliability is great. We have found that
OpenText Fax2Mail works very well in the cloud and we’re very
comfortable using it.”

Improved productivity and efficiencies
In addition to cost savings, Bankers Insurance also experiences IT timesavings with Fax2Mail—administrators can quickly provide fax numbers
directly to users. “I love that I can set up fax numbers easily,” said
Fogarty. “For example, if HR needs a private fax number for inbound or
they have a new hire who needs their own fax number, I can set thatup and assign a fax number to them very quickly. It’s so efficient—
you can’t even compare it to the old way of calling a phone provider to
get a new phone line or new phone number.”
Beyond the IT benefits of the solution, end users have also embraced
Fax2Mail. “I love OpenText Fax2Mail, it’s very easy to use andmakes sending faxes a much simpler process,” said DesireeAdams, Group benefits account manager at Bankers Insurance. Anais
McCrickard, personal insurance account manager, echoed thatstatement: “OpenText Fax2Mail helps with my workflows thatinvolve faxing. It’s very quick and easy to use.”

FutureWith the success of solutions like OpenText Fax2Mail in the OpenText
Cloud, Fogarty knows that he is on the right track when it comesto technology initiatives that can help Bankers Insurance meet its
commitments. Looking to the future, he is considering further
cloud-based activities, which, like Fax2Mail, can reduce the IT
footprint, decrease costs and ultimately serve clients more efficiently.

About OpenText
OpenText, The Information Company,
enables organizations to gain insight
through market leading information
management solutions, on-premises orin the cloud. For more information about
OpenText (NASDAQ: OTEX, TSX: OTEX)
visit opentext.com.
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