AEGIS thought of its systems challenges as fundamentally a problem of process change and automation, and as such began to look at business process management solutions, (Steven) Smith says, noting that the carrier explored Cambridge, Mass.-based Pegasystems' offering and saw its potential for simplifying the AEGIS IT organization. "We took a look at the tools stack and saw that we could do much more than simply modernize underwriting," he says. "We saw the potential for leveraging a single tool across the entire enterprise."

AEGIS is now about halfway through a roughly $5 million transformation effort that began with its underwriting capabilities, according to Smith. The carrier is up and running with its directors and officers (D&O) business following an eight-month project and anticipates going live with the rest of its underwriting capabilities before the end of 2012, he reports.

Smith stresses that the initiative is not a case of using BPM to put an attractive front end on legacy capabilities. "This is a pure rip-and-gut; we are doing everything in the Pega system -- quoting, rating, binding, endorsements -- soup to nuts," explains Smith.