Setting up a Website for an Online Insurance Quotation System - Research Paper Example

Research on setting up a website for an online insurance quotation system The Project Proposal Introduction A number of online insurance quotation web sites are hosted by almost all the insurance companies. There are also agents of insurance companies who sell the plans of all the insurance companies in the market using these web sites. This allows the customers to compare the policies and plans offered at one place and take their decision in this regard. While certain other sites help in identifying the various possibly combinations that go into a plan and help the customer to choose the right combination that would cover his needs. At the same time, it would also propose which ever is the most optimal cost for the customer as well. This research is conducted on various web sites that make up the online insurance quotation system to identify the effectiveness as well as the extent to which they meet the key performance indexes that are identified. A suitable methodology has been designed to conduct this study; a survey is to be conducted with the users and with the employees managing it to know the exact feedback from the users and the customer support personnel. Using this results have been ascertained and presented. Aim and Objectives The main aim of the project is to conduct a research on the online insurance quotation system; their success and on the analysis and design of these systems. This would help in understanding how these web sites work, their human computer interface features and the design of the software. The objective would be to identify the various key performance indices that would improve by using this web site. These are mostly operational KPIs and their improvement after the launch of the web site is also identified to see the effectiveness. In order to arrive at these aims and objectives, the following methodology will be adopted. Methodology This research project will be executed using the following steps. 1. Literary Review 2. Identify KPIs that has to be measured 3. Conduct Survey 4. Analysis 5. Finally Conclusion. The steps have been described in the next section. PROJECT FEASIBILITY REPORT Need for feasibility studies: A feasibility analysis is essential for any project, to determine the success rate and the level of acceptance of the project. It requires that all factors influencing the proposed solution, be studied. Prior to committing to any large-scale investment, one would want the best information concerning the projects feasibility. This sort of an analysis enables one to validate whether the venture will be successful and if so, to what extent. One can also use it to attract increased investment. Many people fail to take cognisance of a feasibility study, but it is actually the most important thing one can do. Doing a feasibility study is akin to planning what can be done within a certain period of time, ensuring of course, the best possible results. Whether one undertakes a huge project that involves an investment of half a million dollars or on the other hand, tries to start out on something really small, there has to be a feasibility study done. Doing a feasibility report always brings this question to your mind: is a market survey the same as a feasibility report? There is no way you can confuse the two. A market survey will give you only a limited quantum of information, whereas a feasibility report is a more detailed one that gives you an indication of how the entire project will proceed and what activities can be completed in a pre-specified timeframe. The feasibility report also helps you get an indication of possible problems that may crop up, if the activities do not go as planned. Most feasibility reports, like this one, give an indication of the methodology that is to be followed to implement all the activities that are planned. When there is a brief explanation given about the methodologies to be followed, it becomes a lot easier, if there is a change in the stewardship of the project. In other words, if there is a change in the person who is planning to do the project, then a clear indication of the methodology would help the new person take over with as little disruption as possible. Giving a valid timeline is also a good way of ensuring that the project stays on track without any costly time delays. There is no doubt that delays cost money; hence any delay could prove to be more costly than anticipated. Adhering to time schedules is therefore the most important feature of any project that is undertaken. Finally, it is necessary to commission the project and then do an evaluation on how effective the same is. It would be wise to make detailed records of how the project operates and take corrective action, if and when necessary. Pre-planning stage: Since the main aim of the project in this case, is to set up a website for an online insurance quotation system, there needs be an in depth preliminary study of the insurance sector, vis-à-vis the online quotation system. It is certainly not necessary for one to know what business each insurance company is doing in a particular period of time; it is necessary however, to be informed about the number of people who generally enquire about an insurance policy or a complete package for his insurance needs, online. In earlier times, there was a tendency for people to visit an insurance company, meet a representative and gather all information regarding policies, schemes and so on. Today, the internet has become a quick source of information, from which you can get all you require, without having to move out of your seat. There is no doubt that the internet has brought about a revolution in the way businesses operate today. It would be essential therefore, to visit as many websites as possible that deal with insurance related quotes and queries online to get a fair idea of the kind of traffic that one could expect on such a website. Logging on to websites that are in some ways similar to what is being proposed, would give a few helpful tips on how to set up the proposed site. More importantly, it could offer useful insights on how not to set up the site. Brief description of steps to be taken during the planning stage: The following steps are described briefly to indicate the activities that will be carried out in the initial stages of the project: Introducing a great deal of text oriented content. This is to ensure that the page in question gets loaded as quickly as possible. Research on customers’ span of attention has revealed that if a particular website does not load in a timeframe of 20 seconds or less, the customer loses interest and moves on to some other site. This might not be the rule, but it is certainly the trend. Therefore care will be taken to ensure that images, audio and video inputs are kept to the bare minimum. This will be done so that the page in question loads on to the screen in less than 20 seconds. Hence software to install audio or visual files (such as Flash) will be avoided in the preliminary stage. Care will be taken to check whether the site is search engine friendly. This can be explained as follows: placement of keywords that are easy to find, will ensure that the site gets picked up by search engines, as quickly as possible. If for instance, the site is located on the first page as soon as you log on to the Google site, it is certainly better than trying to locate it on page nine or ten. Use of Content Management System (CMS) is also checked so as to ensure better accessibility. Without CMS, it might not be possible to efficiently set up a site. It is a lot easier to complete the entire process of content development and setting up the website with the right CMS. The reasons for choosing a particular kind of CMS will be specified; it is necessary to establish the right kind of CMS so that the web page or pages are dynamic and show data real time. Since there are different CMSs that one can choose from, such as Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress and so on, choosing the apt one is essential. This is verified in the course of the work. The Steps involved in the execution of the project will be: 1. Literary Review: This will involve a comprehensive study of the already conducted researches on the online insurance systems. The nature of design and analysis that was carried out; the requirements that were identified for the web site to fill. In addition to this, the literary review will also identify the key performance indexes that were used by the earlier researchers to quantify and qualify the performance of this web site. In addition to this, the results of these researches are also identified and tabulated for easy reference. However, during the proposal phase itself, some of the performance indexes are identified. A distinct methodology to identify the right metric that was employed by the earlier researchers for the purpose is also identified at this point in time. The major areas of work that will be checked during the study of earlier projects will be the conduction of the feasibility studies, identify the analysis methods that was employed in creating the right kind of web site for the purpose. The complete design and implementation will be carried out. Evaluation of the system carried out after or during the research will also be done. 2. Identifying KPIs: It is important that the key performance indexes are clearly identified and rated. In order to do so, all the factors that would affect the key performance indexes are identified. This will also bring about identifying the KPIs and also identify a suitable metric for the purpose. The metric will also stipulate the methodology to measure the KPIs and its possible values. Identifying KPIs will help in formulating the right kind of survey for the information you want. 3. Survey: A list of web sites that are catering to the insurance requirement will be identified. This will help in bringing about the right kind of people whose opinion is to be taken into consideration. In order to know the opinion of the people which will help us in identifying the right KPIs for the website, a survey will be carried out. This survey will cover all the factors that make the site a highly performing one. All the KPIs that were identified earlier will be covered in these surveys. A questionnaire will be designed for both qualitative and quantitative data collection. The quantitative data will be collected using the Likert’s scale. This will help in registering the opinion of the people on a questionnaire that will convert the answers into numeric values. This will help in easy processing of data and in conducting statistical analysis of the needs of the research. Qualitative data is collected in the second half of the questionnaire when the information provided is not quantifiable but quality statements. This will be taken care of using quality data analysis techniques during the analysis phase of the research. The data is collected and presented in either a spread sheet or in SPSS formats. The survey is also conducted using appropriate sampling methods. The sample of people selected will be uniformly distributed. They are classified on the top level as end users, agents and support personnel. From this level, they are further classified into large users who use it almost every day; medium users use the web site once every two to five days. Low users are the people who use it once every fortnight or less. These are the people who might be using it once every year even! The data is spread this way which will help in grouping data and then analyse the data based on the information thus obtained. KPIs from every group is taken for analysis and is used for drawing the conclusion. 4. Analysis and Conclusion Using the information that was collected during the survey from various sources, a detailed analysis is carried out. Statistical analysis is done on the information that is available quantitatively. Whereas with the information that are qualitative, a qualitative analysis is carried out to help in reaching the required conclusion so as to meet the objectives presented earlier. The aim and the objectives will thus be met in the course of the research. The choice of Key Performance Indicators The KPIs identified will cover the following areas of work. (1) Professional design and Human Computer Interface. This will be checked whether the standards are adhered to and what is the impact of a site that is close to standards on the end user community. Similarly, the ease of maintenance for the operating professionals and the impact of adhering to such HCI norms on them is also checked during the research. In order to bring about this, suitable indicators with measurable metrics are identified. Typical KPIs used are: a. Number of forms entered in a day’s work. b. Number of quotes given in a day’s work. c. Number of customers handled in a day. Such KPIs will help in bringing about a better understanding of the performance of the system with reference to the end users. Similarly, KPIs that will be employed for measuring the maintenance ease of the software will be: a. Number of code changes needed in a month. b. Time taken for every code change. This KPI will also help in identifying the professional design features and their adequacy for the maintenance phase of the product life cycle. (2) Ease of use The other major area of user concern is that of Ease of use. This will be a major deterrent to those people who are used to very comfortable and easy to use desktop systems. When they migrate to the web based quote system, the convenience that the user experiences should be identified and measured. This could be in the form of time saving, cost saving and in the form of ease of reach. In all these cases, the factors could be beneficial. KPIs have to be decided based on these parameters. Typical KPIs could be the following: a. Time to get a quote b. Cost of getting one quote on the user side c. Cost of producing a quote on the insurance company side d. Time taken to request for a quote (3) Security measures There could be number of security measures that could be taken up to ensure appropriate usage by the customers. In order to ensure that the quote is given to the right kind of person and not to any body else, proper security measures need to be in place. In order to ensure that the security steps taken are adequate and would safe guard the interests of the customer, suitable KPIs could be designed and the same could be measured. In the course of this work, there is also a possibility that some of these KPIs could be motivating people to log on to the quotation system rather than go for manual systems. Typical KPIs could be the following: a. Number of Security breaches in one year. b. Number of Virus infection in one year. (4) Reliability The reliability of the web site is always scrutinised. The uptime of the site as well as the right operation of the site is both important for the site to be useful to the company as well as to the customers. In the course of the normal operation, the server down time could turn down a number of online visitors who otherwise might have got the quote that they wanted. In order to ensure that the server is highly reliable and the database is also equally reliable appropriate measures have to be taken to ensure that the server uptime is over 99%. Many servers today on the net offer almost one hundred percent uptime. This they are able to provide using appropriate machine maintenance routines and standby servers to ensure that a similar machine with all the mirrored data come on line within seconds of the other system going down. Typical, key performance indexes that are employed are: a. Uptime percentage for a period or month or year. b. Software Failure rate in a given period or month or year. These are typical examples of the metrics that will be employed to measure the performance of the web site. This will also help in identifying the number of failures that are noticed in the software; possible rate of mal-operations. This will help in judging the quantum of failures noted and hence the performance of the software and the web site as a whole. Conclusion The software design on the online insurance quote system is checked and the ease of use and other such features are also verified for the purpose. This will ensure that the software and the web site are conducive to effective operation. This research would establish the advantages and disadvantages of the system. The project plan for the entire research project is shown in the attached sheet. This gives both the work breakdown structure as well as the Gantt Chart to pick up the right kind of information. WBS at this level will be further broken down when the actual project is done to ensure that the project is strictly time bound and every one of the jobs is executed as needed. The project plan is provided in the annexure along with the schedule for execution of jobs. The project is clearly feasible and can be completed with in the time frame mentioned in the Gantt Chart enclosed. Annexure Read More