"Just do it"

Rough Notes, Oct 1999 by Doucette, Nancy

An athletic equipment company's slogan aptly defines Delphi Information Systems' new president and how he's conveying his Internet philosophy to the insurance industry

"You can't cross the Grand Canyon by taking small steps."

-Wendy Goldstein

'Pushing the envelope" is how some people live their lives-- constantly exceeding the limits of what is normally done, being innovative. For instance, taking a foreign-manufactured computer hardware product and introducing it to a highly regulated economy that serves a population of over 800 million people who reside in 23 states, and who speak some 49 different languages and 544 dialects. Robin Raina did just that when he introduced Dell Computers in India in 1991. Having grown up in India, Raina was familiar with the economy, the people and the language issues. Eighteen months after Raina took on the responsibilities of brand positioning and creating the marketing/operations plan, Dell Computer had become the number one brand in India.

Robin Raina doesn't shy away from big jobs. His credentials include other marketing and management masterstrokes, including stabilizing the infrastructure of Mindware, a software conglomerate with operations in seven countries. That accomplished, he moved to Singapore to establish a new subsidiary for the conglomerate. Within 18 months, Raina had 125 software professionals in place and the subsidiarv was doing well financially.

Raina then moved back into the electronic contract manufacturing industry to work for a sister company to Mindware-a move that brought him to Charlotte, North Carolina. While he was there, Delphi Information Systems contacted him to provide a reference for a colleague. In a classic "one thing led to another" situation, both Raina and his colleague joined Delphi Information Systems. It was November 1997.

Delphi hired Robin Raina as vice president of professional services. One of his goals was to expand the vendor's consulting group. But while preparing to do so, he realized his understanding of the insurance industry was almost exclusively from the perspective of a consumer. This realization germinated into a business goal. "I wanted to take Delphi toward the consumer side and help Delphi better understand what the consumer wants. In turn, we could better develop the right system for agencies and carriers," he explains.

Raina's responsibilities and titles changed quickly as he fortified Delphi's sagging infrastructure. He inaugurated his "reconstruction" project by reforming support operations. "I wanted customers to feel the effect of a rejuvenated organization," he notes. Although support staff was cut sizably, Delphi now offers around-the-clock support.

Within two months of joining Delphi, Raina was named senior vice president and was handling U.S. sales, international operations (for Delphi's subsidiaries located in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, London and Singapore), marketing, communications, support, consulting and training. By February 1998, he had been named chief operations officer. And by August 1999, he had been named president. With his taking over the presidency of Delphi Information Systems, Raina will be able to continue to strengthen the vendor's position in the marketplace with Internet-enabled products, a one-of-its kind insurance e-commerce portal and a newly announced strategic partnership.

"There will be a major thrust on the Internet side," he says. "I've always believed in the power of the Internet and its economies of scale."

At the forefront of Delphi's Internet acceleration effort is ebix.com. "ebix is a dream that I've lived for a year-and-a-half," Raina explains. "Our first step was the ebix.link product (introduced in January 1999)-our business-to-- business tool that streamlines data flow between agents and carriers on large commercial accounts. My vision of ebix was more than just ebix.link, though. I wanted to take Delphi into a more diversified role-making Delphi an Internet player-executing its Internet vision. By leveraging the strengths of Delphi as an agency management system vendor, we can become a company that offers agencies value in terms of insurance content and becoming a prospect generation engine for them-- becoming a revenue source for agencies. And also offering consumers a way to get competitive quotes in a quick, productive manner."

ebix is an acronym for "electronic brokers & insurers express." Raina defines ebix.com as "an e-commerce portal for insurance-a one-stop site for consumers and insurance professionals." In addition to ebix.link, mentioned above, a second e-commerce "window" at the ebix.com portal was launched in September 1999: ebix.mall. ebix.mall is an "Internet insurance exchange," according to Raina, where consumers can solicit bids for personal lines coverages-homeowners (including condo and renters insurance), auto, health and life. (Commercial lines will be added in December.) Consumers visit ebix.mall, define their policy coverages and the timeframe for receiving quotes (ranging from one to three days). Rather than merely engaging a rating engine, Raina says ebix.mall leverages the spirit of competition on which independent agents thrive. Here's how ...