Forsythe Ensures Smooth Dot-Com Reintegration

In 2000, CCC, a Chicago-based provider of claims processing services to the auto insurance industry, spun off DriveLogic as a dot-com subsidiary to handle the e-commerce side of its business.

But by mid-2001, CCC saw that it was spending more money on the spin-off than expected, and the overlap in CCC's and DriveLogic's services was confusing customers, said Jim Beattie, CTO of CCC.

The company decided to reel DriveLogic back in, but it needed help. That's when it turned to Forsythe Solutions Group, a solution provider in Skokie, Ill.

As CCC reintegrated DriveLogic, it realized that it needed not only to combine the companies' infrastructures but to justify them as well, said Beattie.

"Over time, as we experimented with new processes and technologies, we built an infrastructure that was eclectic," he said. "We felt we needed to bring in an outside organization to align our technology."

Right now, the solution provider is concentrating on bringing together and streamlining the companies' storage infrastructures, which will prove critical to the combined entity's operations.

CCC provides software and infrastructure that connect 350 insurance companies and 15,000 repair facilities, said Beattie. The company's Pathways application offers information on repair rates and parts pricing, and also allows insurance companies and repair shops to exchange information about claims and generate repair estimates. Those estimates, along with related claims documents such as photos, are sent to the insurance company, and in some cases CCC acts as a repository for the data.

First, Forsythe sold CCC on EMC as a storage infrastructure provider. Then it was time to negotiate with the vendor, said Eva Losacco, president of Forsythe.

"EMC does specific price quotes for equipment," she said. "Once the customer agreed on the [products, we had to go back and negotiate pricing and technology issues. EMC was cooperative in helping seal the deal."

Forsythe then put together a financial and transition plan for CCC, Losacco said.

Now the partners are looking at whether to expand CCC's off-site storage infrastructure or move toward a managed storage model, which would afford CCC some flexibility by reducing the need for capacity planning and preventing the company from being tied to a specific technology platform, said Losacco.

"Until now, we've been more server-focused than data storage-focused," Beattie said, adding that CCC owes the shift, in large part, to Forsythe, which has taken a big-picture approach to the customer's storage solution.

"I'm confident we got the deal [with CCC because we could provide the best solution today and because of our track record with them," Losacco said.

Next, Forsythe plans to consolidate CCC's and DriveLogic's servers.

"We expect to cut the number of servers so that we don't have so many smaller boxes," Beattie said. "But we don't anticipate that the type of implementation will change. We'll still have Microsoft, Unix and mainframe servers. We'll just reduce the footprint."

Insurance industry deployments, including ERP solutions, server consolidations and SAN implementations, account for about 27 percent of Forsythe's business, said Losacco.

While strong horizontal technical capabilities can be effective in penetrating any vertical market, knowledge of a specific industry helps solution providers communicate return-on-investment potential to customers, Losacco said.

"It's a lot easier to sell a solution if you have an understanding of a customer's business and industry, as well as related business issues and how to address them with technology," she said. "Also, the more experience you get, the better you get at it."