Liberty Life Insurance Equips 1,200 Agents with Pen Computers from Fujitsu Personal Systems
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — June 22, 1998 — Fujitsu Personal Systems Inc. (FPSI) today announced that Greenville, S.C.-based Liberty Life Insurance is using Stylistic pen computers to provide its field sales force with a powerful suite of sales and service tools.
Designed to increase the productivity of Liberty's agents, these tools include a customer information system, sales prospecting and rate calculations. The tools are integrated with Liberty's award-winning customer needs tool — the PriorityProfile(R) — into a complete mobile computing solution called the PriorityPad(SM).
Working with KPMG Consulting and FPSI, Liberty devised the PriorityPad system to strengthen customer interactions, drive an enhanced sales process and streamline communications.
"This solution allows customer information to flow directly between our home office and agents. This immediate access to information allows the agent to use our sales and service tools to better serve the needs of current and potential customers," said Earl Bramwell, Liberty's senior vice president of Agency Re-engineering.
The PriorityPad system complements the natural interaction between agents and customers. This includes capturing leads in the prospect database, scheduling appointments, determining customer needs, calculating insurance premiums and accessing customer information. At the heart of the system is the PriorityProfile program, which allows the agent to immediately customize a solution that precisely matches a customer's insurance needs.
Agents dial in at night to upload information from the PriorityPad to the home office computer and to receive updated customer information, changes to product interest rates, and new sales and service tools. The nightly dial-in process also permits Liberty to broadcast messages to the PriorityPad, assuring that all agents quickly and conveniently receive the latest information.
Commented Bramwell, "We needed a platform to meet Liberty's current and future needs, so we looked carefully for the right system. We knew our agents would quickly adapt to the pen interface of the Stylistic 1000(TM). The familiarity of the interface, along with the power of the Stylistic pen computer, supported our roll-out of sales and service tools to all our agents."
"Liberty Life's application demanded an easy-to-use, yet high performance computer — a perfect fit for our Stylistic pen tablets," stated Geoff Walker, vice president of marketing at Fujitsu Personal Systems. "The Stylistic's standard PC architecture and three-year product warranty ensure that Liberty Life has a clear upgrade path for any future program enhancements."
The PriorityPad system consists of a Stylistic 1000 pen computer, a Hayes modem and a Hewlett Packard DeskJet 340 printer housed in a custom carrying case. Systematic rollout to Liberty Life's 1,200 agents in nearly 50 district offices was completed by Thanksgiving 1997.
About Liberty Life
Founded in 1905, Liberty Life Insurance provides a broad range of life and health insurance policies. Its Agency division markets insurance through 1,200 agents primarily in a 10-state area. Liberty Life is a subsidiary of The Liberty Corp., (NYSE:LC), a Greenville-based holding company with operations in insurance and broadcasting.
About KPMG Consulting
KPMG Consulting, part of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP, offers a wide range of strategies, products and end-to-end solutions to help companies enhance their business performance, competitive standing and shareholder value. KPMG Consulting's worldwide reach positions it well to assist companies facing global business challenges and technological change.
Ranked as one of the largest consulting services internationally, KPMG Consulting has more than 13,000 consultants in 153 countries and 839 cities worldwide. In the United States, KPMG Consulting represents the largest and fastest growing faction of KPMG, with a record growth of 37 percent in 1997 alone.
About Fujitsu Personal Systems
Fujitsu Personal Systems Inc. (FPSI) is the undisputed leader in the Windows pen tablet market. The company's mission is to extend the benefits of Working Mobility to the broadest possible base of workers.
FPSI focuses on mobile decision support applications for large organizations and government institutions and is supported by a worldwide network of certified VARs and system integrators. FPSI's state-of-the-art pen tablet PCs feature advanced CPU performance, extensive connectivity options and long battery life in compact, lightweight form-factors.
Fujitsu Personal Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, a leading information technology provider with global revenues of $ 37.7 billion. FPSI (408/982-9500) has headquarters in Santa Clara and offices throughout North America and Europe. Product information is available at 800/831-3183 or http://www.fpsi.fujitsu.com.
Stylistic 1000 and Working Mobility are trademarks of Fujitsu Personal Systems Inc. PriorityPad and Priority Profile are service marks or registered service marks of Liberty Corporation. All other items noted herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
CONTACT:
Fujitsu Personal Systems Inc.
Tom Bayens, 408/982-9500
thomas_bayens@fpsi.fujitsu.com
or
Sterling Communications Inc.
Alice Aoki, 408/441-4100
aya@sterlingpr.com