Mr. Chris Robison

Speaker Photo: Chris Robison
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Chris Robison

Vice President, Technology

HealthMarkets Agency Marketing Group
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Chris Robison has over 12 years experience in IT consulting and software development.During his last 8 years, Mr. Robison has been focused on developing proprietary product configurators for companies in telecom, cable TV, online retail, and now health insurance.During Mr. Robison's tenure at HealthMarkets, his technology group has revolutionized software development and support processes by championing the role of BRMS in the full SDLC.

"We can make business rule changes within minutes that used to take a change management process," says Chris Robison, vice president of IT for the Agency Marketing Group at HealthMarkets.

The Haley system gives HealthMarkets a shared business rule repository that will reduce duplicate business logic throughout multiple applications."Utilizing a business rules engine has changed my outlook on architecture," Robison says.

Back in March of this year, Chris Robison, the VP of Technology at HealthMarkets, got called into a meeting in which management requested a special e-business application."There was a need to create a dashboard-like portal for agents," he recalls."They wanted it deployed in July."

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Given the deadline, Robison knew one thing right off the bat."I didn't want to have to build the framework."The best way to avoid this cost and complexity, while simultaneously getting flexible technology, was through open source.Robison saw Liferay mentioned in a Gartner Research brief and got in touch with the company.

Robison was impressed with Liferay's implementation consultants."They were some of the best Java consultants I've ever run across," he says.
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"Management felt there wasn't enough data for them to make good decisions," says Robison, harking back to the topline driver.

Health Markets was able to use Liferay to set up dashboards to address this lacuna in business information.For example, there is a portlet that tracks customer complaints ascribed to each selling agent.In the past, complains (whether by mail, e-mail, or telephone) would be collated by the customer service department, which would then work with individual agents to get the problem resolved."Management typically wouldn't see the complaint," says Robison, identifying the glaring weakness in the legacy process.

Now, complaints appear on managers' dashboards, allowing them to see complaints in timeframes of 3, 6, and 9 months.That kind of time-based view gives managers the ability to be proactive about catching and addressing problems."They can see if there's a need to retrain an agent, or if they're doing the pitch wrong," says Robison, by way of example.
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"There's a role for each hierarchy, like for districts, regional directors, and home offices," explains Robison."You can only see downwards from your hierarchy."

HealthMarkets' mandate was to get a portal up and running -- quickly.But when asked if HealthMarkets will eventually outgrow Liferay, Robison said, "In all honesty, I think so."For example, Health Markets uses Liferay to distribute 25,000 leads a week to salespeople, and "the performance at that level isn't quite where we want it," according to Robison."When we more to larger, more transactional systems, we'll probably have to switch [portals]."

That said, the fact that Liferay -- a free open source product -- could carry HeathMarkets so far is remarkable in itself."It did an extremely good job of getting us running and customized," concludes Robison.

Back in March of this year, Chris Robison, the VP of Technology at HealthMarkets, got called into a meeting in which management requested a special e-business application."There was a need to create a dashboard-like portal for agents," he recalls."They wanted it deployed in July."

Given the deadline, Robison knew one thing right off the bat."I didn't want to have to build the framework."The best way to avoid this cost and complexity, while simultaneously getting flexible technology, was through open source.Robison saw Liferay mentioned in a Gartner Research brief and got in touch with the company.

Robison was impressed with Liferay's implementation consultants."They were some of the best Java consultants I've ever run across," he says.
...
"Management felt there wasn't enough data for them to make good decisions," says Robison, harking back to the topline driver.

Health Markets was able to use Liferay to set up dashboards to address this lacuna in business information.For example, there is a portlet that tracks customer complaints ascribed to each selling agent.In the past, complains (whether by mail, e-mail, or telephone) would be collated by the customer service department, which would then work with individual agents to get the problem resolved."Management typically wouldn't see the complaint," says Robison, identifying the glaring weakness in the legacy process.

Now, complaints appear on managers' dashboards, allowing them to see complaints in timeframes of 3, 6, and 9 months.That kind of time-based view gives managers the ability to be proactive about catching and addressing problems."They can see if there's a need to retrain an agent, or if they're doing the pitch wrong," says Robison, by way of example.
...
"There's a role for each hierarchy, like for districts, regional directors, and home offices," explains Robison."You can only see downwards from your hierarchy."

HealthMarkets' mandate was to get a portal up and running -- quickly.But when asked if HealthMarkets will eventually outgrow Liferay, Robison said, "In all honesty, I think so."For example, Health Markets uses Liferay to distribute 25,000 leads a week to salespeople, and "the performance at that level isn't quite where we want it," according to Robison."When we more to larger, more transactional systems, we'll probably have to switch [portals]."

That said, the fact that Liferay -- a free open source product -- could carry HeathMarkets so far is remarkable in itself."It did an extremely good job of getting us running and customized," concludes Robison.

Find this article at: http://www.portalsmag.com/articles/default.asp?articleid=8067

Back in March of this year, Chris Robison, the VP of Technology at HealthMarkets, got called into a meeting in which management requested a special e-business application."There was a need to create a dashboard-like portal for agents," he recalls.
...
Given the deadline, Robison knew one thing right off the bat."I didn't want to have to build the framework."The best way to avoid this cost and complexity, while simultaneously getting flexible technology, was through open source.Robison saw Liferay mentioned in a Gartner Research brief and got in touch with the company.

Robison was impressed with Liferay's implementation consultants."They were some of the best Java consultants I've ever run across," he says.
...
"Management felt there wasn't enough data for them to make good decisions," says Robison, harking back to the topline driver.

Health Markets was able to use Liferay to set up dashboards to address this lacuna in business information.For example, there is a portlet that tracks customer complaints ascribed to each selling agent.In the past, complains (whether by mail, e-mail, or telephone) would be collated by the customer service department, which would then work with individual agents to get the problem resolved."Management typically wouldn't see the complaint," says Robison, identifying the glaring weakness in the legacy process.

Now, complaints appear on managers' dashboards, allowing them to see complaints in timeframes of 3, 6, and 9 months.That kind of time-based view gives managers the ability to be proactive about catching and addressing problems."They can see if there's a need to retrain an agent, or if they're doing the pitch wrong," says Robison, by way of example.
...
"There's a role for each hierarchy, like for districts, regional directors, and home offices," explains Robison."You can only see downwards from your hierarchy."

HealthMarkets' mandate was to get a portal up and running -- quickly.But when asked if HealthMarkets will eventually outgrow Liferay, Robison said, "In all honesty, I think so."For example, Health Markets uses Liferay to distribute 25,000 leads a week to salespeople, and "the performance at that level isn't quite where we want it," according to Robison."When we more to larger, more transactional systems, we'll probably have to switch [portals]."

That said, the fact that Liferay -- a free open source product -- could carry HeathMarkets so far is remarkable in itself."It did an extremely good job of getting us running and customized," concludes Robison.