State First is a Fortune 500 insurance company that has specialized in writing liability, physical damage and motor truck cargo for the nation's transportation industry since the early fifties. It
also provides liability and physical damage insurance for various classes of business and public.
auto including contractor fleets, waste haulers, dump trucks, limousines and airport shuttle
vans. In addition, it provides professional liability coverage for accounting firms, architect
and engineer firms, hospitality and lodging, law firms, and restaurants. The company has field
offices throughout the country. The corporate claims department is staffed with experienced
liability, cargo, and heavy equipment physical damage specialists to provide the best
professional claims service possible. The company provides 24 hour telephone access to its
field offices for adjusters for those claims which occur after normal business hours. The
company has more than 30,000 full-time employees and more than 7,500 part-time employees.
The State First has recently updated its strategic plan, and key goals include reducing internal
costs, increasing cross-selling, and exploiting new Web-based technologies to help employees,
customers, agents, and suppliers work together to improve the development and delivery of its
insurance products and services. Given below are summaries of four project ideas the
Information Technology department has developed for supporting these strategic goals:
A. Automated Claim Processing System: Develop an automated system to replace the current