HUB International is a leading global insurance brokerage headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. With over 18,000 employees and more than 540 offices across North America, HUB is one of the largest insurance brokers in the world. The company provides a wide range of insurance, risk management, and employee benefits solutions tailored to businesses, individuals, and organizations across various industries.
Why Did We Start the Project?
The Challenge
HUB International faced challenges with their legacy application, which was used to manage insurance enrollment for students at schools. Key operations in the enrollment and waiver process were handled manually after the intake of the student information. Having to perform activities, such as sending email updates by hand, lead to inefficiencies and longer lead time to complete a submission. Additionally, the dated look of the application led to cases where students were hesitant to enter in their sensitive information during the enrollment and waiver period and students also had trouble using the application on mobile devices.
HUB International’s IT team had worked with Marcel Digital on previous web applications and trusted our expertise. They recognized Marcel’s capacity to execute complex web development projects, making us the ideal partner to rebuild HUB’s student portal.
What's Going On?
The Analysis
Our approach to this project was rooted in deep collaboration between our teams. We began by assessing the pain points—the outdated UI, manual workflows, and lack of mobile friendly interfaces. Our team of developers, project managers, and designers worked closely with HUB’s team to ensure that the solutions we proposed would address these issues while offering flexibility for diverse schools with different needs.
We held multiple discussions to refine the requirements, ensuring the system would be adaptable to each institution’s specific needs, such as single sign-on capabilities and customizable waiver questions. This thorough analysis helped us break down the project into manageable stages and align the solution with HUB’s goals.
How Did Marcel Digital Help?
The Solution
Our primary goal was to redesign the student portal with a modern, user-friendly interface while automating key processes. The first objective was to create an enrollment wizard that guided students step-by-step through the process, giving them confidence that they were entering their information correctly. The system also provided students with updates on the status of their enrollment without the need to contact HUB, which significantly reduced uncertainty.
On the administrative side, we aimed to automate as much of the workflow as possible. Submissions were placed into a queue to be processed by HUB employees, with automated notifications sent to students to inform them of any issues with their enrollments or waivers. This streamlined the process, allowing administrators to focus on reviewing the most critical cases.
One of the challenges was ensuring that the system could accommodate the varied needs of different schools. Some institutions required students to log in using single sign-on, while others had different mechanisms. Additionally, some schools needed to collect additional information or ask unique questions in the submission process. We designed the platform to be flexible, allowing HUB to adjust the process based on the needs of each school, which was managed through a centralized admin interface.
What Happened After?
The Results
The new student portal successfully addressed HUB International’s challenges by providing a modern, trustworthy interface for students and an automated, efficient process for administrators. Students now felt confident using the portal due to its intuitive design, which led to fewer questions and issues during the submission process. On the administrative side, HUB employees were able to process enrollments and waivers much more quickly, thanks to the automation of tasks like notifications and status updates.
The primary outcomes of the project included a significant reduction in processing times for waivers and enrollments, which allowed HUB’s team to handle a larger volume of submissions without increasing administrative overhead. The flexible nature of the portal also ensured it could scale to meet the needs of different schools, making it easier for HUB to work with a wide range of institutions and pleasing their current partners.
Ultimately, the project reinforced HUB International’s reputation as a leader in innovation. The new student insurance portal streamlined the workflow for administrators, increased user confidence, and showcased HUB’s ongoing commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions for both clients and employees.
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