Iowa HMO selects IntraNet Solutions

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa, one of the biggest health management organizations in the U.S., will use IntraNet Solutions' Intra.doc Web-based document management system to publish customer service and technical processing manuals on its corporate intranet. Putting the thirty manuals (approximately 2 million pieces of paper) online will make information immediately available to Wellmark's customer service representatives, allowing the call center to handle more inquiries and service more customers. The system offers capabilities for creating and managing secure business libraries with check-in and check-out functions, revision control and automatic format conversions to Adobe PDF for quality printing. Future plans call for implementing an extranet using the Intra.doc system, for third-party providers who produce policy and benefit manuals off-site and sell them to Wellmark.

"We were already authoring documents in Word and storing them on the network," said Doug Whicker, Web Services Project Leader for Wellmark. With the new system, company employees "can check documents into the central repository and share all of our collective knowledge immediately." The system allows Wellmark to deliver more value to its customers, while streamlining the internal delivery of information content. "In a competitive industry such as ours, where servicing customers is our highest priority, a system such as this helps us to leverage the knowledge found within our walls for the people who need it the most ­ our valued customers." However, Whicker added that "the biggest business need this is fulfilling is eliminated paper manuals and saving everyone time and money.