HISTORY

In the 1950s, New York Life adopted BIZMAC computing technology to speed up policy processing, reduce clerical work and support employees.

Highlights

• New York Life began planning for electronic data processing in 1953, years before microchips transformed computing.
• BIZMAC cut some processes from weeks or months to days while taking over repetitive clerical work.
• Employees helped turn the enormous new machines into practical tools for serving millions of policy owners.

Long before laptops fit in a backpack — or microchips even existed — New York Life was preparing to install a computer that could weigh more than 26,000 pounds and use as many as 30,000 vacuum tubes.

The BIZMAC system was enormous. But the problem New York Life wanted it to solve sounds familiar today: How could technology handle repetitive tasks faster while freeing employees to focus on work that required more of their skills?

Employees help bring BIZMAC to life

Planning began in 1953, when then-Assistant Vice President Fred M. Rom formed an electronic research team to determine whether the Comptroller’s Department could use electronic equipment for routine clerical work.

After years of study, New York Life signed a contract with RCA in 1957 for five BIZMAC computers. The company was also acquiring IBM computers for the Actuarial Department.

Preparing for BIZMAC required more than plugging in a machine. New York Life rearranged office space, determined which processes would move to the system and trained employees as analysts and programmers. In January 1958, 150 employees from several departments moved into 25,000 square feet at 23 East 26th Street to prepare for the installation.

Comptroller’s Department employees Gloria Stabile and Bernadette O’Hare were among those who helped make sure the system’s routines worked accurately. “They were the people who got this project off the ground,” Rom said in an interview with WHAT/WHEN?.

From two weeks to two days

Once operational, BIZMAC handled work including premium billing, accounting and policy loans.

The gains were dramatic. Under the existing punch-card system, moving a paid card from the field into the permanent file could take two weeks. BIZMAC cut that process to two days. It reduced the premium-notice timeline from two or three months to just 20 days, allowing later changes to be incorporated and reducing incorrect billings.

By January 1960, BIZMAC was handling premium billing and accounting for 750,000 policies. By 1961, New York Life had transferred information from 13 million punch cards onto just 135 reels of magnetic tape.

The technology proved its value in another way that year. After a fire destroyed records at the Queens, N.Y., Central Service Office, restoring normal operations was initially expected to take 10 months to a year. With support from the BIZMAC-501 system, the office was functioning as usual within days.

A dynamic company

More than six decades later, this circuit board is a reminder that adopting new technology has long been about more than machines. It has also been about the employees who figure out how to put those tools to work.

As Robert Brocklebank, former manager of BIZMAC’s operational functions, reflected in what publication/when, the system represented “the greatest reduction of drudge work in my 25 years with the company. I think the future of our department and, in a way, of New York Life lies with the intelligent application of electronics. The fact that we have been authorized to go into it so extensively is another example of the company’s dynamic nature.”