Posted by
Joseph Westlake
on
8/26/2009 at 8:26 AM
A recent report by Celent on “Handling the Crisis: Update on Q1 Insurance Industry Expectations and Strategies” once again reiterates the strong role technology is perceived to play in the insurance industry. We’ve been quite direct in our assessment of insurer IT investment in a couple of our previous posts “All roads lead to technology” and “Carrier’s competitive edge depends on IT”. As the predominant focus is on cost reduction in the insurance industry, there is a paradigm shift in the role of IT investment.
"The question for CIOs is how technology can help the business reduce costs. This is an important change from previous recessions, where IT costs were cut indiscriminately." says Catherine Stagg-Macey, Senior Analyst and coauthor of the report.
Today, driven by innovation, technology has taken a far more responsible position in improving the overall operational efficiency of an organization. Stepping in for a drastic reduction of manual intervention in workflow cycles means saving time and effort. Utilizing the same time for business critical activities ensures improved productivity. This will have a direct impact on the company bottom line.
The insurance industry, historically, being complex in its processes, is all the more vulnerable for operational lax. If, mired in siloed systems, complex calculations and lack of coordination among the cross-functional teams, insurers will find themselves challenged to come to terms with the latest market trends and best practices. The contemporaries are well aware of this reality check as can be inferred from the report by Celent.
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Posted by
Joseph Westlake
on
8/19/2009 at 11:08 AM
A recent article in Insurance Networking News pointed to the need for data quality and accessibility in the insurance industry. While the article was focused on the implications for risk management, the need for clean, accessible data is also paramount to effective compensation management. Comprehensive data used in the right way helps to precisely analyze commission payment data and reassess incentive plans along with changing market scenarios.
From a management perspective, precise analysis of commission spending is necessary to reduce company expenses and enact competitive initiatives. The article states, “Having data that is reliable and not error-prone is critical to minimizing risk in our increasingly competitive sector. A key element to reducing errors is automation between systems. When data is entered once and automatically transmitted throughout systems, manual errors are greatly reduced. A way to accomplish this in the area of compensation management is with the integration of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and the commission processing system.
Within the CRM system, producers enter data for contacts, leads and opportunities, and follow a simple process for tracking the progress of a sale from initiation through closing. When a sale is completed, the commission system is automatically updated to instantly process commission payments.
With this technology in place, management teams can access high quality data in real-time in a single window. This helps in generating accurate ad hoc reports to analyze channel and product performance. The article quotes Great American Insurance CIO Piyush Singh saying, “Quality goes down when we don’t analyze the data well”. This problem is avoided when managers can perform an accurate analysis of the data needed to remodel incentive plans, measure sales effectiveness, and evaluate sales potential.
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Posted by
Stephanie Castro
on
8/12/2009 at 9:01 AM
How often do we see a flying car? If “never” is your answer you are correct - but only for the next year or so. Terrafugia, founded by MIT-trained aeronautical engineers and MBAs, has developed a revolutionary new dual-purpose vehicle- The Transition® Roadable Aircraft.
“When I first heard of this, I envisioned a really cool, cutting-edge vehicle that could literally lift me out of a traffic jam and allow me to fly over the hapless motorists below”, reports Ara C. Trembly in a recent Insurance Networking News (INN) article.
Unfortunately this high-flying dream is not yet a reality. Although the Transition® is street-legal and fits in a standard household garage, it must be flown by a licensed pilot and take off from a public use general aviation airport with 2,500 feet of roadway (a common requirement of private aircraft operation). It’s marketed to pilots as a way to “streamline [the] flying experience with the revolutionary integration of personal land and air travel”.
Dashed hopes of aviating out of traffic jams aside, spare a thought to the implications this vehicle may have on the insurance industry. Although breaking, ‘The Transition’ could put insurers in a tricky position. Ara C. Trembly says in the same article in INN:
So what’s an auto insurer to do when owners start besieging the gecko for rates on this vehicle? Does this mean one has to buy both aviation and auto insurance? Should one insurance be cheaper, since the vehicle doesn’t spend all of its time on the road, or in the air? And which company do you call if the vehicle is damaged, say, on landing? Was it a car when it got crunched, or was it a plane?
Fortunately, insurance companies have a couple of years to figure this out.
*Images taken from the Terrafugia Website
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Posted by
Stephen Bruno
on
8/5/2009 at 11:08 AM
In the current economic scenario, insurers are acutely aware of the need for greater customer satisfaction and higher retention rates. Insurers realize that improved customer loyalty helps reduce overall costs and gain more value. With ever-increasing consumer demands for instant access to service, carriers are focusing more than ever before on ways of using technology to provide high quality self-service experiences.
In her presentation at the 2008 Healthcare IT Summit, “The Disruptive Transformation of Front Office Customer Touch points,” Gartner analyst Joanne Galimi stated that, “Future differentiation is about service, and an automated sales process is a major service improvement… To appeal to empowered consumers and to retain membership, health insurers must provide excellent customer service.”
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology provides access to the complete history of individual customer interactions and scheduled communications, allowing insurers and brokers to provide the right information to the consumer at the right time.
More forward-thinking carriers are looking to implement a comprehensive strategy; a fully-integrated approach that manages the entire sales cycle from point of contact, to online enrollment, to paying broker commissions and managing renewals. This approach is readily attainable with the integration between CRM solutions and commission systems, since companies would have their products, insureds, policies, groups and producers all in one place.
A fully integrated sales and relationship approach helps insurers to:
In short, a comprehensive CRM technology solution empowers the distribution channel by allowing managers and producers to seamlessly share information. This helps in hands-on management of interactions with potential customers, giving them the right information at the right time and empowering them to make the right choice of coverage. Carriers benefit from improved customer satisfaction and loyalty, increasing the lifetime value of each client.
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