The winners for the 3rd Asia Insurance Technology Awards

Celent and Asia Insurance Review are proud to host 3rd Asia Insurance Technology Awards which recognize excellence and innovation in the use of technology within the insurance industry. The award was given on the Asia Insurance CIO Summit on 20 Nov 2013 in Marina Mandarin Singapore. Asia Insurance Technology Awards is organized by Celent together with Asia Insurance Review. Twenty two nominations from insurers in India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan were evaluated this year and six winners were selected by Celent AITA evaluation team consisting of analysts from Asia, Europe and North America. There are two winners for Best Mobile Application. One winner was MetLife Global Technology & Operations Asia Mobility is one of the key strategic IT themes identified by MetLife to capitalize on the proliferation of smart devices in Asia. After launching its ‘Mobile Office System (MOS)’, an operating system-agnostic mobile application platform that provides full-scale end-to-end sales resources to multiple distribution channels in real time, MetLife leveraged the same platform, to launch its MULAN application which is the same operating system-agnostic application targeted to the consumers to allow for 24/7 real-time self-servicing through mobile devices. Maximizing the “leverage and reuse” philosophy, the implementation was completed within 4 months and at half the cost of MOS. The platform is highly adopted, and the project shows quantitative business benefits. Another winner for Best Mobile Application was Sony Life Insurance Sony Life wins the award for Best Mobile Application for its post contract customer management system called consulting-sales and follow-up system (C-SAAF). The functions include a paperless application process, replacing the paper-based application process with the new tablet PC. To achieve this, Munich Re Automation Solutions’ automated underwriting solution and Munich Re Japan Life Branch’s underwriting rules were customized for Sony. Their Customer Satisfaction Management system, also provides continuous, effective and appropriate “consultation and follow-up services” even if customer situations change after the contract is issued; with the System configuration with both on-line function and off-line function in an emergency. The winner for E-commerce Award was Now Health International Now Health provides a straight through sales function for direct customers, providing quote and sales functionality for intermediaries. Now Health’s customer focussed website is integrated with solutions for back end functionality for a seamless straight-through online quote, buy and fulfillment process. Now Health offers an online combined, buy, edit, view claim and renewal lifecycle in the international health insurance market. They also have wide social media reach, such as blog posts, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn, to engage users. The winner for Best Insurer: Technology Award was HDFC Standard Life Insurance HDFC Standard Life’s Point of Sale project enables its sales force to close the sale for at least 80% of cases, during the first meeting with the customer using a laptop or a tablet, providing HDFC Life with a 24*7 selling platform. The system is closely integrated with an underwriting engine where dynamic questions are asked based on the details entered. 16 Macro steps have been crunched to a bare minimum of 4 stages, resulting in Turn-Around-Time reducing to minutes. Multiple complex systems have been integrated at the backend. Straight through processing is realized. The winner for Best Newcomer Award was Liberty Videocon General Insurance Liberty Videocon General Insurance (LVGI) received India regulatory approvals for commencing operations in August 2012. In order to support their business launch by February 2013, LVGI attempted quick core system implementation without compromising on business functionalities. The Core Insurance Program (Lakshya) provides enablement of functional process on an integrated platform. Thinking “Out of the box” with some tweaks and configuration were the underlying philosophy behind the entire implementation process. LVGI also implemented projects such as underwriting, claims, Accounts, and a CRM solution right from day one of its operation. The winner for IT Leadership Award was Mr. Namal Gunawardhane, Head Of IT, HNB Assurance HNB Assurance implemented a cost effective single core insurance application, capable of handling both Life and General Insurance. They also implemented a workflow application which has made performance monitoring and benchmarking easy and efficient, whilst enabling better customer service via employee efficiencies. HNB implemented an effective infrastructure for core insurance application and disaster recovery as well as business continuity. In addition, they also implemented innovative projects such as a mobile based comprehensive motor accident reporting claims process and a mobile based assessor application. The vision and leadership in the delivery of technology to business belonged to the company’s head of IT, Mr. Namal Gunawardhane. 4th Asia Insurance Technology Awards will open for nomination during April 2014. I’ll post another blog when the nomination is open, you also can find information on Celent website http://www.celent.com/aita .