A Day to Celebrate: Celent 2017 Model Insurer Winners

Last April 4, Boston, a city surrounded by history of patriotism and independence, was witness of Celent Innovation and Insight Day (I&I day), an event in which 16 insurers were recognized as Model Insurers for their technological initiatives that, I’m sure, inspired more 280 professionals of the Financial Service industry by the efforts and ideas on how other insurers could implement them within their organizations.

Andrew Rear, chief executive of Munich Re Digital Partners was the Model Insurer keynote speaker. He discussed the role of Insuretech for large insurers and spoke of how these insurers could acquire agility, the pathway that they needed to choose, and more importantly, the risks they had to bear. He also discussed how Financial Services were redefining the way financial products are sold, delivered, and serviced.

No sensible website asks you for your email address anymore. They should know who you are by other means

~Andrew Rear

In the afternoon, our analysts participated in a series of debates focusing on the Internet of Things (IoT); Artificial Intelligence (AI); and Blockchain which was lively discussion. In between, Celent presented its Model Insurers for five categories and the Model Insurer of the Year.

Digital and Omnichannel

• CUNA Mutual Group

The rapid development and launch of a simplified-issue term life insurance product that enables members to apply entirely online, answering only two health questions supported by a completely automated underwriting platform that delivers an instant decision in minutes.

• Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln Financial created a digital process to meet customer expectations of doing business, automate underwriting, reduce cycle time, and minimize human touch.

• New York Life

The New York Life Portal initiative utilized digital connectivity and a ratings engine cloud-based platform to achieve a faster process and empower various actors across the organization.

To learn more of these Model Insurers, please read our report here.

Legacy and Ecosystem Transformation

• Republic Indemnity

Republic Indemnity’s previous home-grown, legacy policy administration system was implemented in 1994 as a single state, Workers Compensation policy administration system. As the previous system could not issue multi-state policies and with the concern of technology obsolesce, Republic Indemnity looked for a new solution to replace its home-grown, legacy system.

• ERS

Under new management, the business had to transform itself rapidly and replace 20-year-old technology. It had a major license renewal date in two years and would have been locked in by the vendor to a prohibitively expensive contract. It set about transforming claims first, and then policy with full data migration and scheme rationalization, all while growing the underlying gross written premium

• Insurance Corporation of British Columbia

At the beginning of 2013, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) launched the Insurance Sales and Administration System (ISAS) policy transformation program. This was the last project in ICBC’s overall $400 million Transformation Program, which had already successfully replaced legacy claims systems and implemented a new Enterprise Data Warehouse and an enterprise service-oriented architecture.

To learn more of these Model Insurers, please read our report here.

Innovation and Emerging Technologies

• Suramericana de Seguros S.A.- Wesura

Wesura (Sura) created a peer-to-peer Insurance platform around social networks. It develops private insurance communities so final users can share risk and underwrite people who wants to belong to the private community, the bigger the community the more benefits one can receive.

• Church Mutual Insurance Company

Church Mutual Insurance Company has partnered with The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB), part of Munich Re, to provide temperature and water sensors connected to a 24/7 monitoring system. This innovative Internet of Things (IoT) technology solution is designed to alert customers to take action before damages and disruptions to their ministries can occur.

• Markerstudy Insurance

Markerstudy launched VisionTrack in February 2016 to tackle the challenge insurers are facing with rising fraudulent motor claims and to help improve driver behavior.

To learn more of these Model Insurers, please read our report here.

Operational Excellence

• Aflac

Aflac was in need of some modernizing and is still likely to undergo more change as the industry continues to capitalize on social, mobile, and wearables. In response, the Aflac IT Division implemented an Agile Transformation to its projects and processes to meet the changing needs of the customers.

• Saxon

Saxon serves the Cayman island community. With a limited pool to hire from or sell product to, Saxon realized that to remain viable in the insurance market, it needed to employ technology to better serve the needs of its customers and grow the business.

• MassMutual

MassMutual offers a Data Science Development Program (DSDP) in Amherst, MA that trains promising, recent graduates to become well-rounded data scientists over a period of three years. The program combines rigorous academic coursework and practical data science projects for MassMutual — a unique and valuable combination.

To learn more of these Model Insurers, please read our report here.

Data Analytics

• The Savings Bank Life Insurance Company of Massachusetts

SBLI implemented an advanced risk assessment solution using predictive modeling and data analytics to help reduce cycle times, decrease dropout rates, and eliminate the need to pull fluids and conduct exams, while pricing policies more competitively, placing applicants into appropriate risk classes, and improving customer experience.

• StarStone Specialty Insurance Company

The initiative is based on the implementation of analytics tools to measure and reduce risk. The solution uses data from internal and external sources. The data may be structured or unstructured. This tool helps underwriters make better decisions.

• Meteo Protect

Although a broker, Meteo Protect gives clients a means to evaluate how climate variability contributes to their companies’ results by analyzing the relationship between each business activity and the weather. It couples this with a platform to price and underwrite fully customized index-based weather insurance, for any business anywhere in the world.

To learn more of these Model Insurers, please read our report here.

CSE, Model Insurer of the Year

In 2017, CSE has been awarded Model Insurer of the Year for its aspiration to achieve “the best product in the industry.” This meant they had to overcome legacy thinking and practices to re-think all the features including coverage, pricing, rules, process, and communications To do so, they sought inputs from customers and analyzed the market using two common analyses: 5 Cs and SWOT. From this point on, CSE assembled and adapted its core system.

To learn more of the Model Insurers of the Year, please read our report here.

The quality of the submissions this year is a clear indication the industry is turning a corner and embracing transformation, digital initiatives, innovation and valuing data analytics. It is inspiring to see the positive results the insurers have achieved and a pleasure to recognize them as Model Insurers for their best practices in insurance technology.

How about your company? As you read this, are you thinking of an initiative in your company that should be recognized? We are always looking for good examples of the use of technology in insurance. Stay tuned for more information regarding 2018 Model Insurer nominations.