Posted by David Gallagher on Fri, Apr 13, 2012 @ 08:03 AM
iter8 is an expert in the P&C software arena. And, once again we have been recognized as an award recipient.
Unica Insurance, Keal Technology and iter8 were recognized at the Insurance Canada Conference as a Technology Award Finalist.
The award was given for the Keal Connect solution that links Keal’s Broker or Agency Management System (sigXP) directly to the carrier (Unica) without any middleware of third-party software required by the broker. Keal Connect sends XML data in real-time directly to the carrier so that agents/brokers can perform Inquiry, New Business Upload and Manual Endorsement transactions.
Independent agents and brokers want seamless integrations that start and end in their AMS which this satisfies. This integration was delivered to the marketplace in less than 60 days due to iter8’s proven configurable software, Unica’s motivation to benefit their brokers, and sigXP’s modern architecture. Each of the transactions begins, and ends, in sigXP, with the inquiry transactions requiring no engagement with the Unica portal, allowing the Broker to work in the environment they are most comfortable with.
The next step for Keal Connect is the development of policy change transactions
Katherine Evans, CFO at Unica Insurance, Dave Patrick, VP at iter8 and Renee Durepos VP at Keal Technology were on hand to pick up the award.
The iter8 team of Phil Henville, Dave Patrick and Steve Gugler celebrate the iter8 award.
Posted by David Gallagher on Fri, Mar 30, 2012 @ 10:05 AM
iter8 has just completed a study to examine the top reasons P&C insurance carriers add a modern, configurable rules engine (or configurator which is the term we use) to their legacy systems, or to their new core systems, to better evaluate new consumer and agent interactions.
4 top benefits to such efforts emerged.
They are:
1) Integrate Predictive Analytics results into underwriting production systems
2) Make better underwriting decisions 3) Expand underwriting capabilities
4) Push underwriting system management to business users
Click here for a more complete description.
Modern solutions, such as simul8 offered by iter8 are able to integrate with legacy or modern policy administration solutions, and provide portals and web interfaces with rules and business logic to evaluate new business, renewals and policy changes.
Whether you have instances of Full touch underwriting, Light touch underwriting or No touch underwriting, a rules configurator enables fast, easy to use rules application to streamline workflow, ensure consistency, and better assess risk.
Posted by David Gallagher on Tue, Mar 13, 2012 @ 11:06 AM
iter8 recently participated in the NAMIC Commercial Lines Seminar, and the Insurance Canada Technology Conference.
In both sessions there was a strong sense of the need to enhance agent or broker collaboration with the insurance carrier. In past years independent agents and carriers squabbled about technology details. Arguments such as “I want fewer keystrokes....or ....that’s your job, I don’t want to do your job....or ....we want more share of your business.....or....we built this technology, you’d better use it” often overrode more strategic issues. They were and are important, but don’t build the long term market.
Yet this year I sensed a greater need to work together to address strategic issues such as: How can we develop more user-friendly on line applications? How can we integrate agency management systems with carrier systems? How can we meet policy holder needs to deliver better service? How can we automate commercial lines tasks?
You may ask, is this just short term, or are carriers and agents and brokers working more collaboratively?
My observation, this is not short term, and it represents a strong will to work collaboratively. Each group is looking at ways to address the continued loss of market share to direct writers.
In the commercial market, where agents have often felt secure, the direct writers are automating tasks to write smaller packages, creating specialized offers, and building their marketing plans and supporting technology.
Broker and Agent driven companies need to do the same. What technology is necessary to connect agents and carriers to address commercial packages, BOP and mid-market accounts? How is collaboration to be obtained? How are tasks to be automated, workflows managed, and underwriters provided with tools to effectively manage larger commercial accounts?
iter8 has answers and solutions. You can learn more about them at several upcoming conferences and industry events where we are participating.
Carriers need to start acting now so that technology is put in place to automate commercial lines quoting, new business submission and provide policy holder and agent self service, so they will be able to compete with direct writers that are planning their next round of technology innovation.
Posted by David Gallagher on Thu, Feb 16, 2012 @ 08:59 AM
For insurance carriers portals used to mean agent portals. And, for many insurers that meant a tactical, single purpose solution to facilitate online quoting.
But as Deb Smallwood of Strategy Meets Action explained in her recent webinar, Leveraging Portal Power, (Click here to view the archived version) portals have changed, and a strategy on how to use the components from your existing portal, and/or how to incorporate underwriter portals, consumer portals, and other third party access points such as social media is required.
Such a strategy is necessary to ensure front, middle and back-office systems are integrated, and changes in one are promoted to the others. It is also necessary to ensure your portal is scalable, repeatable and adheres to standards.
Ultimately insurance carriers want a well architected solution so that the needs of independent agents, policy holders, prospective customers and underwriters are met.
According to the CTO at iter8, anyone can build a portal UI – but the devil is in the creation of an integrated data model, rules engine, integration layers, and configurable solution. And for this to occur, insurance carriers need a well defined portal strategy. Such a strategy must focus on IT architecture, and build a strong foundation. It also must consider the future. So while integrated to an agency management system for upload may be straightforward, what will happen for the next agency management system? And for the facebook uploads? And the iPad calls for inspection reports? And the requests from the agent online portal, as they also interact with policy holders?
Iter8 has thought through these issues, and is developing solutions for the future.
If you would like to hear more just let me know – I will set up a one-on-one with our CTO, who can bring a depth of knowledge gaining for years of insurance expertise.
Posted by David Gallagher on Wed, Jan 25, 2012 @ 12:58 PM
iter8 is sponsoring a webinar on February 9th at 2:00pm entitled “Leveraging Portal Power ...to deliver growth and profitability”.
Deb Smallwood, founder of Strategy Meets Action, an insurance industry leading consulting firm, will be presenting along with Glen Piller, President and CEO of iter8.
The webinar will focus on how agent portals and consumer portals need to change and evolve in order to meet the needs of independent agents and policy holders. For many insurers portals were put in place to address a short term need. For example to generate straight through processing, or to facilitate inquiry functions.
However, now and in the future, portals will evolve to act as centralized landing hubs for multiple transactions and provide the insurance carrier face for multiple third-parties. The use of standardized components to integrate with consumers, policy holders, independent or captive agents generates internal efficiencies and improvements to customer care levels. The days of one-to-one usage are disappearing, and this webinar will explore how newer modern portals can handle multiple transactions, extensive collaboration, and provide an overall integrated approach to the insurance carriers’ external actions.
Insurance clients want to access an insurance carrier on their terms, on their time, using hardware that they choose, where they like – not limited by bricks and mortar, defined hours, and other restrictions.
To attend the webinar, and hear from these industry experts use the attached registration link.
Posted by David Gallagher on Mon, Nov 14, 2011 @ 10:02 AM
iter8, a market leader in statistical and bureau reporting has identified 6 essential factors to solve P&C reporting needs. Based upon extensive experience in this area our internal regul8 experts have identified 6 essentials that will help carriers in their planning efforts. Read them, and use them to help in your next compliance reporting upgrade.
These six essentials can help all P&C insurance carriers faced with providing frequent, accurate, timely bureau or regulatory reporting. They can help you make the right choice in third-party solutions, or help your internal experts in their planning and strategy formation.
Click here to view the six essentials.
The costs of inattention to your statistical reporting needs can be high. For example high penalty fees, high internal costs for rework, and high costs for system changes are just a few of the costs.
So, read the six essentials, and contact us if you need more assistance.
Posted by David Gallagher on Mon, Oct 31, 2011 @ 02:09 PM
A Case Study: Wawanesa Insurance saves money, improves quality, saves time --- what's not to like!
iter8 has just published a case study that examined the impact of new statistical reporting processes, and software (supplied by you-know-who). The project saved money, improved data quality, streamlined the filing processes, improved timeliness and decreased the overall costs of ownership as system maintenance is handled by iter8. If only every project could have such clearly defined benefits.
Read the case study, and see what was done and why.
The project was also implemented successfully. The project management at Wawanesa was excellent, as was the quality of their technical and business teams.
Were there lessons to help your company?
I think so. Read the details, and see how Wawanesa identified priorities and then worked to ensure they were resolved. From problem identification, to proof of concept, to a phased project with achievable, well-defined milestones Wawanesa ensured the project delivered on-time, and on budget.
Ps – we identified 6 essentials for pain-free statistical reporting I will be able to share them with you next month.
Posted by David Gallagher on Wed, Oct 19, 2011 @ 02:29 PM
The data experts at iter8 were talking about how and why data migration and system transformation projects can run into troubles.
They mentioned to me that there are several key actions that are needed to guide such projects, and following these rules greatly improves a projects chance of success. I took these rules, and summarized their feedback into “5” key actions (I would have preferred 8, but what can you do) and asked them to give me more details on each point, and explain why they were important, and the impact they could have on insurance company success.
This is what they produced. 5 key factors for successful systems integration projects.
Follow them, and a project will succeed. They are not in any order, just five common sense steps that when practiced give IT planners a good chance at success. And, they are proven in real-world examples. iter8 has many successful projects ranging from Policy Administration System data migrations to the creation of data warehouses, to the successfully integration of multiple data sources.
Here are the five factors:
1) Choose a third-party solution provider to assist in providing tools, systems, expertise, experience, and an independent outside perspective
2) Select a partner that understands insurance
3) Select a solution in which the results can be reconciled
4) Apply technology that is built for complex data transformation
5) Choose a technology approach that is modern, innovative, yet proven.
Click here to read the full explanation, and details on each point.
Straightforward, logical, common sense. Yet putting them in practice separates the experts from the wannabes.
iter8 can help you execute.
Contact us to learn more. The five steps do not include a “trial” or a proof of concept, but we’d be happy to go down this path. Just another way to ensure risk is reduced, and success is achieved.
Posted by David Gallagher on Tue, Oct 11, 2011 @ 03:53 PM
After La Capitale Financial Group acquired York Fire and Casualty Insurance they required a consolidated Policy Administration System to create a common system of record with common data storage. York sought a strong claims control system, and quality data to enable actuarial pricing enhancements.
To do this, and meet their stated objectives, they turned to iter8 to partner with them on a complex data migration project in which disparate systems were integrated, and ongoing translation was required to continually integrate web services with the new Policy Administration System.
A case study has just been published that reviews what was needed, what was done, and why it was done.
The complexity was high – the Policy Administration System was “under construction” as the project was underway; 10 years of history, over 2 million transactions were to be migrated; differing data semantics existed between systems (image based and delta based)
The stakes were high – billions in assets and premiums were involved, 48-hour cut-over was mandatory, multiple data sources were involved, and support of the legacy system was poor as it remained with the previous York parent company
The results were tremendous – accuracy was 100% (with only insignificant differences); a translator was built such that the award winning York portal and independent broker and agent interface was untouched, and agents were unaware of the migration to a new system; the single data base led to enhanced pricing, data security improvements, and a common system of record
To get more details, read the case study. Learn how a large, complex data migration can work, using declarative techniques that scale beyond those of more straight-forward ETL tools.
An iter8 Case Study
Posted by David Gallagher on Mon, Aug 22, 2011 @ 02:17 PM
Trillium Mutual Insurance Company is the third largest farm mutual insurance company in the Province of Ontario. They are a leader in the property and farm property categories. Their products are innovative, competitive, priced right, and service levels are high.
All good, except with one big challenge -- how to keep up with the technology offered by larger carriers.
Trillium wrestled with this problem, and used tactics to help them stay competitive:
i) They partnered with another insurer to implement a new system jointly. In this way they could draw upon the business knowledge and expertise of another insurer and save some of the system implementation costs by sharing the costs.
ii) They implemented solutions in stages, such that their business and IT staff could continue with their “day jobs”, and still work with a vendor to implement new solutions.
iii) They used third party vendors to partner with. This meant they did not have to build solutions in-house, and equally importantly they found vendors they could build longer term relations with, that could understand their business, and work with Trillium to understand and solve problems.
iter8 was one of the “partners” chosen to work with Trillium. It has been one of the most positive relations we have built. A good partner, strategic thinkers, and a mutually beneficial relationship have led to success.
Smaller carriers need to work harder to succeed, and Trillium has mastered the formula.