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3 Insurer Tech Projects That Made a Difference

By Warren S. Hersch

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Some insurance industry technology projects never really justify their development costs.

Some projects make an obvious difference.

Analysts at Novarica, an insurance technology consulting and research firm, try to showcase the kinds of projects that do make a difference in the firm’s annual insurance tech case study roundups. Analysts at the firm look for projects, including “big data” analysis projects and artificial intelligence projects, that deliver real business impact.

(Related: Novarica Finds a Sign Annuity Issuers Still Need You)

Here’s a look at three insurer tech projects the firm highlighted in the firm’s latest IT project compendium.

MetLife: Enterprise Analytics

MetLife created an enterprise-wide “collaborative community” for its internal IT staff. The community includes more than 200 data scientists and analytics professionals, with input from Wes Hunt, the company’s chief data officer.

The community uses an Intelligent Data Platform system from Informatica to pull data from many different servers and applications.

The system can give producers a consolidated view of a client’s activity, revealing gaps in the client’s coverage and planning.

The result: opportunities for producers to cross-sell, and up-sell, needed products.

High-level executives have been sponsoring the data analysis initiatives. That high-level executive participation helps MetLife understand the new tools and use the tools effectively, according to Matthew Josefowicz, Novarica’s president.

American Family: Self-Service Reports

American Family, a property-casualty insurer, set up a self-service data and analytics platform used by about 2,400 home office employees and about 3,000 agents. Employees and agents throughout the company can use the system to get information about products, sales processes and customers.

The system has helped empower the company’s agents, according to Barron Penner, a business enablement leader at American Family.

The system has also saved American Family more than $1 million, simply by eliminating report generation IT bottlenecks, according to Josefowicz.

Country Financial: Automated Underwriting

Country Financial set up an automated underwriting process for term and whole life applications in about 18 months, using an upgraded version of LifeSuite software from StoneRiver.

The web-based system draws data from the MIB Group Inc. life applicant database, motor vehicle records, prescription drug databases, lab data, inspection reports, paramedical exam reports and other sources.

Country Financial uses the system to speed up life applicant underwriting.

Novarica says Country Financial now approves 85% of the policy applications it receives online within 2.5 minutes.

The system made a difference by helping Country Financial meet consumer expectations for speed and responsiveness, Josefowicz says.

—-Check out ACA Strategist: IT Companies Need Specs on ThinkAdvisor. 

Correction: An earlier version of this article gave an outdated description of the organizational structure of MetLife’s internal IT community. The members of the community now work with Wes Hunt, MetLife’s current chief data officer.

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