If there is a possible downside to having great ideas, it's that it typically results in the expectation for more great ideas. That's not a problem for Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance, however, whose innovation garnered them the 2009 Insurance Networking News' INNovator of the Year award.
Farmers' next great idea is really an extension of its award-winning IdeaPoint initiative, a rapid product and services development methodology that empowers Farmers' employees to develop new ideas that are matched against market needs and existing market offerings. Winning ideas are assigned a go-to-market strategy and the rest speaks for itself. Some of IdeaPoint successes to date have resulted in expansion efforts on the East Coast, an Apple iPhone application that enables customers to file claims on the spot and check on claims update information, and the acquisition of Bristol West Holding, an auto insurer.
Farmers, a U.S. subsidiary of Zurich Financial Services Inc., is still on task, notes Mark Smith, chief strategy officer, with plans to take that initiative to the next level. The game plan calls for a 2010 Ideapoint called Technology Innovation Ideation.
Smith reports that his company will review innovative applications of technology both within the insurance industry as well as other industries to generate new ideas and opportunities for Farmers to leverage technology to drive improved value propositions for our customers.
"There are several new and innovative applications of technology that we have seen in the last few years in other industries (automotive, banking, retail, consumer electronic/products, etc.) that could be leveraged and adapted for the insurance industry to provide improved product and service solutions for customers," Smith says.
Examples include Web, mobile, pricing, claims, CRM, underwriting, weather/CAT prep and tracking, and more, Smith adds.
Scheduled for Q3 or Q4 this year, this Ideapoint will be broad-reaching, and will include input from Farmers agents, as well as people from product development, underwriting, marketing, information technology, sales, our field management and agency development, CRM and customer insights, as well as technology vendors, consultants, thought leaders.
