Partnerships, joint product development and marketing agreements and other cooperative ventures were a major theme this year as technology vendors converged on San Diego to offer their wares to the industry at this week's 2011 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum.
At the event’s keynote general session, ACORD CEO Greg Maciag remarked that, “The future is about great partnerships.” Indeed, an unusually large number of vendors represented at the event’s press conference were announcing partnerships and product integrations of one kind or another.
“We’re seeing a lot of that,” said Chad Hersh, principal at Novarica. “In some ways, it’s a response to the growth in suites of technology products.” The proliferation of product suites, he explained, is making it more difficult for more vendors with single-function products to compete. “If you’re a vendor who’s losing a deal to someone with a suite, the easiest and cheapest way out is to partner, even if it’s a stopgap measure. These kinds of deals benefit everyone involved.”
Asked if the still ailing economy might also be a reason vendors are seeking partners, presumably to reduce costs, Hersh said it is not a significant factor. “It’s more about the lead time needed to build functionality,” he stated. “You can announce a product and worry about the actual integration later.
“From a cost perspective,” he added, “the overlap in sales is helpful, because you get the [combined] broadened reach of the partners. There is definitely a cost saving on product development and marketing costs.”
Among the partnering-themed announcements at ACORD LOMA, Outline Systems Inc. (OSI), Somerset, N.J. and Duck Creek Technologies, Bolivar, Mo., said they have formed a partnership that will integrate OSI’s ProductOne with Duck Creek Policy Admin. Their announcement said the collaboration brings best-of-breed solutions to market together via the integration of the policy administration system with producer on-boarding compensation and marketing systems. “This collaboration is the next step toward true straight-through processing,” said Bob Drake, director of sales at OSI.
Meanwhile, New York-based SeaPass Solutions Inc. announced that InsuranceNoodle, Inc., a unit of global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings Ltd., is now in production with the SeaPass Hub to enable Insurance Noodle agents and sub-agents to quote and submit business online for BOP, workers compensation, umbrella, commercial auto, and excess and surplus lines. The partnership brings together two market leaders in web-based account processing, said SeaPass. The combined offering provides agents with fully automated online access to the widest selection of small business commercial lines markets and carriers in the U.S., the companies said.
In a different kind of partnership, Boston-based Sword Insurance announced it has been selected by Safety Insurance, also of Boston, to assist in developing Safety’s mobile portal strategy. According to the announcement, Sword Insurance will help develop a strategy and implement software solutions for Safety for mobile apps and mobile web implementations of first notice of loss reporting, as well as agent finder features on both the iPhone and Android platforms.
Exigen Insurance Solutions and the Evogi Group also announced a new partnership to offer complete usage-based insurance and pay-as-you-drive platforms to insurers entering this segment of the auto insurance market. The collaboration is designed to provide insurers with policy administration, billing, claims and account management for personal and commercial auto usage-based insurance products using telematics and GPS technology. Exigen Suite provides core solutions for policy administration, claims, billing and account management, while Evogi’s Intelligent Insurance provides modern architecture and telematics platforms that deliver location intelligence.
OneShield Inc. of Westborough, Mass., announced successful integration of its policy management solution with the Business Partner, Collections and Disbursements, and Claims Management applications of the SAP insurance product portfolio. The integration, said Glenn Anschutz, president and CEO of OneShield, “provides P&C carriers with a proven, documented framework for modifying and including new touch points that reduce technical risks associated with third party integrations. We recognize our largest and multinational customers will need to leverage the power of SAP systems, so making this investment will enable OneShield to replace legacy systems more quickly while alleviating risk and resource strain.”
ACORD, meanwhile, announced that it’s expanding “strategic partnerships,” working with member companies. They cited recently announced solutions from PilotFish Technology, Middletown, Conn., which “dovetail with our plug and play initiative.” According to Lloyd Chumbley, vice president of standards for ACORD, “Their efforts are a great example of how a solution provider can not only provide a product to their customers, but also increase a company’s ability to use [ACORD] standards correctly.”
