p1975ldmi6kbd6fcv8080s1vua6.jpg

2014 Vanguards in Insurance Practices

Now in its eighth year, the Vanguards in Insurance Practices awards honor the "best of the best." Celent, an independent business research and advisory service with a specialization in insurance technology, helped develop the survey and facilitated data collection and analysis, in partnership with INN.
p196ios0vc1rht14ergr812oj2fuc.jpg

The Awards

Insurance carriers in the United States and Canada ranked the top insurance technology providers across several categories, including Insurance Core Solutions, Customer Experience Solutions, Decision Support Solutions, Emerging Technologies, Back Office & Support Systems and Strategic Partners. As part of the program, Insurance Networking News also honors insurance carriers with VIP Best Practices Awards highlighting the year's best technology implementations.
p196ios0vdog512dd12225b5h23d.jpg

Celent

Mike Fitzgerald, senior analytst for Celent, opens the ceremony with an explanation of the methodology and takeaways from the results. "The VIP program is a great way to recognize technology vendors that provide real, measurable value to their insurance customers,” Fitzgerald said. “Insurers tend to be very loyal to vendors that go above and beyond the norm in delivering good product and service, as seen in this year's list of preferred vendors. The survey results show customers value honesty, insurance expertise and focus on customer service."
p196ios0v61i0l1nhvbg9bj111km8.jpg

The Awards - Decision Support

Accepting the first place award for IBM is Craig Bedell, Worldwide Industry Executive, Business Analytics Software Group, with Holli Gronset, publisher of INN. In the Decision Support Solutions category, Microsoft took second place and Microstrategy took third place. IBM also took third place in the Back Office Solutions category.
p196ios0ve9dq28k1op18g11aqrf.jpg

The Awards - Insurance Core Solutions

For the Insurance Core Solutions category, third place went to ISCS, second place to BenefitMall and top honors were awarded to Guidewire. From Left: Mike Fitzgerald – Celent, Graham Gudmestad – Guidewire Software, Holli Gronset – INN. Guidewire also took second place in the Customer Experience Solutions and Back Office Solutions categories.
p196ios0vgimm1k6n7ll3ug1divi.jpg

The Awards - Customer Experience Solutions

In the Customer Experience Solutions category, first place was awarded to BenefitMall. BenefitMall was nominated by technology partner SNL iPartners and Ericka Billue of SNL iPartners accepted the award on behalf of the company. From Left: Mike Fitzgerald, SNL, Ericka Billue – SNL iPartners, Chris McMahon, senior editor of INN
p196ios0vdu2q18p1nrgpnb13g7e.jpg

The Awards - Customer Experience Solutions

In the Customer Experience Solutions category, there were two third-place award recipients, ISCS and Microsoft; Guidewire finished in second place. From left: Mike Fitzgerald – Celent, Phil Iaccarino – ISCS, Holli Gronset – INN
p196ios0vg1fm71t50139i18h6q94j.jpg

The Awards - Best Practices

The first, second and third place winners of this year’s INN VIP Best Practices Awards were Citizens Property Insurance, National Life Group and The AssureStart Insurance Agency. Citizens was nominated by technology partner Bolt; Ernest Hursh of Bolt accepted the award on behalf of Citizens. From Left: Mike Fitzgerald –Celent, SNL, Ernest Hursh – BOLT Solutions, Inc., Chris McMahon– INN
p196ios0vghprttb808v35tcjk.jpg

The Awards - Best Practices

From left: John McCormick – INN, Tim Attia - BOLT Solutions, Inc., Ernest Hursh – BOLT Solutions, Inc., Mike Fitzgerald – Celent, Chris McMahon – INN
p196ios0vc7mjqe715avlmt19e3a.jpg

Attendees

From Left: Graham Gudmestad – Guidewire Software, Abhishek Peraka – Saama Technologies, unknown, and Subodh Khare – Saama Technologies
p196ios0vcgrr91kdk515btnkgb.jpg

Attendees

From left: Kyle Bonestell - SNL iPartners, Jennifer King – St.Nick Media Services, Phil Iaccarino – ISCS, Ericka Billue – SNL iPartners, Mark Roth – Strategy Meets Action