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Allied - Digital and Omni-Channel

In the Digital and Omni-Channel category, Celent found that agent-focused initiatives continue to comprise the lion’s share (70 percent) of insurers’ initiatives. Consumer initiatives, however, are catching up. Celent noted that insurers’ agent-based initiatives still tend to focus on the more transactional and efficiency- or convenience-related goals of existing propositions. Along with many functions available on mobile apps today, such as filing a claim or obtaining a digital ID card, Celent found that one of the most innovative features and a key differentiator of the Allied Mobile app is the ability for certain agency partners to dynamically brand the customer experience with their own custom logo. The helps agents to reinforce the agency/member relationship by continually presenting the agency brand. See the rest of the finalists here.
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Allstate - IT Management

Allstate moved from decentralized project management offices spread across the technology organization to a centralized PMO group named Allstate Technology & Operations to oversee a technology portfolio of approximately $350 million and 2,400 projects. The move improved on time scheduled project delivery from 79 to 90 percent and on budget delivery by 15 percent.
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Bankers - Analytics

According to Celent, analytics and dashboards in support of underwriting accounted for 29 percent of all submissions for this year’s awards. As evidenced by the submissions in the Analytics category, data derived from devices, new external data sources and new techniques for interpreting data are pushing the competitive boundaries for insurers at an accelerated rate. Bankers Insurance simplified their home insurance shopping experience by requiring prospective customers to only input an address to deliver one-click, pre-underwritten quotes. See the rest of the finalists here.
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CNA - Implementation

Celent learned from this year’s awards candidates that a clear focus on execution capabilities, coupled with a closer alignment of business and IT, contributed to implementation success. The benefits to insurers focused primarily on agility, speed, adoption and quality as opposed to just cost. To wit, about 40 percent of entries in this category cited speed as the main benefit, while 20 percent identified quality as a factor. Only about 25 percent of insurers identified cost reduction as their primary benefit. CNA developed an automated underwriting system that provides agents selling business owner policies with an additional tailored quote option based on the unique characteristics of their client’s risk. The system also features marketing messages on the pricing screen, which helps to provide agents with more detailed explanations of the coverage and its benefits. See the rest of the finalists here.
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ICW - Legacy and Ecosystem Transformation

Celent notes that from this year’s submissions in the Legacy and Ecosystem Transformation category, underwriting initiatives have spanned from simplification initiatives targeted at improving control and efficiency to niche delivery of key information/decisions at point of decision to agent portals. In top-end commercial business, the word “global” is becoming more than a label. Celent says that some ambitious insurers are looking to implement initiatives across regions. ICW Group was selected as the winner for having implemented an underwriting workstation and business analyst workstation with an agent portal. Some of the key features of the portal include the use of web service data and predictive analytics, as well as real time collaboration between agents and the insurer during the sales process. See the rest of the finalists here.
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MetLife - Model Insurer of the Year

In just three months MetLife created the MetLife Wall tool to get a full view of its customers’ and its employees’ interaction and activity for work in its call center and in R&D. Created and launched using MongoDB technology, it brings together data from more than 70 legacy systems. It runs across six application servers in two data centers and twelve database servers with a total storage capacity of 24 terabytes. That includes MetLife’s entire U.S. customer base (represented by over 50 million JSON documents), and has been expanded to Japan and Greece. The application, modeled after Facebook, updates in near real time and provides a way to improve the customer service experience.