FARMINGTON, Conn., Oct. 17, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Innovation Group plc (Innovation Group) today announced Insurer Policy, a component of the Innovation Insurer suite, received strong ratings for the six critical capabilities evaluated in the "Critical Capabilities for North American Property and Casualty Policy Management" report authored by Jeff Haner, principal research analyst for Gartner. The Gartner report notes that implementing new policy management modules is a priority for North American property and casualty (P&C) insurers that see their legacy systems as a barrier to competitiveness, however, the market remains highly-fragmented.
"This research will help IT and business leaders within P&C insurers develop their system selection requirements by addressing key functional and technical capabilities that should be taken into consideration for selecting the right solution among so many potential candidates," wrote Haner in this report.
Recent Gartner research indicates customer retention and growth are key business priorities for insurers striving to keep pace with changing customer expectations and behaviors. Increasingly, insurers are looking to policy management systems to support rapidly evolving insurance products, more intelligent and predictive underwriting, and new channels and technologies that are being embraced by policyholders. Based on a combination of these needs, and areas where Gartner sees the most differentiation among vendor offerings, they selected six critical capabilities for review including: self-sufficiency, multi-channel support, upgradability, product definition, underwriting, and performance and scalability.
Gartner identified thirteen critical capabilities for policy management, and selected six for review in this research. Using vendor questionnaires, customer interviews and vendor demonstrations about their critical capabilities, Gartner rated 15 vendor solutions on a scale of 1.0 Poor to 5.0 Outstanding, for each of the six critical capabilities. Innovation Group's Insurer Policy received strong ratings including: top rating of five for self-sufficiency and product definition; rating of four for multi-channel, upgradability and performance / scalability; and a three for underwriting. Furthermore, Innovation Group received an overall use case score of 4.3 out of five with product development, process definition and upgradability strongly rated.
"We are extremely pleased with the strong ratings for Insurer Policy in these six critical capabilities and believe it reflects a very strong placement in this competitive market," said Euan King, CEO North America Software. "Insurer Policy's combination of comprehensive functionality, experience with alternative deployments and flexible pricing puts Innovation Group in a strong position as a leading choice for P&C insurers in the North American market."
Insurer Policy business value includes:
- Product Innovation – Extensive product management toolset with a dynamic, graphical UI that manages product, rates, rules, forms, and brands to develop new products, enter new states and expand channels quickly and effectively.
- Customer Centric – Grow and enhance customer relationships, respond to customer demands and expectations with a 360 view of the customer, customer analytics and portals.
- Channel Optimization – Respond to market demands with channel options while ensuring channel optimization and harmonization.
- Underwriting Excellence – Risk portfolio view of the customer and/or the household, data analysis to identify underwriting trends and changes in risk exposure and open collaboration between underwriters and distribution channels in the underwriting process.
- Implementation Choice – Available delivery options for Innovation Insurer including on-premise, ASP, BPO, SaaS and Cloud, with the flexibility to change over time.
- Performance and Scalability – A series of tests emulating business transaction volumes for Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 insurers demonstrated performance and scalability.
- Quantifiable Lower TCO and Affordability – Regional out-of-the-box (OOTB) capabilities to speed and decrease the cost of implementation for insurers. Some of the OOTB capabilities for the US market include pre-configured lines of business for all 50 states, 50 standard documents and key industry interfaces.
Since the launch and introduction of the 100 percent, SOA and Java-based Innovation Insurer in mid-2011, Innovation Group has secured four new Insurer Policy wins. Two of those wins have rapidly implemented in four and seven months respectively, introducing new innovative products in new markets and new channels. An implementation currently underway in North America is leveraging Insurer Policy's pre-loaded capabilities and best practices, which simplify and speed implementation while offering a compelling total cost of ownership (TCO) price point.
Insurer Policy helps insurers best meet their customers' need for improved value and experience, and at the same time helps deliver on the need for competitive combined ratio, new products and channels, and increased growth and greater profitability. Innovation Insurer has been recognized in 2010, 2011 and 2012 with four XCelent awards, five Celent Model Insurer, three VIP awards, two RAVE awards and three Novarica ACE Rankings.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose
About The Innovation Group plc:
The Innovation Group plc (LSE:TIG.L) is a global provider of business process outsourcing and technology solutions to the insurance, fleet and automotive industries. Innovation Group provides contact centres, repair networks, process management, supply chain and technology operations and decision support analytics to support accident management, repair and estimation and claims management services. Innovation Group has over 800 global clients including AXA Insurance, RSA, Encompass, Esurance, Hertz, Main Street America Group, American Modern Insurance Group, LeasePlan, The Ford Motor Company, Aviva, Toyota and Zurich. The Group processes more than 4 million claims per year with 20 per cent direct claims cost saving achieved. Innovation Group's 2,300 people are located in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain and United States. www.innovation-group.com