CRM - January 2009 - (Page 20)

MARKET FOCUS: INSURANCE Technology Helps Insurance Weather the Storm The industry knows how to write policies, but can it create efficient policies for its own business processes? eople can be stubborn, especially when it comes to protecting their assets and homes. When Hurricane Gustav struck major metropolises of Texas in early September 2008, regional evacuations were issued, but some mulish residents tried to hold their ground— ground from which they eventually had to be rescued, at great cost. During such chaotic and stormy times, insurancecompany readiness is put to the test. needs. Many CRM vendors, however, Luckily, technological advancements— have begun to develop customized especially in the areas of business intel- solutions in an effort to prove they’re ligence and geographic information paying attention to insurance’s unique systems—can alleviate the impact of requirements. “You have to have CRM combine the catastrophe, ideally by alerting peowith the transactional system,” Harrisple before disasters strike. The idea that the insurance sector is Ferrante says. “What’s happened in [the] a straggler in terms of technological last two years is that…looking at the innovation is a myth, according to business process workflow…CRM venChuck Johnston, vice president of strat- dors [have started] to combine CRM and egy and alliances for Oracle Insurance. insurance transactional technologies.” In late September, Oracle introduced “People pick on insurance for being a Oracle Insurance as a dedilaggard industry, which is cated business division. The totally not the case,” he says, “In [the] last two announcement came on the noting that the first insurance years…vendors heels of two acquisitions: Adsoftware broke onto the scene minServer, a life insurance in 1963. Insurance companies [have started] to are trying to keep up techno- combine CRM and policy administrator, in May, and Skywire Software, a prologically, he says, but often insurance vider of customer communihave older legacy systems that cations tools, soon thereafter. take time to move away from. transactional Once Oracle gets the integraChange, however, requires technologies.” tion right, Harris-Ferrante more than systems innovation, notes Gartner analyst Kimberly says, the company’s technology will be Harris-Ferrante. The technology is “plug-and-play with insurance applicathere, she says. Reordering the business tions, as well as finance, accounting, [enterprise resource planning], and model is simply more imperative. In fact, many insurance companies also CRM.” In blending CRM with insurance flinch at the mere mention of anything called “CRM,” believing that tradi- transactional software, Harris-Ferrante tional CRM overlooks vertical-specific points out a trend surfacing around 20 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JANUARY 2009 P geographic information systems and proactive customer service. Geographic business intelligence (BI), for example, provides specific value for insurance, she says, with much of the current momentum centering on underwriting. “When you apply for a policy and say, ‘I live at 545 Main Street,’ they can look at Main Street and look at risk associated with that area: ‘Are you on a flood plain?’” Underwriters can see their exposure in a particular region and the risk involved with taking on additional properties. At this year’s Teradata Partners user conference, Kathy Koontz, director of marketing data management at Nationwide Insurance, demonstrated benefits of geographic BI within insurance CRM by showing how the technology can drive business results—in advance of disasters. “When storms are coming, we can see which areas will be affected,” she told the crowd. “Even three days before, we can start using [geographic BI] reports to see which insurers are in that county.” It’s all about turning knowledge into action, she said. So if such capabilities are out there, why aren’t all insurance companies jumping to implement them? “The challenge is not the cost of the technology,” Harris-Ferrante says. “It’s that it hasn’t been a priority. A lot of data is… in legacy systems.” Changes within an insurance company first need to be foundational, she says, adding that the industry as a whole needs to move beyond after-the-fact efforts. “[What’s] very innovative [is] to not be just responsive,” she says, “but to be proactive and be more outreaching.” Perhaps the wind of innovation can blow strong enough to make handling the next hurricane a breeze. —Lauren McKay SAP (Business Objects) SAS VENDORS SPSS Source: Gartner TOP BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IN INSURANCE 3 www.destinationCRM.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - January 2009

CRM - January 2009 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Shots Heard ’Round the World 30,000-Foot Views Of the Cloud Stuffing the Ballot Box— With Complaints The Marketing Line for ’09 CRM on Twitter Technology Helps Insurance Weather the Storm Required Reading The Google-ization of CRM The Feedback Funnel Email: What’s Inside? Shake Your Moneymakers Lead Sweet Lead Incentives at the Speed of Lightpath Sales Contentment for Content Management A Worthwhile Excursion Into Call Recording Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - January 2009

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