Taking the Canadian Insurance Industry Digital

May 6, 2018 / G C Network / Comments Off on Taking the Canadian Insurance Industry Digital

Review: Executive’s Guide to Cloud Computing by Eric Marks and Bob Lozano

By G C Network | January 26, 2010

Recently, I had the privilege of reviewing an advance copy of Executive’s Guide to Cloud Computing by Eric Marks and Bob Lozano. Available now for pre-order on Amazon, this guide is a…

DoD Cloud Computing Session at 5th International Cloud Expo

By G C Network | January 22, 2010

I’m happy to announce that I will be presenting on DoD Cloud Computing Advances at the 5th International Cloud Expo, April 19-21, 2010 at the Javits Convention Center in New…

InformationWeek Prediction: Cloud Computing for Classified Software

By G C Network | January 20, 2010

Yes, I know you’re sick of all the predictions, but I just can’t resist pointing you to Nick Hoover’s “5 Predictions For Government IT in 2010“. In summary: 1. Cybersecurity…

“Shaping Government Clouds” Just Released

By G C Network | January 12, 2010

As part of the On The Frontlines series, Trezza Media Group has just released it latest on-line electronic magazine. “Shaping Government Clouds” includes: Pete Tseronis, Chairman of the Federal Cloud…

Fed Tech Bisnow: If Nostradamus Did RFPs?

By G C Network | January 6, 2010

Nostradamus may no longer be with us, but check out the “beltway” predictions from Tech Bisnow! “Two hot trends almost all mentioned: early uptick on M&A and cloud computing ubiquity”…

Navy CANES and Cloud Computing

By G C Network | January 4, 2010

During the first quarter of 2010, the Navy is expected to make the first selection for the Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise System (CANES). CANES is just one component of the…

GovCloud, “Cloud Musings” rated “Influential” by Topsy

By G C Network | January 3, 2010

Log in with Twitter A search engine powered by tweets My sincere appreciation and thanks goes out to Topsy for rating my tweets as “Influential”! Topsy is a new kind…

Jill Tummler Singer Appointed NRO CIO

By G C Network | January 1, 2010

Effective January 1, 2010, Jill Tummler Singer will take the reigns as CIO for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). As the CIA Deputy CIO, Ms Tummler has been a proponent…

Most Influential Cloud Bloggers for 2009

By G C Network | January 1, 2010

Thank you Ulitzer and SYS-CON Media for naming me to your list of the most influential cloud computing bloggers for 2009. My hearty congratulations go out to the other bloggers…

2009: The Government Discovers Cloud Computing

By G C Network | December 23, 2009

2009 was truly a watershed year for Federal information technology professionals. After inaugurating the first Cyber-President we saw the appointment of our first Federal CIO and the rapid adoption of…

“Digital disruption isn’t just for hip start-ups. Incumbents can not
only compete but actually lead radical industry change if they pay attention
to the way their business model is shifting and act boldly in response.
Founded in 1871, Economical Insurance operates within the old and relatively static Property and Casualty (P&C) insurance industry.  According to the American Insurance Association (AIA), the modern insurance industry, developed primarily in England after the Great London Fire in 1666. Today, this insurance industry segment protects from risk in two primary areas:
  •  Protection for physical items, such as houses, personal possessions, cars, commercial buildings, and inventory (property); and
  • Protectionagainst legal liability (casualty).

 

Property insurance provides for losses related to a policyholder’s person or property while casualty/liability insurance protects a policyholder against the claims of others.
Economical sees itself as the insurance company “For Canadians by Canadians.” They also tout themselves as a company that imagines bigger and better things. Their credo is to focus on the customer first, and this is why Economical is one of this country’s leading and most trusted P&C insurance companies.
With this background and belief, it may come as no surprise that innovative internal thinking led to the conceptualization of a new business model.  One targeted to a market segment that was comfortable with advanced technology. They saw these customers as underserved because traditional service channels were not meeting their unique needs. By feeding on a passion and desire to make a difference in everything they do, Economical business and technology teams partnered to build a new channel built entirely on digital processes.

 

The vision they saw was Sonnet. Launched in 2016 t,his new brand brought an innovative new insurance experience to Canadians who prefer to purchase insurance directly online. Using sophisticated technology and real-time analytics, customers are now able to instantly get customized quotes, purchase a policy, and make account updates online at any time.
The intent was to leverage and aggregate data from multiple sources, apply real-time analytics and provide a unique personalized recommendation based on the customer’s profile. The twin challenges were finding an evolutionary and transformative path that wouldn’t crater the existing business and a savvy business technology partner that wouldn’t waste the company’s time and money. That partner was IBM.
The most critical element in this effort was speed. With time to market being so important, a public cloud-based solution was the answer. The IBM public cloud allowed Economical to deploy quickly, take advantage of automation to reduced errors and enabled business flexibility.
Another key component of this partnership was software development that used the KANBAN Agile Methodology. Kanban is based on three principles:
  1. Visualize what you do today (workflow) to see all development items within context.
  2. Limit the amount of work in progress (WIP) to balance the flow-based approach and prevent team over commitment.
  3. Enhance flow that uses a priority process to pull in development backlog in as soon as a previous task is completed.

 

When compared to the well know SCRUM model, using KANBAN promoted continuous collaboration and encouraged active, ongoing learning and improvement by defining the best possible team workflow.
Economical pursued a hybrid cloud strategy to leverage the previous enterprise IT service investment. Significant time was therefore spent in the design phase because the right design required decisions on what went in the cloud and what stayed on premise. Those decisions, in turn, drove data flow, security control locations, and any required infrastructure resiliency improvements. The hybrid strategy also brought with it a need to integrate with legacy systems. IBM was able to meet this and associated requirements to partner with other members of Economical’s business ecosystem.
In the end, the key to an on-time launch of Sonnet was primarily teamwork and a real partnership. Sonnet thoroughly disrupted the P&C Insurance market in Canada. It successfully challenged the status quo and demonstrated that digital transformation was possible with the right technology partner. This success has spotlighted Economical as an industry leader and business innovator. Customer reaction has been extremely positive, and the business has been scaling with a healthy and steady growth trajectory.
One of the many lessons learned by Economical during this process was that disruption is not a one-time event. Organizations must continue to re-invent themselves or competition will disrupt you. This new internal operating model has led to new product suites, new offerings, simplified pricing and new internal workflows. The service offerings will be built on top of the infrastructure put in place for Sonnet and will change the way Economical works with their brokers. Although a bi-modal, two speed IT operations model was initially accepted, this next step will use cloud computing to connect cloud-native components to core legacy assets. This “real IT transformation” will use additional efficiency to fund future transformation initiative through a long-term partnership with IBM.

This post was brought to you by IBM Global Technology Services. For more content like this, visit ITBizAdvisor.

 

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