Haddad believes the business side
sees what this platform offers Patriot.
“They are looking at a new way of
doing things and that is a lot to take on
as they work in a new environment on a
web-based system,” she says. “They are
balancing that with the excitement that
when we are streamlined and functional
among departments, they can see all the
value-add to where we are headed.”
Patriot reached out to the consulting
firm Strategy Meets Action (SMA) for
help on how to go about changing busi-
ness processes to get the most out of the
new technology.
“SMA has a great amount of knowl-
edge in the areas of underwriting and
claims processes and straight-through
processing,” says Haddad. “Now that we
have been implemented for five months
we want them to take a look at our sys-
tem and processes and come back with
an objective view. Some of the recom-
mendations help us with the low-hang-
ing fruit of operational efficiencies and
the pain points.”
Haddad believes it was important to
have an outside view of what Patriot was
doing.
“Sometimes you may not see things,”
she says. “It may not be visible that there
are changes that can be made. Or maybe
you think a big change has been made
because you are doing things differently,
but when you are taking that in you may
not see the things an outside consulting
team can help you with.”
Fitzgerald maintains the industry
has all the technology so the next step in
value is how people are going to leverage
the technology.
“The negative side is when we talk to
companies implementing systems, the
pressure is always there to get it done in
nine months or 18 months,” says Fitzger-
ald. “What we see is they should revisit
the process system and reengineer the
processes, but they really have to get the
first line or the first state out the door.”
Even with new technology, some
companies still use old processes.
Fitzgerald predicts business leaders
eventually are going to challenge IT
leaders over why they are doing the same
processes, but with faster systems and
fewer people.
“It’s going to be the second wave of
core system implementation to really
look at how business is being done,” he
says. “I think what has happened is that a
lot of legacy ways of doing business have
been transferred to a modern platform.
People are not going to get the benefit
they expect from these systems with that
kind of dynamic going on.”
Fitzgerald understands the need to
get the new systems online, but feels
carriers have to look forward to the
transformation as more than plugging
into a system and going online.
“It should be about getting the
platform in place and continue to work
on the business processes,” he says. “The
mindset can’t be to plug in a new package system and go back to a steady state.
Maybe you take a breather, but you have
to look at the platform you have and how
do you change the tools you have.”
Innovation
As insurers look forward 10 years,
Fitzgerald sees the question about
innovation being about getting better at
processes.
“It’s not magic,” he says. “It’s some-
thing they can do if they put people in
charge of getting it done, funding it, and
finding the right processes to achieve a
better outcome.”
A lot of the challenges insurers
face have to do with connectivity, data
exchange, and analytics and Fitzgerald
maintains the modern systems are well
positioned to do that. Where the gap
comes is making all that technology
work.
Fitzgerald explains that he is intrigued by the IBM Watson technology
and believes the next leap in technology
has to do with the artificial intelligence
and self-learning predictive systems.
“That’s when the platforms we have
now will be obsolete, but we have so
much work and so much opportunity
before we get there,” he says. “We have
to let the big boys in the industry sort all
that stuff out before it becomes commercially viable for insurance. If there is a
crystal ball, I think the next big shift will
be the self-learning, artificial-intelligence
systems. It won’t be mobile or miniaturization or messaging. I think with predictive analytics we have all the tools in
place, but we aren’t even crawling when
it comes to leveraging those things.”
Haddad knew that Patriot could not
live on its older platform. When she
joined Patriot five years ago she put together a roadmap based on the carrier’s
business model to cover five, eight, and
10 years ahead.
“I think with
predictive
analytics, we have
all the tools in
place, but we aren’t
even crawling
when it comes to
levaraging those
things.”
Mike Fitzgerald, Celent
