Winners of 1st Innovation in Insurance Awards Are ‘Change Leaders’

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The winners of the first annual Innovation in Insurance awards include Allianz, AXA, Europ Assistance, MS&AD Insurance, and USAA.

The program, jointly launched by Efma and Accenture, seeks to reward and foster innovation in the industry, and recognizes the most innovative insurance initiatives and projects around the world. (Efma, is a Paris-based association of 3,300 retail financial services companies in more than 130 countries).

Announced at a recent award ceremony in Milan, the winners were selected based on votes from a combination of a panel of judges comprised exclusively of senior executives from the insurance industry, and online votes from Efma members.

More than 149 institutions from 38 countries submitted 225 innovations within five categories: Customer Experience & Engagement; Claims Management; Digital & Omni-channel Distribution; Best Disruptive Product or Service; and Global Insurance Innovator.

This year’s winners were:

Customer Experience & Engagement.

MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings, Japan, won the Customer Experience & Engagement award for its “dramatic improvement of contact center operations using Watson, which enables high quality responses to increasing customer needs and efficient contact center operations.” The system leverages Watson Explorer, Work Force Management System and Oracle Service Cloud.

Also in the spotlight were Pacifica, France, which took second place in the category with its e-depann’ service, and Desjardins, Canada, which was awarded third place with its Ajusto 100 percent Mobile Telematics app.

Claims Management.

Allianz France won the Claims Management award for its “Your expert is in the sky” claims solution, which enables speed, simplicity and reactivity in assessing claims by using drones to examine damage to large buildings.

Second place in this category went to Bradesco Seguros, Brazil, for its “Operation Disaster” solution, while Zurich, Spain, took third place with its “Proactive Claims Management for customers by Digital Channel” solution.

Digital & Omni-channel Distribution.

USAA, USA, won the Digital & Omni-channel Distribution award for its “Digital Virtual Assistant,” which leverages web and mobile channels to allow more members to satisfy their needs without the assistance of a representative.

Second place was awarded to Haven, USA, for its Entirely Online Purchasing Process for Term Life Insurance. First National Bank, South Africa, took third place with its Digitalising Funeral Insurance project.

Best Disruptive Product or Service.

Europ Assistance Group, France, (a Generali subsidiary) won the Best Disruptive Product or Service award for its “Connect et Moi” solution, which leverages IoT capacities to link a behavioral algorithm with an emergency human call center to allow elderly people to live at home securely.

Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Japan, took second place with its Auto Insurance for autonomous vehicle public road experiment. Third place was awarded to Telenor India for its Telenor Suraksha (Free Life Insurance) product.

Global Innovator of the Year.

AXA Group, France, won the Global Innovator of the Year award for its digital insurance model, which includes the Health Keeper health and wellbeing platform; the RUOK digital service, which brings peace of mind to families with isolated seniors; the WellBe social network; and the AXA Drive app, which calculates a “driving score” using data such as acceleration, braking and turns during a trip.

Second place in this category was awarded to USAA, USA, and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Japan, took third place.

“Innovation is essential for insurance organizations to succeed in a digitally connected world,” said Vincent Bastid, CEO of Efma.

“We’re delighted that the Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance initiative can support that innovation by showcasing new ideas, technologies and strategies from organizations across the world,” added Bastid. “The winners of the first Innovation in Insurance awards exemplify the proactive approach taken by organizations that are leading change and transforming the industry.”

“Sweeping changes across consumer behavior, technology innovations and big data are reshaping traditional insurance business models and what it takes to compete,” said Edwin VanderOuderaa, managing director, Accenture Digital, Financial Services.

“The innovators recognized by these awards are helping to reinvent the insurance industry by re-imagining the way they operate to become truly customer-centric organizations,” he added.

All submitted innovation case studies are stored on a portal, forming “the first-of-its-kind global insurance innovation repository, which is accessible to all insurers,” said a statement issued by Efma and Accenture.