Exstream Software, Inc. announced that Celent, LLC, a leading research and advisory firm focused on insurance technology strategy, has recognized its client, the Principal Financial Group®, for innovative use of technology in an agent portal initiative. The Principal® was named a “Model Carrier Component” in the new report, Celent Model Carrier 2007: Case Studies in Effective Use of Technology in Insurance. The application used by The Principal was implemented using Exstream’s enterprise personalization software, Dialogue. Celent defines “Model Carrier Components” as key technology best practices that a “model carrier” would use to improve performance and meet market demands. The Model Carrier Components of the report were selected from over 100 insurers in the US and internationally by Celent’s team of insurance analysts.
The Principal earned recognition by using Exstream Dialogue to develop and deploy a web-based application that gives its sales force real-time access to customer-specific and pre-approved corporate information for dynamically producing client sales presentations. The presentations are customized and given to prospective clients covering different retirement products and plan options. The Dialogue-developed web solution enables over 250 sales users to create personalized, high-quality sales presentations on demand with any combination of products. Online functions include viewing, editing and ordering. Using the web-based application, document preparation time for the fully customized sales presentation was reduced from several hours to 20 minutes, resulting in a 75 percent cost reduction for the company. Additionally, providing real-time access to customer-specific information ensures that no matter what type of products or plan options are requested, each presentation is produced in a consistent way, supporting the company’s brand appropriately and in a compliance-approved manner.
“In the past decade, agent portals have gone from a novelty to a necessity for insurers. In many cases, they are the primary channel of communication between agents and carriers,” said Matthew Josefowicz, manager of Celent’s insurance practice and lead author of the report. “The initiative at The Principal is an excellent example of a best practice that uses today’s technology to help insurers improve performance, meet market demands and operate efficiently.”
“The Principal is a forward-thinking, innovative enterprise that is using Dialogue to its fullest capacity to improve both internal productivity and the customer experience,” said Michael Charest, vice president of insurance solutions for Exstream Software. “We are very proud of Celent’s recognition, and congratulate The Principal on their industry-leading Dialogue application.”
About The Principal Financial Group
The Principal Financial Group® (The Principal ®)[1] is a leader in offering businesses, individuals and institutional clients a wide range of financial products and services, including retirement and investment services, life and health insurance, and banking through its diverse family of financial services companies and national network of financial professionals. A member of the Fortune 500, the Principal Financial Group has $215.0 billion in assets under management[2] and serves some 16.4 million customers worldwide from offices in Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Principal Financial Group, Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol PFG. For more information, visit www.principal.com.
About Exstream Software
Ranked among the world’s fastest growing technology companies, Exstream Software provides enterprise software solutions for businesses around the world to streamline document creation processes and produce higher quality, relevant communications of all types for delivery through print/mail and online channels. Companies in the financial services, insurance, healthcare, service provider, telecommunications, utilities, hospitality, retail, transportation, government and other industries benefit by getting communications to market as much as 85 percent faster, reducing document production costs up to 80 percent, and as much as tripling customer response. Visit Exstream at www.exstream.com, or contact +1 859-296-0600 or info@exstream.com for more information.
[1] "The Principal Financial Group" and “The Principal” are registered service marks of Principal Financial Services, Inc., a member of the Principal Financial Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
[2] As of September 30, 2006.