Offering Innovation to the Insurance Industry: Microsoft and Partners Attend ACORD

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Today, thousands of people return for the second day of the 2011 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, bringing together the best in insurance and technology. This year, Microsoft attends the conference (booth #403) with six key partners that offer innovative solutions to the industry: Wipro, Accenture, Hyland, Neudesic, VUE Software and Customer Effective.

 As we see it, technology is evolving at a blurring rate and is changing the way insurance firms operate, communicate and relate to their customers and each other. Just as Cindy Saccocia wrote in a recent post, we take note of some key trends that will be important for this industry:

  • Data proliferation is requiring heightened business intelligence
  • Cloud computing is enabling flexibility and accessibility in a borderless world
  • Technology-based sales and service solutions are becoming vital to evolutionary success
  • Companies are increasing employee retention and brand recognition through consumer-based technologies

 Together with our partners, Microsoft will be showing ACORD attendees just how these ideas can be put in place within their own organizations. Last night, Colin Cole, Industry Technology Strategist for Insurance, US Financial Services Group, discussed the architecture behind Microsoft’s public cloud platform, Azure, and trained attendees on how to begin to incorporate leverage a public cloud platform into their software offerings. As he shared, cloud technology gives insurance companies great flexibility in moving data from the back office to the PC, to mobile devices and across continents in an increasingly borderless world.

 Microsoft and our partners are also participating in the following events:

  • Monday, May 23, 10:45 a.m.: Cindy Saccocia, Director, U.S. Financial Services Group, Insurance, will lead “Four Principles of Leading Enterprise Insurance Companies”
  • Monday, May 23, 4:15 p.m.: Cindy Saccocia, Colin Cole and Kevin Clay, Industry Marketing Development Manager, Insurance, will lead “Modernize Insurance Processes with Cloud, Mobility, and Collaboration”
  • Monday, May 23, 5:15 p.m.: Accenture will lead “Accenture in Insurance”
  • Monday, May 23, 6:30 p.m.: Colin Cole and Customer Effective will lead “Leveraging Mobility to Drive Connected Experiences”
  • Tuesday, May 24 1:05 p.m.: Brian Hartlen, Vice President of Marketing at Varicent will lead “Keys to Success with Sales Performance Management”

We look forward to sharing more insights gathered at this year’s conference. For additional information on industry trends and Microsoft’s participation at ACORD, please visit our Insurance Industry website.