CM Select Deploys Sunlight Solutions’ Cloud-Based Insurance Platform

The insurer chose the solution to enable market disruption through rapid deployment and configurability, influenced by a successful deployment at another Church Mutual subsidiary.  

(Image source: CM Select homepage.)

CM Select Insurance Company, a newly launched, wholly owned subsidiary of Church Mutual Insurance Company (Merrill, Wisc.), has deployed Sunlight Solutions’ (Minneapolis) Sunlight Enterprise cloud insurance platform offering. The Sunlight Enterprise solution is completely web-based and delivered through the cloud, according a vendor statement. CM Select provides insurance designed specifically to meet the needs of smaller religious organizations of all denominations, offering BOP property and liability insurance.

Kurt Brandau, President, CM Select.

Through its cloud deployment, the solution enables CM Select to offer direct-to-customer Commercial BOP product for smaller religious organizations, giving the insurer a significant competitive advantage by successfully introducing new ways to simplify the insurance buying process, according to Kurt Brandau, President, CM Select.

“We have successfully disrupted the market by being the first to offer a simplified on-line insurance purchasing experience for faith-based organizations, Brandau comments. “The fully digital Sunlight Solutions platform combined with our portal enable us to offer insurance directly to churches, especially smaller churches, providing convenient, easy-to-purchase coverage that is specific to each organization’s unique needs.”

Sunlight Enterprise is currently supporting CM Select’s policy issue (including underwriting and endorsements), billing, producer commissions, and claims. CM Select performed a gap analysis in April 2017, and subsequently selected Sunlight Solutions, going into production in August 2018.

Configurability Addressing Business Nuances

“We opted to evaluate the Sunlight Solutions platform after the successful deployment of the system at CM Vantage Specialty, which also is a wholly owned subsidiary of Church Mutual,” comments Lester Smith, VP, CIO, CM Select. “We were impressed with the system’s flexibility and configurability to address the nuances of our business as well as its ability to handle our end-to-end processes. The cloud delivery made it especially attractive to enable quick deployment and minimal infrastructure investment.”

Among the benefits enjoyed by CM Select with the deployment of Sunlight Enterprise are the following, by Sunlight Solutions’ description:

Bernadette Wudarski, Business Director, Sunlight Solutions.

  • The ability for the new insurance company to quickly begin processing business;
  • A competitive advantage in CM Select’s target market;
  • Highly efficient end-to-end insurance processing;
  • Ease of doing business for the customer;
  • Easily expanded capabilities as the business grows with new products and states; and
  • Anytime, anywhere access via the cloud-based implementation.

“CM Select represents yet another successful Azure cloud implementation for our insurance suite and further validates the quality of our cloud-based offering,” comments Bernadette Wudarski, Business Director, Sunlight Solutions. “We are especially pleased that we have now successfully delivered two successful projects for Church Mutual Insurance Company, CM Select and CM Vantage. We extend our congratulations to the CM Select team for a job well done and we are gratified for the role we were able to play in this successful effort.”

The vendor describes Sunlight Enterprise as a modern solution built on Microsoft technology, with capabilities designed to enhance the end-to-end insurance processes: product configuration, system configuration, analytics, marketing, network management, reporting, and social communication, in addition to core basics—customer management, policy, billing, claims, rules engine, reporting and workflow.

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Anthony R. O’Donnell // Anthony O'Donnell is Executive Editor of Insurance Innovation Reporter. For nearly two decades, he has been an observer and commentator on the use of information technology in the insurance industry, following industry trends and writing about the use of IT across all sectors of the insurance industry. He can be reached at AnthODonnell@IIReporter.com or (503) 936-2803.

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