(Broadway, New York City, home of Resonant. Photo credit: Beyond My Ken.)
iPipeline (Exton, Pa.) a provider of cloud-based software solutions for the life insurance industry announced the acquisition of Resonant (New York), a provider of Integrated Life Underwriting Solutions (ILUS). The acquisition is directed at meeting the demand of life insurers, who need to achieve higher levels of automation for underwriting activities, according to iPipeline CEO Tim Wallace.
“Although underwriting has been traditionally a manual, labor intensive activity, it can be substantially automated by addressing the complete lifecycle,” comments Wallace. “Resonant’s unique ILUS is driven entirely by customer-stated guidelines, which are based on business decisions and processes, so this allows insurers to easily manage products and their operational and underwriting guidelines.
Resonant’s self-service capabilities allow insurers to define, manage products, and operationalize underwriting guidelines in a Microsoft Word-like format, according to an iPipeline statement. The vendor claims that Resonant’s customers experience a 30 percent productivity improvement and a 90 percent faster pace of change without affecting compliance.
Taking the Complexity out of Underwriting Tasks
“Our goal is to take the complexity out of the underwriting tasks through automation while allowing each insurer to manage to their risks,” Wallace adds. “The acquisition of Resonant will enable our customers to achieve greater operational efficiencies and speed-to-market advantages to fuel growth.”
“This is an interesting move by iPipeline to further expand their capabilities in bringing a more holistic view of the New Business process,” comments Chris Eberly, VP Research and Consulting at Novarica (Boston). “Straight-through processing is a key component of improving both customer experience and carrier economics. Products like Resonant will also help bring IT and their business partners closer together as these products enable a more direct interface to the business process owners. Integration of products and the servicing model is key to drive the greatest efficiency opportunities for carriers and distributors.”
Resonant’s ILUS features the Adaptive Process Platform, which iPipeline describes as addressing the complete lifecycle of the new business and underwriting process, starting with guideline definition, case management, decision support, and real-time monitoring of all business decisions and processes. The Adaptive Process Platform aggregates information gathered from users and third party vendors and can straight-through automate and process compliant cases, whether they are medically underwritten or jet underwritten. Resonant’s ILUS also facilitates underwriter decisions when needed and manages all activity in the end-to-end new business and underwriting process. Stated guidelines direct all actions and decisions taken, according to iPipeline.
“Most insurers find that their underwriting technology has yet to achieve a high level of effectiveness,” comments Brian Falkenhainer, founder and CEO, Resonant. “This is what is unique about Resonant’s ILUS. We fit a sweet spot that no one else has been able to fill.”
“As a complement to iPipeline’s industry-leading platform, we offer today’s most advanced new business and underwriting solution at the industry’s lowest cost of ownership, with deployment in as little as 90-days,” Falkenhainer adds. We are confident that our ILUS will serve as a strong addition to the iPipeline platform.”
Continuing Acquisition Strategy
“We are excited to welcome the Resonant employees as part of our team. Dr. Falkenhainer and his team have built a great technology and customer base that fits well with our product portfolio as we continue to pursue strategic acquisitions to complement our platform,” comments Larry Berran, COO & CFO, iPipeline. “Resonant is carving out a leadership position in the deployment of next-generation ILUS, and we are pleased to offer this solution to our customer base.”
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