Earnix and Its Strategic Partners

Combining Technology and Expertise to Maximize Customer Success

When speaking about any significant undertaking, we often hear the expression “it takes a village,” meaning that optimal results are achieved through the efforts of many partners working together.

This is true in the insurance solutions world, especially when considering something as core to the business as pricing, with its far-reaching tentacles of analytics, data, underwriting, telematics, IoT, personalization, and customization. And its broader context of providing world-class customer experiences.

We recently caught up with Ruth Fisk, Earnix’s Head of Business Development, and she shared with us how the Earnix partner program works, and the value it brings to Earnix customers. Read on to see how combining technology and expertise can help you maximize customer success.

Earnix: Ruth, starting at the highest level, and from the view of customers, what do Earnix partners bring to the table, what do they do?

Ruth Fisk: Earnix is focused on building the best possible software for intelligent, AI-driven interactions between insurance carriers and their customers. And while our technology is an integral part of the equation, there are many other pieces that go into delivering a customized, total solution.

Insurers are looking at every aspect of their relationships with customers, from the sales and marketing required to get them interested, to acquisition, then all the way through long-term account servicing, claims management, policy renewal, the whole bit. And, many parts of the carrier organization are involved, not just the pricing people, but senior leadership, IT, regulatory, etc.

Our strategic partners provide the complementary pieces that bring maximum value to customers by wrapping their technology and services around Earnix software.

Earnix: You mentioned technology, I assume there may be other technology that comes into play?

Ruth: Absolutely. Our technology partners bring capabilities that complement and/or extend the Earnix solution. Typically we're integrating to bring the two solutions together to uniquely help solve customer problems.

I think our strategic partnership with Guidewire is a great example. It’s a two-way partnership – they’re part of our Technology Partner Program, and Earnix has joined Guidewire PartnerConnect as a Solution partner at the Advantage level of their program.

That allows us to work closely together with Guidewire to integrate our complementary technologies, saving insurers time and bringing them the best technology combination possible.

For example, Earnix Price-ItTM is a best-of-breed pricing engine, and Guidewire delivers the industry-leading core policy management system. Smart insurers want both, but don’t want to undertake the integration themselves.

Our joint efforts with Guidewire have resulted in The Earnix Price-It™ for Guidewire Accelerator, a pre-built, real-time, bi-directional Guidewire integration that helps insurers save time, eliminate manual steps, and increase their productivity. That helps them develop more competitive products faster, win more business, and increase their profitability.

Earnix: But we’re still only part way there, I would say. What about all the other pieces that insurers need to do business effectively?

Ruth: You’re right. And that’s where Systems Integrators (SIs) enter the equation.

Most insurers are familiar with SIs and what they do, so I won’t take time for that. In fact, some of the larger carriers may already have dozens or hundreds of SI staff working in-house on all sorts of systems and solutions, building, integrating, and maintaining them over the lifetime of those solutions.

We’re fortunate to have four of the premier SIs in the business as our partners – Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, and Sollers. They’re all prominent within the industry, they're well-respected and trusted.

Each of them has spun up an Earnix practice, staffed with teams of people around the world who are trained and certified in Earnix technology, other complementary technologies like Guidewire, and of course the insurance industry and how it operates.

That’s an incredible combination of skills that allows insurers to contract for a complete, specific solution for pricing, and make sure it works with other systems like underwriting, regulatory, sales, channel management, customer service, and claims processing.

For insurers, the bottom line is that the SIs’ expertise helps us design and implement very robust pricing strategies, while at the same time streamline implementation and ensure the solution is aligned with industry best practices.

At the end of the day, insurers can more easily achieve their advanced analytics, rating, pricing, and underwriting modernization, but at the same time drive tremendous results in operational efficiency and speed to market.

Earnix: We hear from pretty much every insurer that they’re swimming in data, but don’t always know how to put it to use, or that sometimes they don’t have the specific data they need for good decisions. Do Earnix partners have answers for them?

Ruth: I’d say there are two aspects to that.

The first need, especially with internally-available data, can be met by the SIs and Earnix, looking across the carrier’s organization, cataloguing what’s available, organizing it, and putting it to use through analytics that are driven by AI and ML.

In other situations, insurance analysts and actuaries may need data sources that are only available outside the organization, and can use help finding the best sources.

I'll give you an example. What if insurers are looking at risk from something like climate change, since they’ve been asked to insure crops for the coming growing season, or model the impact of potential wildfires, hurricanes, floods, whatever.

Our job is to help identify the right data sources for that risk assessment work, and partner with data providers who can supply the data. Add with those data providers, working with Earnix, the SIs, and the carrier’s internal teams, we’re getting closer to assembling a complete solution.

Earnix: So I guess that means there’s still another piece of that total solution?

Ruth: Yes, the final piece is the infrastructure needed to deploy that solution.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is our infrastructure partner, and all Earnix implementations are hosted at AWS.

AWS is known world-wide for its scalability, seamless technology integration, robust security, and for providing agile, flexible deployment options. That enables Earnix and its partners to provide more comprehensive and powerful solutions to our customers, ultimately improving processes and driving better business outcomes.

Earnix: That’s quite a compelling story.

Ruth: We think partnering with Earnix brings tremendous value not just to customers, but also to our partners. They gain access to our technology and expertise on how to apply it, and connections to new business opportunities they might not uncover on their own.

Earnix: Are there other partnerships in the works?

Ruth: We’re constantly looking at potential new partnerships, as customers’ needs evolve and we see specific requirements that can be met best by third parties – skillsets or products or services that complement what Earnix does. Stay tuned on that front.

Earnix: That’s a story that should sound appealing to partners who want to join the program. How would they let you know there’s interested in partnering with Earnix?

Ruth: That’s easy – just contact us here.

Earnix: Ruth, thanks for your time and the holistic view of the partner program at Earnix.

Ruth: You’re welcome. Here’s to continuing to grow our family of happy customers and partners.