GUARD Recognized Among Model Carriers
May 12, 2007GUARD Insurance Group, a Workers’ Compensation specialist based in downtown Wilkes-Barre, was selected by Celent, LLC., to be featured in a 2007 Model Carrier Report that highlights case studies of effective usage of modern technology in insurance. GUARD’s Agency Service Center (ASC) was recognized as a “Model Carrier Component” for providing insurance agents and brokers with a secure, web-based means of managing their business with the company online.
Celent is a research and consulting firm focused on the application of information technology in the global financial services industry. As part of the organization’s mission, Celent gathers real world examples of effective practices to serve as benchmarks for IT infrastructure and management. According to Matthew Josefowicz, Managing Director of Celent’s insurance group and lead author of the report, “Our approach was to offer, at a high level, some key best practices in the use of technology across the product and policyholder lifecycle (product definition, distribution, underwriting, policy administration, service, billing, claims, reinsurance) and other general technology areas like infrastructure and management practices.”
GUARD’s ASC provides insurance agents and brokers with the ability to submit accounts for coverage and to engage in self-service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Development of the ASC was also part of a larger initiative to re-engineer internal workflow to take advantage of digital information and become paperless. The ability to enhance business-to-business interactions by making a blend of agency-specific and general information available via the Internet has enabled GUARD to reduce turnaround time on submissions from three days to fewer than four hours and has produced a substantial savings in print and postage costs related to policy processing.
All Model Carrier Components were recognized by Celent at a special awards program and conference in New York City. Representing GUARD at the conference were: Carl J. Witkowski, Executive Vice President of Information Systems and Chief Administrative Officer; Victor Ambruso, Senior Software Development Specialist; and Lisa Thompson, Director of Business Systems.
According to Witkowski, “Being a part of this report has reinforced GUARD’s placement amongst national and international industry professionals. This achievement clearly demonstrates that our local community in Northeastern Pennsylvania can deliver superior contributions to our industry worldwide.”
A Workers’ Compensation specialist, GUARD Insurance Group provides secure coverage and a wide range of extensive customer services to more than 33,000 businesses in 21 states and the District of Columbia.
