Oregon Mutual Insurance (OMI) has been named winner of the 2012Technology Innovation Award for the development of its MiAgentsiPad application, which converts routine agency visits into a callto action that is relevant at the moment for the carrier and theagency. The award is sponsored by Ward Group and IASA.

OMI's Bryan Fowler, vice president of IT for OMI, was presentedthe award Tuesday morning at the general session by Beth Mercier,CIO for IASA and vice president for Travelers, and Jeffrey Rieder,partner for Ward Group.

“The judging committee was impressed by OMI's innovative way ofchanging the conversations with their independent agents,” saysRieder. “The MiAgents application drives new business growth andretention in this competitive marketplace. They have found a way toquantify subjective agency visits into actionable fieldintelligence utilized to manage strategic decisions.”

MiAgents devotes attention to one of the most critical businessfunctions: the carrier/agency partnership, according to Rieder.MiAgents gives agents and marketing representatives early warninginformation on key business components that affect their book ofbusiness, such as renewals, production alerts, and large-lossinformation.

The application allows OMI to manage their agents and tomeasurably help agents be successful in their business, accordingto Rieder. The application gives marketing the power to turnroutine agency visits into actionable business-building meetings,with information that is relevant at the moment. The applicationalso strengthens OMI's relationship with their agencyforce.

The automation of operational alerts allows OMI's agents tospend more time in the field gathering intelligence about theirbusiness, products, prices, and services. This intelligenceis quantified through the MiAgents application and brought back tomarketing and executive management to analyze for trends andactionable intelligence.

The results of this project were judged by an industry panel as“innovative” and “delivering measurable business impact in theinsurance industry,” according to Rieder.

The industry panel that participated in judging of the awardsubmissions included individuals from Arrowhead Insurance Group,Tech Decisions, Insurance Networking News,Strategy Meets Action, Travelers, and Ward Group.

“This initiative shows our continued investment in the agencypartnership model by providing relevant, real-time data andinformation, facilitating the business conversation between OregonMutual Insurance and our agents,” says Fowler. “By arming ourmarketing reps with real-time intelligence and making trip reportsand field intelligence quantifiable, we are moving fromunder-informed agency visits to action oriented businesssessions.”

Leah Hollstegge, manager for Ward Group and organizer of thejudging process, reports that the 2012 competition doubled thenumber of entrants from last year with 20 applications presented tothe committee for consideration.

“The quality of applicants is getting better every year,” saysHollstegge. “We're also getting a more diverse group of companies.There are small and large companies. It's a wide subset, which issomething I noticed more this year than in previous years.”

Hollstegge also noticed a change in the contest submissions,with a good number of them built exclusively by the entrants.

“When we started this contest seven years ago it was mainlyvendor submissions, but now we see many more company submissions,”she says. “There is a larger number of companies that want to gettheir innovation recognized. It's generally still the trend forpolicy and claims to be 'buy' solutions, but some of theapplications are being built by carriers on top of those coresystems.”

Additionally, the judging panel selected another submission forhonorable mention in this year's award process. AccessInsurance was awarded an honorable mention for the company's iPadapplication, Access Sales Assistant, which streamlined the processof territory sales managers and redefined their workflow.