IASA members will get an opportunity to be part of innovation when the association selects this year's Technology Innovation Award.

Rather than name the award winner during the IASA's annual conference, award coordinators will unveil the top three finalists during the gathering this week. Then, later this year, for the first time, the award winner will be selected in September at the IASA's Executive Edge conference. In another first, association members will participate in selecting the award winner.

The revised award format is designed to benefit IASA members by showcasing far more information about outstanding technological developments, according to award coordinators Celeska Fredianelli and Leah Hollstegge.

As has been the case every year since the Technology Innovation Award's inception in 2008 — when the honor was called the Technology Award — only insurance companies are eligible. Vendors, however, could nominate award candidates, even when the vendor and insurer collaborated on a technology innovation, notes Fredianelli, a Southfield, Mich.-based vice president-financial planning and analysis at QBE North America. And, as always, insurers could submit nominations for technology that they developed alone in house, she says.

Fredianelli notes that IASA modified the award's name three years ago to stress that it “was not just about technology but that it also relates to something on the cutting edge.” IASA wants to recognize technological developments that are creative and have had “a big impact” on the performance of the insurers that are implementing the technology, she says.

“This (innovation) might put you a step ahead of other carriers or competitors,” Fredianelli says.

But when the award was presented at past IASA annual conferences, she, as a conference attendee, wanted more information not only about the winning technology but also about its top competition.

“I thought there was great educational content in these submissions that we weren't using as best we could,” she says. “It seemed a shame to have a lot of wonderful innovations that went away without sharing that information.”

So this year, the judging panel will select the top three finalists, rather than the award winner. The finalists will be selected by an eight-person panel consisting of the IASA's current and future chief information officers and representatives of insurers, consulting or analyst groups and the media.

Because the award winner will not be determined until later in the year, the nomination deadline was extended this year, notes Hollstegge, a director at insurer management consultant Ward Group of Cincinnati. Ward has sponsored the award since it was created.

In addition, rather than having to demonstrate the impact that new technology had on organizations as of year-end 2012, that cut-off date was pushed back to the end of 2013's first quarter.

At the Executive Edge Conference, scheduled for Sept. 29-30 at the Marriott Hartford Downtown hotel in Hartford, Conn., each of the finalists will be asked to make a presentation about their new technology the second day of the conference. The presentations will serve a dual purpose, Fredianelli explains: It will give the nominees one more chance to champion their submissions, and IASA members will have the opportunity to learn about an innovation that could benefit their own organizations.

After the presentations, the winner will be determined through a new, yet-to-be announced process that will give Executive Edge attendees a vote in the selection.

With more nominees having a greater role in the process and IASA members participating in the award selection, “It's a win-win across the group,” Hollstegge maintains, noting that nominations this year are especially detailed, including evidence on the new technologies' business impact. She says greater detail likely is the result of submitters getting more comfortable with IASA's nomination requirements.

Fredianelli and Hollstegge stress that nominations must be detailed, particularly on an innovation's business impact.

“That will provide great food for thought” for other IASA members, Fredianelli says. “Could I do something like that, though it may not be the exact same thing?”

Special Reports /

New Twist on IASA Technology Innovation Award

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