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1 INSERT COMPANY LOGO HERE 2014 Frost & Sullivan 1 We Accelerate Growth

2 Product Leadership Award Retail Product Protection North America, 2014 Frost & Sullivan s Global Research Platform Frost & Sullivan is in its 50th year in business with a global research organization of 1,800 analysts and consultants who monitor more than 300 industries and 250,000 companies. The company s research philosophy originates with the CEO s 360-Degree Perspective, which serves as the foundation of its TEAM Research methodology. This unique approach enables us to determine how best-in-class companies worldwide manage growth, innovation and leadership. Based on the findings of this Best Practices research, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2014 North American Award for Product Leadership in Retail Product Protection to Asurion. Key Industry Challenges Selecting a Suitable Partner for Retail Product Protection The adoption of retail product protection plans continues to increase in the United States. Frost & Sullivan estimates the total US retail product protection market size to be approximately $8 -$10 billion across consumer electronics, appliances, jewelry, sporting goods, furniture, and other product categories. Well-structured retail product protection programs can help retailers improve customer satisfaction, increase customer loyalty, increase store visits, and increase revenues. Retail protection is a complex business, which is best handled by providers that can ensure strict quality controls over every aspect of the customer support process. It is therefore critical for retailers to work with providers that have the required expertise in managing the complex supply chain and logistics for product repairs and replacements. Providers that offer a full suite of related value added services (VAS) consisting of comprehensive pre-sales and post-sales technical support (in addition to other standard services), deliver greater customer value and contribute to the success of the retail product protection program. Investment in field training is also a critical parameter that retailers should consider when selecting a suitable partner. Other important attributes that retailers should consider when selecting a retail product protection partner include: effective reporting and analytics; retailer brand promotion (i.e. ability to support a whitelabeled program); and advanced self-serve solutions that allow customers to fully manage their protection experience. Identifying a suitable partner for retail product protection that offers all these functionalities is a major challenge for leading retailers in the United States Frost & Sullivan 2 We Accelerate Growth

3 Optimizing Retail Product Protection Operations through Omni-channel Marketing, and Big Data A retail product protection provider s multi-channel marketing approach and reporting and analytics capabilities can help retailers optimize the success of their retail product protection programs. A substantial percentage of retail sales take place online and via the mobile channel. Therefore, developing effective omni-channel marketing strategies are critical to ensure adoption of retail product protection plans. Understanding the trends in loss ratios, failure rates, and the mean time between failures for products can help retailers optimize their retail product protection operations as well. Thus it is particularly important to leverage advanced reporting and analytics tools to ensure success of retail product protection programs. Using effective in-store and digital marketing, and leveraging data analytics to continuously optimize retail product protection programs and enhance the operational focus are major industry challenges. Changing Consumer Perception about Retail Warranties Retail product protection providers have done well in establishing category awareness and adoption of retail product protection plans among consumers in the United States. However, a small percentage of consumers are still wary of purchasing retail product protection plans. An unsatisfactory customer experience will inherently lead to lack of confidence in the ability of the retail product protection provider to deliver a pain free consumer experience. This is the primary reason for disinclination to purchase a retail product protection plan. To overcome this challenge, retail product protection providers should maintain open communication with consumers, and deliver services in a transparent manner. They should also leverage social media to influence and drive meaningful customer engagement to generate positive sentiments for their offerings. Connected Products Drive Need for Post Sale Support Connected consumer electronics and appliances are increasingly becoming central to consumers daily lives. With ubiquitous connectivity and advances in home automation, there are challenges to provide comprehensive protection offerings. While smarter products may or may not fail at a higher frequency, they create complexity and interoperability issues that often require more technical support than what OEMs typically offer. These emerging needs provide an opportunity for retail product protection plans to include post-sale technical support as a value added enhancement. Best Practice Award Analysis for Asurion For the Product Leadership Award, the following criteria were used to benchmark Asurion s performance against key competitors: Product Features/Functionality 2014 Frost & Sullivan 3 We Accelerate Growth

4 Innovative Element of the Product Product Acceptance in the Marketplace Provides Customer Value Enhancements Product Quality Decision Support Matrix and Measurement Criteria To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Matrix (DSM). The DSM is an analytical tool that compares companies performance relative to each other with an integration of quantitative and qualitative metrics. The DSM features criteria unique to each Award category and ranks importance by assigning weights to each criterion. The relative weighting reflects current market conditions and illustrates the associated importance of each criterion according to Frost & Sullivan. Fundamentally, each DSM is distinct for each market and Award category. The DSM allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze each company's performance on each criterion relative to its top competitors and assign performance ratings on that basis. The DSM follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are shown in Chart 1. Chart 1: Performance-Based Ratings for Decision Support Matrix This exercise encompasses all criteria, leading to a weighted average ranking of each company. Researchers can then easily identify the company with the highest ranking. As a final step, the research team confirms the veracity of the model by ensuring that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies Frost & Sullivan 4 We Accelerate Growth

5 Features/Functionality Innovative Element of the Product Product Acceptance in the Marketplace Provides Customer Value Enhancements Product Quality Weighted Rating BEST PRACTICES RESEARCH Chart 2: Frost & Sullivan s 10-Step Process for Identifying Award Recipients Best Practice Award Analysis for Asurion The Decision Support Matrix, shown in Chart 3, illustrates the relative importance of each criterion for the Product Leadership of the Year Award and the ratings for each company under evaluation. To protect the interests of the award recipient s competitors, we have chosen to refer to them as Competitor 1 and Competitor 2. Chart 3: Decision Support Matrix for Product Leadership Award Measurement of 1 10 (1 = lowest; 10 = highest) Award Criteria Relative Weight (%) 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 100% Asurion Competitor Competitor Frost & Sullivan 5 We Accelerate Growth

6 Asurion s Performance in Retail Product Protection Asurion Retail Solutions, a division of global technology protection provider Asurion, provides integrated, end to end product protection solutions. Available online and at over 34,000 retail storefronts, Asurion Retail Solutions is supported by 2,100+ US based employees. With more than 150 million active contracts under management Asurion is the market leader in the North American retail product protection industry. Key success factors for Asurion are presented below. Product Features and Functionality Asurion is a leading provider of retailer-branded retail product protection solutions in North America. The company offers retail protection solutions for a wide range of products (including consumer electronics, home appliances, lawn and garden equipment, power tools and equipment, jewelry, etc.), along with a wide range of value added services or VAS (such as pre and post sales technical support, technology refresh programs, and selflearning product tutorials). A comprehensive portfolio of retail product protection solutions allows Asurion to provide retailers with everything they need for their retail product protection program. Asurion also has international capabilities and strong relationships with wireless carrier channels, which gives it a unique position to offer loss and theft services to retailers that offer a broader set of mobile computing products. Unlike most other providers, Asurion offers comprehensive customer lifecycle services by leveraging in-house assets to support its retail customers services strategy. The company currently has the largest, actively managed network of service provider in North America consisting of over 35,000 service providers that are screened to make sure that the same, high quality experience is delivered for customers across all product categories. More importantly, Asurion has optimized the end-to-end experience for consumers by product category, which is a clear differentiator for Asurion in the North American retail product protection market. New Product Innovation Asurion has invested in the right assets and has successfully integrated the core building blocks in a seamless and coherent manner to deliver a comprehensive retail product protection offering. It consistently enhances its consumer and services talent and technology to lead the transformation of the retail product protection sector. The company has a legacy of first-to-market product, operational and customer experience innovations. For example, in 2006, Asurion became the first entity to offer full 50-state compliant Accidental Damage from Handling (ADH) product to retailers, which is a key milestone in the industry. Examples of other recent innovations include a sophisticated online customer portal (Asurion solution hub) that allows customers to fully manage their protection service, file and track a claim, and schedule a repair or choose a replacement option. Asurion s solution hub enhances the range of fulfillment options for product replacements 2014 Frost & Sullivan 6 We Accelerate Growth

7 and expands multi-channel communication capabilities. By investing in self-serve and by providing greater choices to consumers that use Asurion s services, Asurion continues to remain at the forefront of product innovation in the North American retail product protection industry. Product Acceptance in the Marketplace Asurion s Retail Solutions division is exclusively focused on working with online and instore retailers to help them address the unique retail product protection requirements of their customer base. It currently works with leading retailers in North America including Wal Mart Stores, Inc., Target Corporation, The Home Depot, GameStop, and many others. The division is primarily focused on offering retailer branded protection programs that help to drive the customer loyalty benefit back to major retailers. An attractive service offering, along with strong relationships with leading retailers in North America has helped establish Asurion as a market leader in retail product protection programs in North America. Provides Customer Value Enhancements Asurion s customer service experience is second to none. Even while a majority of consumers still prefer to call in when they need a service, Asurion has continued to respond and adapt to the digital revolution, from implementing the industry s first selfservice online capability in 2008 to its latest investments in Asurion s solution hub to allow consumers to fully manage all aspects of their service experience including product registration, claims management, live support, and technical support. For retailers, Asurion does not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach and has instead focused on providing a fully customizable platform that meets their specific objectives in order to drive customer engagement, brand value, share of wallet, and store visits. The company is renowned for post-sales technical support capabilities, which are delivered through inhouse Asurion assets (and not through a third-party which often results in a fragmented consumer experience). Asurion also offers industry leading client training and reporting capabilities to help retailers analyze, target, and improve the performance of their retail product protection programs. The Company also has a strong portfolio of underwriter partnerships and can provide effective reporting and quick time to market which is a significant benefit for retailers that want to efficiently implement customized protection programs. Product Quality By delivering a high-quality customer experience across all product categories, Asurion continues to remain the preferred choice of leading retailers in North America. The company not only offers product protection services, it also commits to the success of its retail customers retail product protection initiatives through strategic in-store, and online/mobile marketing. For example, Asurion works closely with retailers to develop an 2014 Frost & Sullivan 7 We Accelerate Growth

8 optimal in-store marketing strategies, and also helps retailers design and distribute sales collateral nationwide. Innovative solutions to help promote retail product protection in online, mobile, and retail POS environments include the PlanScan patent-pending mapping technology, and the PlanSmart suite of marketing tools (consisting of SmartContent, SmartAdvice, SmartSite, and SmartChooser technologies). Conclusion Retail protection is a complex business, which is best handled by providers that can ensure strict quality controls over every aspect of the customer support process. By providing industry-leading product capabilities, sales enablement, customer support, and marketing capabilities, Asurion has established itself as a category leader in retail product protection. Retailers that partner with Asurion can focus on their traditional business and let Asurion manage all aspects of their retail product protection offerings. The 2014 North American Product Leadership Award in Retail Product Protection is presented to Asurion in recognition of its impressive market achievements Frost & Sullivan 8 We Accelerate Growth

9 The CEO 360-Degree Perspective TM - Visionary Platform for Growth Strategies The CEO 360-Degree Perspective model provides a clear illustration of the complex business universe in which CEOs and their management teams live today. It represents the foundation of Frost & Sullivan's global research organization and provides the basis on which companies can gain a visionary and strategic understanding of the market. The CEO 360-Degree Perspective is also a must-have requirement for the identification and analysis of best-practice performance by industry leaders. The CEO 360-Degree Perspective model enables our clients to gain a comprehensive, action-oriented understanding of market evolution and its implications for their companies growth strategies. As illustrated in Chart 5 below, the following six-step process outlines how our researchers and consultants embed the CEO 360-Degree Perspective into their analyses and recommendations. Chart 4: How the CEO's 360-Degree Perspective Model Directs Our Research 2014 Frost & Sullivan 9 We Accelerate Growth

10 Critical Importance of TEAM Research Frost & Sullivan s TEAM Research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all seven of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Our experience has shown over the years that companies too often make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Frost & Sullivan contends that successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. In that vein, the letters T, E, A and M reflect our core technical, economic, applied (financial and best practices) and market analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the TEAM Research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for creating high-potential growth strategies for our clients. Chart 5: Benchmarking Performance with TEAM Research About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit Frost & Sullivan 10 We Accelerate Growth