2013 North American Automotive Usage Based Insurance Customer Value Enhancement Award

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1 2013 North American Automotive Usage Based Insurance Customer Value Enhancement Award 2013

2 Customer Value Enhancement Award Automotive Usage Based Insurance North America, 2013 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 2013 North American Customer Value Enhancement Award in Automotive Usage Based Insurance to Sprint s Integrated Insurance Solutions (ISS) unit. Significance of the Customer Value Enhancement Award Key Industry Challenges Addressed by Superior Customer Solutions The market for automotive passenger and commercial fleet insurance is at a competitive stage where differences in product offering among insurance providers pose the biggest challenge. Fuel economy and emission norms are finding greater magnitude and are the most sought-after attributes in the North American automotive industry. Insurance companies are swarmed by accident insurance claims due to risky driving behavior, while fleet management companies and managers report to Frost & Sullivan that they are feeling the pressure due to non-fuel-efficient driving habits, which lead to higher insurance premiums. Usage-based insurance is being considered by many insurance companies as an alternative to help reduce their claims or curb insurance premiums levied on policy holders. Government regulations for fuel economy and emissions are getting more rigorous; for example, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) has called for a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from California s transportation fuels by The commercial vehicle segments are facing strong regulations encompassing emissions, and Frost & Sullivan tracks the many states in the U.S. and provinces in Canada that are implementing anti-idling regulations that limit vehicle idling time. Frost & Sullivan notes that proper knowledge of driving behavior and patterns will help insurance companies assess and assist the industry in cutting down on its premiums and claim rates Frost & Sullivan 1 We Accelerate Growth

3 Insurance companies have relied on many solution providers to address these challenges. Sprint, through its Integrated Insurance Solutions unit, has certainly addressed this challenge by becoming more like a telematics service provider, aiding insurance companies with end-to-end overviews and assistance with the UBI value chain. In addition, Sprint s ISS unit has also nicely addressed the three core areas of apprehension in this space: safety, savings, and productivity. Best Practice Award Analysis for Sprint s Integrated Insurance Solutions The Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award is presented each year to the company that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. This Award recognizes the company's inordinate focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and ultimately customer base expansion. Sprint s Integrated Insurance Solutions (ISS) Unit s Performance in the Automotive Usage Based Insurance (UBI) Space Sprint s ability to provide insurance companies with an end-to-end overview of all the necessary elements in the UBI value chain has begun carving a niche for itself in the usage-based insurance segment. The company s ability to help insurers collect real-time vehicle data to monitor and assess customers driving behavior by forming partnerships with related UBI value chain members has put it in the forefront of small and mediumsized insurance companies looking to foray into this space. Key Performance Drivers for Sprint s ISS Frost & Sullivan independent benchmarking across market participants reveals that the key performance drivers that have helped Sprint achieve true customer value enhancement are as follows: Factor 1: Commitment to Deliver Superior Customer Value The auto insurance market is characterized by highly volatile user preferences, and the key challenge is in meeting the different needs of customers accurately. With privacy and data security being the key issues in this area, Sprint has adhered to standards by building secure wireless network platforms that can accommodate almost any application, in any vertical market, both efficiently and cost effectively. The company is also a part of the ACORD (Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development) board, which sets insurance data standards, be it for OEMs or aftermarket vendors. This is one 2012 Frost & Sullivan 2 We Accelerate Growth

4 of the reasons why Sprint is one of the first North American telecom providers to become a telematics service provider in the UBI space. Frost & Sullivan feels that this crucial step further enhances the assurance for insurance companies and, in turn, helps ensure that their customers can rely on data confidentiality and integrity. Sprint s Involvement in the UBI Value Chain - the Life source for Insurance Companies Sprint offers an integrated UBI solution through various partnerships with companies like Agnik, Any DATA, and Modus for insurance companies. Sprint provides the five essential elements for insurance companies to work around a successful UBI program: connectivity, device, application portals, operations/logistics, and customer care. Connectivity is provided by Sprint s 3G network, whereas the plug-and-play devices come from hardware suppliers such as Cal Amp and L1. Operations and logistics are taken care of in the form of order taking, device management, provisioning, etc. Customer care is enabled through after-sales support, project management, and other associated benefits for its customers. The application portal is showcased through customizable solutions, alerts, data hosting platforms, etc. Sprint s integrated insurance solutions will empower small- to medium-sized insurance companies, allowing them to help provide their end users direct control of their insurance premiums. Frost & Sullivan believes that this is likely to influence governments to bestow further tax discounts for insurance companies and policyholders adopting this method. Factor 2: Unique Benefits for Insurance Companies Insurance fraud is common throughout the world. Conventional insurance systems lose track of the customer after policy purchase. Sprint s insurance division acts as a telematics service provider to their customers and clearly understands the vitality and significance of the data collected from the onboard device. Their in-house UBI program expertise remains a tool to keep track of customers, and the data transmitted through their own wireless carrier to their own servers helps prevent fraudulent claims. Increased premiums for late-night driving will curb night driving, thereby reducing the risk of accidents. As usage-based systems facilitate dynamic risk calculation, this approach can positively influence users driving behavior, thereby reducing accidents. Fewer accidents means lesser claims and has a direct impact on companies profits. Sprint s turnkey approaches for insurance companies enables insurers to calculate risk more accurately, which will help them price the service aggressively. Sprint s partnership with Agnik, which develops analytical tools such as Mine Drive and 2012 Frost & Sullivan 3 We Accelerate Growth

5 Vyncs, helps identify risks more accurately based on vehicle or individual driver behavior, which shows its commitment to providing maximum benefits to the insurance companies and the UBI market. This suite of Web-based tools aid with data mining, clustering, predictive modeling, and segmentation, offering insurance companies actuarial analysis. These actuarial analyses assist insurance companies with tracking; Mine Drive aids administrators of insurance companies with vehicle information/data and with the ability to support new product offers such as teen driver plans, whereas Vyncs is a family management tool (designed for households with several cars). Factor 3: Ability to Incorporate Value-Added Services A secure network platform, combined with data transfer functionality, creates opportunities for end users to subscribe to services like emergency calls, remote vehicle diagnostics, and others, thus providing an opportunity for the industry to standardize data transfer methodology. This is a definite revenue-generating model for service providers. However, there has been no successful implementation of a business model that charges consumers for the technology, as the market for usage-based insurance is still in a medium growth phase. Apart from creating an avenue to provide value-added opportunities for members of the usage-based insurance value chain, Sprint provides a multitude of them for its customers. Value added services such as Web-based automated provisioning, management and customer support, reverse logistics, warehousing, etc., have helped showcase the company s expertise in the M2M space. The company s marketing team and agents work in tandem to market their UBI value propositions to all members of the value chain that deliver attractive return on investment and fast payback to those who employ these systems. One such example is the company s relationship with Esurance, a partnership that started off as an UBI pilot program in Arizona. The success of this has seen Esurance launch their first UBI offering in Texas, offering consumers discounts of up to 30 percent based on their driving habits. Sprint is currently offering a UBI trial program called Jump Start for three months. This program will enable insurance carriers to evaluate the company s service before implementing it with their customers. Sprint s pioneering efforts in delivering enhanced customer value through its flexible and customized turnkey offerings to insurance companies and policyholders make it the worthiest recipient of the Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award. Conclusion The 2013 Frost & Sullivan Customer Value Enhancement Award is presented to Sprint s Integrated Insurance Solutions (ISS) unit in the automotive usage-based insurance market. The Award is in recognition of the company s superiority to provide a complete turnkey service enabling its clients to offer solutions with integrated devices and platforms for multiple applications. The company properly offers its customers the flexibility to partner with multiple members of the usage-based insurance value chain Frost & Sullivan 4 We Accelerate Growth

6 The CEO 360-Degree PerspectiveTM - 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 2: How the CEO's 360-Degree Perspective Model Directs Our Research 2012 Frost & Sullivan 5 We Accelerate Growth

7 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 3: 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 6 We Accelerate Growth