Insurity is growing - organically, of course, but it has also expanded its offerings through acquisitions. In addition, partnerships, like the company’s recently announced deal with ClaimBender, have become a key tool for the Hartford, Conn.-based insurance software company to get bigger and more diversified.
“To provide additional capabilities to our current clients …. there are some [companies] that are best to partner with,” explained Michael Desrochers (pictured), Insurity’s Associate Vice President, Digital Services Partner.
Insurity has more than 25 partnerships at this point, Desrochers noted. In recent months, it has also codified a strategy to include these deals as part of a broader ecosystem where customers can access multiple services and address their needs. (The company has been owned by private equity firm GI Partners since 2019)
“We’ve decided to build out an ecosystem that will create a path to deliver more efficiency and productivity throughout our overall marketplace,” said Desrochers, whose job is to oversee the company’s partnership ecosystem management program. “Clients can come in there and when they’re looking to bring in emerging technology to match their own digital transformation goals and initiatives, they can just go to one place – a one-stop shop type of process.”
The strategy represents the latest stage in Insurity’s evolution. Insurity debuted in 1985, and it offers business software products to various insurance stakeholders. The products hit areas including core applications, billing, policy and claims, as well as data analytics. Clients include insurance carriers, brokers and MGAs as well as attorneys, municipalities and government entities, among others.
Insurity’s partnership with ClaimBender, announced earlier in June, is designed to help its workers’ compensation clients reduce their costs through actionable data and analytics. Insurity vetted the company for several months before sealing the agreement, according to Desrochers, identifying data points where the partnership will have the most value.
ClaimBender bills itself as a software system with an “integrated simple to implement approach” to help reduce the frequency of workplace injuries. It does this by using technological tools and expertise to reduce waste and enable a “cost-appropriate injury response process.”
Desrochers said the company is a workers’ comp technology operation that advances the field considerably.
“We really see ClaimBender as an emerging technology that can really … provide multiple benefits to our workers’ comp client base,” Desrochers said.
ClaimBender CEO Mark Smith said in prepared remarks at the time of the deal announcement that the partnership reflected both “a novel and natural fit” designed to evolve the traditional workers’ comp model.
Their collective goal is to boost operational claim efficiencies, lower claim payout costs and improve underwriting processes by proactively identifying risk and weakness areas.
Plans call for integrating ClaimBender’s software into Insurity’s, specifically with its workers’ compensation suite. The partnership is complementary, Desrochers said, bringing Insurity something new.
At the same time, the process of integrating ClaimBender’s technology hasn’t yet started.
“It is not taking place yet because there are various integration points that we’re looking at and where we’ll start,” Desrochers explained.
The integration process will take place through Insurity Connect, a platform the company uses to allow for integration and connection with Insurity products.
Before an integration, Insurity works to understand its partner’s product, how it will be used with clients and their workflow, among other elements. That process is already ongoing with ClaimBender, Desrochers said.
After that, the company works to create and identify APIs that can be useful to connect the partner’s software to Insurity’s systems.
Next, those APIs are provided in Insurity’s marketplace for it is clients to leverage accordingly.
While Insurity has absorbed many integrations, Desrochers said that the timeframe to complete the process can vary.
“It all depends on the type of product you’re integrating with,” he added.
With ClaimBender, the initial integration points for workers’ compensation have already been identified, he said, so “we do not anticipate that being a lengthy process.”
Initial API connections can take place within 30 days, he said.
Desrochers only joined Insurity in September 2021, but he brings with him more than 30 years of insurance and information technology experience already being put to use to help shape Insurity’s evolving partnership strategy.
His specialty areas include product management, business process design and partnerships/alliances.
Previously, Desrochers was at Sapiens, where was an executive focused on cultivating new partnerships, defining product strategy and promoting product awareness and marketing positioning for the Sapiens workers’ compensation and medical professional liability business practices, according to his LinkedIn profile.
