Electronic Chat with Nino Tarantino, CEO- Americas, Insurance and Mobility Solutions (IMS)
Laura Mazzuca Toops | December 15, 2020
Carmine (Nino) Tarantino is CEO – Americas of IMS (Insurance and Mobility Solutions), part of Trak Global Group (TGG). IMS is a global provider of connected car solutions, services, and analytics to insurers, mobility operators, OEMs and governments. Its top product is the cloud-based IMS DriveSync® connected car platform. Before IMS, Tarantino launched Octo Telematics in North America, growing the business from start-up to the market leader. He was named Influencer of the Year at the 2018 TU Automotive Detroit and won best telematics service in 2017. Prior to Octo, he launched one of the first premium SMS and MMS (including the 2004 Olympics coverage) in North America and built the mobile premium content service under the brand name Flycell.
Your tech background includes network management for Telecom Italia in the ‘80s to launching one of the first premium SMS and MMS (including the 2004 Olympics coverage) in North America. What do you see as the biggest tech advances in recent years, and how do you see tech evolving in the near future?
Thinking about this in the context of the insurance space, which is a very data-driven industry, I believe one of the biggest tech advancements in recent years has been a growing ability to manage and analyze big data in near real time. Through telematics sensors, we are collecting and analyzing real-time data today which insurers have never had insight into before. This means a greater ability for our clients to proactively make timely recommendations and message coach drivers which will reduce accident frequency, keep users engaged as they work toward rewards, and providing the best customer experience possible, especially when it comes to rapid response times in the case of a crash or accident.
A better ability to handle data has been transformational, in my opinion. As a society, with more data, we are infinitely better equipped to make better decisions. That’s true in our approach to the market and to our ability to help our clients create more engagement through the use of intelligent technologies. The more data we collect, the more intelligence we can share among different players in any given ecosystem. Think, for example, about smart cities with connected cars, a managed repair network that includes repair shops, maintenance, roadside assistance, emergency services and more. More transparency in the process keeps users more engaged along the way.
What are the main benefits for insurers from IMS’s services?
Insurers spend millions of dollars each year implementing and maintaining technology solutions. It’s an investment that companies today must maximize at all costs. IMS is the only telematics technology provider with the firsthand insurance experience, via Carrot, and know how to improve engagement and drive true behavioral modification. This is the layer that is missing from so many telematics implementations today, and it is the next foray insurers must take to improve program success and help increase adoption of telematics. Speaking of ways to improve engagement over and above our new Engagement Toolset, IMS is the only provider to enable bespoke mobile app interfaces without the bespoke cost or time through our new One App mobile development framework. It’s a transformational technology and approach for insurers to ensure a truly engaging experience at the heart of the mobile app experience.
IMS also enables our insurer clients to look at telematics more holistically through a fully-connected claims approach that goes deeper than accident detection, deeply tackling claims liability and handling as well. Claims is the single largest cost center for any insurance company, so having the ability to truly improve larger areas of savings, including claims handling and liability, is a very attractive piece of the proposition, and a feature that is only available when they work with IMS.
Please explain the synergy between IMS and the launch of Carrot Insurance.
Both IMS and Carrot Insurance are subsidiaries of UK-based Trak Global Group. Carrot is a direct B2C insurer and sister company to IMS which is being used as a sandbox environment for proposition development and experimentation. Basically, Carrot is the way in which we take the risk so our customers don’t have to.
In recent weeks, IMS has launched a series of offerings developed in large part based on insights garnered from Carrot operations. The IMS Engagement Toolset, for example, is the industry’s most comprehensive suite of engagement tools, including rewards, coaching/messaging, and gamification, that leverage telematics data to help modify driving behavior and promote desired business outcomes, such as significantly increased user engagement and reduction of loss ratio values.
Based on the usage of this toolset in the Carrot sandbox, customers reported that 56 percent of drivers checked scores daily, and a full 88 percent of drivers checked scores weekly, resulting in a 39 percent reduction in accident potential. These high levels of engagement translate into overwhelmingly positive results for Carrot’s insurer customers and are evidenced by an average of 14 percent improvement in loss ratios for every two points of portfolio score improvement.
How has the advance of COVID changed your clients’ business, and where does IMS fit in?
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted how important it is for auto insurers to offer customers flexible, personalized approaches to auto insurance which not only provide the desired coverage, but help customers proactively manage expenses as well. While driving distance, frequency, and length of trips decreased dramatically at the onset of the pandemic, many countries have seen driving behaviors edging back toward pre-lockdown levels as quarantine fatigue sets in for so many.
The technology sensors and solutions that IMS provides already enable mileage-based and usage-based insurance (UBI) programs for leading insurers in the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe. And, the demand for more personalized pricing means even more insurers are embracing the insurance telematics solutions and engagement tools offered by IMS for highly-accurate, personalized approaches they have never been able to offer before. Digital transformation within insurance has indeed taken off, and now, even the traditionally more change resistant claims departments have shifted to virtual, touchless modes of operation.
IMS enables Nationwide’s pay-per-mile insurance telematics program, SmartMiles®, for example, which bases insurance charges on miles driven and also allows drivers to earn up to a 10 percent discount for safe driving. With those kinds of propositions becoming more and more widespread, I have to believe that IMS plays a critical role in helping our insurer customers handle the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the use of IoT continues to grow, how do you predict it will affect the insurance industry?
Due to COVID, more people are working from home than ever before, and clearly, behavior patterns have changed. As a result, individuals and businesses alike are looking at all facets of insurance and trying to understand the value being received for the premium being paid. As the use of IoT continues to grow and as insurers become increasingly comfortable with the concept and the technologies associated with it, I think the development of usage-based products becomes not only probable, but desired, for other lines of business besides auto.
Consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the understanding of not only technology, but in ways it can be applied for their ultimate benefit. That translates into consumers beginning to demand very personalized approaches to insurance. So, the path to such options, through IoT, telematics, and digital transformation is the key to unlocking that degree of usage-based personalization.
What do you see as the most impressive advances in the telematics field in recent years, and where is it headed in the future?
There have been many advancements in the telematics field in the last five to ten years, but perhaps the most significant has been the realization that, if used intelligently as part of a usage-based insurance product or program, telematics technology can create significant user engagement, a better overall customer experience, and improvements in driving behavior as well. These things, in turn, have the ability to positively impact accident potential, loss ratios, profitability, and more.
As we close out 2020, we’re knocking on the door of UBI ‘3.0,’ where insurers will seek ways to drive true ROI from their investment in telematics technology. The key to ROI from UBI 3.0 will be both upstream – through truly engaging with customers and ‘nudging’ them towards safer driving - and downstream, in claims resolution. After all, telematics is fundamentally about predicting and reducing claims.
In claims, time is money, so speedy resolution equals huge cost benefits. Auto claims cost U.S. and European insurers about $360bn annually. The smart application of telematics data could potentially reduce this figure by $30bn, based on real-world evidence from Carrot, which has delivered near double-digit COR improvement for its capacity providers through the use of data in claims alone.
Featured articles
- BrokerTech Ventures Announces 2021 Cohort Class for Accelerator
- An Entirely Preventable Disaster
- Flipping the Fraud Triangle
- The January/February ITA Pro Magazine is here!
- Credit Risk, ESG, Cybersecurity Top Risk Concerns for Financial Institutions, Deloitte Finds
- Electronic Chat with Ellen Moser, Senior Client Executive, Origami Risk LLC
- The Answer to “So What?”
- Leaders Rise from a Year Like No Other!
- Electronic Chat with Jonathan Roomer, Co-Founder, YuLife
- Getting Creative to Hit COVID Curveballs Out of the Park
- Electronic Chat with Eugenio Gonzalez, Plug and Play
- New Report Projects Global Insurtech to Grow by $21 Billion During 2020-2024
- The 2020 Virtual Event Wasteland
- Insurtechs, Investors Optimistic About Post-COVID Future, New DIA/McKinsey Study Finds
- Finding Grandmas
- No Code / Low Code: The New “Shortest Route” In Insurance Delivery
- Are You Addicted to Copy-and-Paste?
- Electronic Chat with Nino Tarantino, CEO- Americas, Insurance and Mobility Solutions (IMS)
- Driving Life Insurance:Tech Alone Won’t Solve Business Problems
- Electronic Chat with Robin Roberson, Managing Director, North America, Claim Central Consolidated
- How Do You Make It Happen?
- Electronic Chat with Jason Liu, CEO, Zywave
- New Partnership Models Take Program Business to the Next Level
- New Study Finds Less than Half of Consumers Trust Insurers to Respond to Their Needs
- Electronic Chat with Andrew Mauritzen, CFO and Head of Insurance Industry, Exactuals
- You Want Us To Do WHAT For Free?
- Electronic Chat with Evgeny Aleksandrov, Co-founder and CEO, Pilotbird
- Electronic Chat with Chris Cheatham, CEO, RiskGenius
- New MIT Sloan Study Finds Few Companies Gain Big Benefits from AI
- The September/October ITA Pro magazine is here!
- “Being Right” is Just the Start of the Battle
- Electronic Chat with Amit Ranjan, Executive VP and CAO, Xceedance
- Planning for Your Business and Tech Future: Strategies, Plans and Budgets for Rapid Transformation
- Electronic Chat with Jimmy Padia, Founder and CEO, Floatbot
- Gelato with Dots and Sprinkles
- COVID-19 and the Insurtech “Junk Drawer”
- Even “Change” is Different Now. Your Strategic Planning Needs to Be Too.
- The Road Ahead for P&C Insurers: How to Understand Customers Better and Navigate the Post-COVID Insurance Market
- Electronic Chat with Jake Tamarkin, Co-founder and CEO, Everyday Life
- Strategic Planning in the “New Normal” Digital Era of Insurance – Your Next Move
- Insurer Tech Investment Priorities See Major Shift in a Post-COVID World
- Plug and Play Selects 25 Insurtech Startups for Winter Batches
- Digital Transformation – A Top Strategic Priority and New Reality
- Four Steps to Successful Migration of Insurance CCM Applications
- COVID-19 Accelerates Insurance Digitalization to Meet Customer Demand: World InsurTech Report 2020
- Electronic Chat with Greg Williams, Co-Founder, President & CEO, Acrisure
- Electronic Chat with Matt Perlman, Partner, IA Capital Group
- Insurer Digitalization: Are you a Competitor or a Laggard?
- Leaders are Leading and Creating the Future of Insurance Distribution
- 3 Things You Need to Know About No-Code
- Electronic Chat with Adam Kiefer, CEO, Talage
- Underwriting in 3D: Using Data to Adapt and Improve Life Insurance Sales
- Getting Past the "Gelato Syndrome"
- Insurers Know CX/UX is Important, but Don't Agree on Execution, Study Finds
- Electronic Chat with Steve Lekas, Branch Insurance
- How AI Can Attract Millennial Talent to the Insurance Industry
- Preventing Data Breaches
- A New Boom for Life Insurance: Shifting Away from the 250-Year-Old Policy Transaction
- Electronic Chat with Ty Harris, Founder and CEO, Openly
- A Digital Wildfire Creates a Burning Platform for Digital Insurance Business Transformation
- Digitalization, COVID-19 Spurring More IT Investment in Cybersecurity
- Electronic Chat with Michael DeGusta, CEO, ClarionDoor
- U.S. Consumers Significantly Underestimate Flood Risk, New Survey Finds
- The Future of Insurance: Opportunities in Ecosystems
- Electronic Chat with Todd Greenbaum, CEO, Input 1
- Majesco to be Acquired by Thoma Bravo
- The Evolving Role of Managing General Agencies
- Electronic Chat with Char Hu
- Electronic Chat with Allan L. Egbert, Jr.
- Electronic Chat with Christopher Tramontano and Zbigniew Gawienczuk
- Data Science is Gelato
- Insurance Innovation: Alive and Kicking
- Independent Agents Divided on Digital Experience, New Survey Finds
- Electronic Chat with Michael Jones
- Electronic Chat with Paul VanderMarck
- As Auto Insurance Premiums Shrink, Insurers Need Mobility Ecosystem, New Study Finds
- Property & Casualty Insurers Raise Digital Games as COVID-19 Elevates Customer Expectations, J.D. Power Finds
- Electronic Chat with Bobbie Shrivastav
- Meet the Board: Marissa Buckley
- Big Data and Insurtech: A Carrier Perspective
- Traditional Insurers Need Open Ecosystems, Partnerships to Remain Competitive, CapGemini Report Finds
- Electronic Chat with John C. Siegman
- 4 Ways AI is Empowering Insurers During COVID-19
- 6 Big Changes to Insurance from the COVID-19 Crisis
- Electronic Chat with Christopher Ewing
- Independent Agency Staff Morale High During COVID-19, New Survey Finds
- Electronic Chat with Brad Epker
- Tapping AI to Improve Policyholder Experience
- Electronic Chat with Manisha Bhargava
- ITA Pro Magazine, March/April 2020
- COVID-19 a Game Changer for Workers’ Comp
- Electronic Chat with Steve Comer
- COVID-19 Pandemic Forces Cancellation of ITA LIVE 2020
- Leveraging Digital Resources in the Time of COVID-19
- Electronic Chat with Robert Hartwig on COVID-19 and Insurance
- Celent Study: Most Small Businesses Still Unclear on Importance of Cyber Insurance
- The January/February 2020 ITA Pro is here!
- Deloitte: New C-Suite Roles Mean More Opportunities for Women
- Electronic Chat with Pankaj Parashar
- Electronic Chat with Tara Kelly
- Electronic Chat with Chuck Wilson
- ITA, InsNerds Collaborate to Enhance ITA LIVE 2020 Content and Coverage
- How SMBs Can Compete in Digital Ecosystems in the 2020s
- 4 Ways Insurance Can Prepare for New Data Privacy Laws
- Brewer Lane Ventures Launches and Hires Insurtech Vet Martha Notaras as Managing Partner
- 2020 GIA Cohort Launches on January 14
- The November/December 2019 ITA Pro is here!
- Electronic Chat with Joshua Snead
- Electronic Chat with Wendy Aarons-Corman
- Simplifying the Move to a Third-party Print Provider
- Take a Business-Driven Approach to Continuous Improvement for Core Systems and Processes
- Electronic Chat with Ron Glozman
- Guidewire’s Data Guru Mike Byam on How Insurers are Using Internal and Third-Party Data
- Electronic Chat with Russ Bostick
- Electronic Chat with Rock Schindler
- Electronic Chat with John Siegman
- Electronic Chat with Martin Burlingame
- Insurtech Landscape 2019: Top 5 Takeaways
- Grinnell Mutual Tackles Massive Transformation -- in Stride
- A Candid Conversation with Paul Mang
- SageSure Insurance Managers Improved Competitiveness by Consolidating Payments to a Single Digital Platform
- Digital Does Matter in Insurance-- And Insurers are Missing the Mark
- The 22nd-Century Insurer: Taking a Cloud-First IT Approach
- The September/October 2019 issue of ITA PRO magazine is now available in digital format here:
- ITA Pro Magazine May/June 2019
- Spotlight on the 2019 IASA Conference
- ValueMomentum Selects Erie as Site of Regional Development Center
- Capgemini and Majesco Become Alliance Partners
- Electronic Chat with Dr. Dan Shoham
- Electronic Chat with Todd Greenbaum
- Martha Notaras: The “Outsider” with an Amazing Inside View
- Electronic Chat with Larissa Tosch
- Martha Notaras Will Join ITA LIVE 2019 as a Keynote Speaker
- Five Things to Consider When Evaluating Your Cyber Risk
- ITA Pro Magazine, January/February 2019
- Synergy Between Insurers' IT and Analytics Teams Key to Operationalizing Insights, Says Novarica
- Major Ransomware Attack Could Hit U.S. with $89B In Economic Damages
- ITA Announces 1st of Three Keynote Speakers at ITA LIVE 2019
- Electronic Chat with Jeroen Morrenhof
- Legacy Systems Are Dead. Really? Don't Count On It.
- Now Accepting Nominations for the 2019 ITA Bridge Awards
- It's time to register for ITA LIVE!
- Registration is Now Open for ITA LIVE 2019!
- What to Expect from a Digital Experience Platform Implementation
- ITA Pro Magazine September Edition is Now Available
- It's National IT Professionals Day
- Save the Date for ITA-LIVE 2019
- OneShield Software and UrbanStat Work Together to Improve Real-Time Analytics and Risk Decision-Making
- ITA LIVE 2019 - SAVE THE DATE!
- Insurance Technology Association Announces New Editor-in-Chief
- August 2018 Edition ITA Pro Magazine is Now Available
- Enterprise Architecture in an Agile World
- Top 10 Tips for Securing Your Mobile Devices and Sensitive Client Data
- Industry Insight: 4 Global Insurance Trends in Digital, Data, Content Services and Security
- Diving Deeper into Prioritizing Your Strategic Digital investments
- Why Content Rules
- How Mass Personalization Will Open the Small Business Benefits Market
- At Year End 2017, Will Your Organization Be Protected from Cyber Risks?
- Do Insurance Bots Dream of Mitigating Risk?
- Conditioned to Respond
- Managing & Mobilizing Insurance Data in a Connected World
- Race to the Finish Line
- New Tools, New Opportunities in Claims
- ITA LIVE: Reaching Insurance Industry Crossroads
- Advice to Insurance IT Leaders: Keep Your Eye on the Ball
- New Date, Venue for ITA LIVE 2017
- Guidewire Makes Major Push to Small and Midtier Market by Acquiring ISCS
- Insurance Disruption is Happening Right Now
- Insurity Adds Strategic Investment Partner, General Atlantic
- Beyond Transformation: The Convergence of Finance, Risk, and Actuarial Functions
- The Rapid Evolution of Consumer Protection Regulation
- Talent Hunt: Finding, Attracting, Retaining Top People
- Insurers Flexing Their Distribution Models
- Technology Driving Disruption in Insurance
- Fear of ‘Next Bubble’ Challenges Life, Annuity Carriers
- Technology Allows Commercial Lines Insurers to Stand Out
- Single Sign-on Viewed as Biggest Tech Challenge for Agencies
- ISCS Observes 20th Anniversary; Scurto Predicts Major Changes Ahead
- Policyholders and Their First Impressions
- Progressive Making Progress on the UBI Front
- High and Dry: Insurers Search for Disaster Recovery Plans
- Insurers Sign The (Un)Dotted Line
- Reflections of a Retired Insurance CIO
- Mobile Device Management Just One Answer to BYOD Issue
- Lessons from GEICO and Progressive on Winning the Critical Buying Stage
- You Are a Target for a Cyber Attack
- Web-based Systems are the Next Evolution in Claims Technology
- Gaining a “Wow” Experience from Web Users
- Time to Shift from Business/IT Alignment to Business/IT Alliance
- Healthcare Insurers Changing to Consumer Model
- Organization is the Key for Selecting Software Vendors
- Analysts Expound on the Needs of the Mid-tier Insurance Market
- Finding the Cure for Obamacare’s Website
- New Software Solutions Benefit Insurers on the Inside and Outside
- Products, Market Impede Investment in Systems for Life Insurers
- Combatting Cyber Threats: Predict, Prevent, Persist
- The Future of Telematics Heads Beyond Insurance
- The Shame in Cyber Security Lapses
- Building Policy Administration Systems for the Future
- Insurers Look Into The Eyes of Their Policyholders
- It’s a New Dawn for the ITA
INSURANCE IT NEWS
- Buckle Adds Crash Risk Data from TNEDICCA to Auto Insurance Underwriting
- Donegal Selects CoreLogic’s P&C Claims Workflow and Management Solution
- Zelros Raises $11 Million in Series A Funding to Bring AI-Powered Responsible Insurance Distribution to North America
- Veruna Names Sheri Raznick as Head of Implementation
- Ask Kodiak and Coterie Partner for Business Classification and Ease of Integration
- Technology-Enabled, Premium Homeowners Insurer Openly Enters Indiana
- Talage Releases Wheelhouse Ease of Use Update for Agents
- Majesco Continues Expansion of Majesco EcoExchange Marketplace with Two New Partners
ELECTRONIC CHAT
The Email Chat is a regular feature of the ITA Pro magazine and website. We send a series of questions to an insurance IT leader in search of thought-provoking responses on important issues facing the insurance industry.
-
Electronic Chat with Ellen Moser, Senior Client Executive, Origami Risk LLC
Laura Mazzuca Toops
Origami recently rolled out new online tools enabling employers to track employee COVID-19 vaccinations and monitor outbreaks... READ MORE
ITA LIVE 2020
ITA LIVE 2020 –SAVE THE DATE!
April 5th – 7th, 2020
The Diplomat Resort
Hollywood, FL
Become a member today to receive updates – www.itapro.org/MR
BLOGS AND COLUMNS
-
An Entirely Preventable Disaster
Bob Frady
Even the best risk models can’t take into account major system failures... READ MORE
-
Flipping the Fraud Triangle
Jeffrey Cirino
Identifying pressure and rationalization early on helps eliminate opportunity -- the key to committing fraud... READ MORE
only online
-
Down Market Opportunities Beckon Benefits Insurers
You have surely heard it said that small businesses are the growth engine for America. Today, the phrase has a special ring to it for benefits... READ MORE
-
Technology at the Heart of Change in Insurance
With stagnant growth and lingering low interest rates, the life insurance industry faces a challenging future... READ MORE
-
Got Policies? IVANS Service Helps Feed Commercial Lines Producers
Finding insurance carriers willing to write commercial lines risks has always been a challenge for producers... READ MORE
-
Technology Changes Coming Faster than Ever for Insurers
As Guidewire Software prepares for the start of Connections, its 11th annual user conference that begins on Nov. 2, Brian Desmond, chief marketing... READ MORE
Vendor Views
-
An Entirely Preventable Disaster
Even the best risk models can’t take into account major system failures... READ MORE
- Vendor Views
Partner News
-
Big Data and Insurtech: A Carrier Perspective
Insurance has always relied on large volumes of data to gauge customer behavior and more. But as big data has gotten bigger, insurtech has empowered... READ MORE
- Partner News