SAS Fraud Framework Wins SMA Innovation Award

Cary, NC – Business analytics leader SAS was recognized by leading insurance strategic advisory firm Strategy Meets Action (SMA) with its SMA Innovation in Action award for SAS® Fraud Framework for Insurance. This honor spotlights how new technologies can help modernize, optimize and innovate insurance practices.

“SAS, the winner in the IT solution provider category for SAS Fraud Framework for Insurance, provides a cutting-edge solution by combining key next-generation technologies to help insurers detect and prevent both opportunistic and organized claims fraud,” said Karen Furtado, SMA Partner, during the award presentation.

Known for helping to prevent, detect and manage claims fraud across lines of business, SAS Fraud Framework for Insurance increases investigation efficiency and accuracy of special investigations units for leading insurers such as Allstate and CNA.

“Fraud is a growing challenge for insurance companies, especially organized fraud,” said Stuart Rose, Global Insurance Marketing Manager at SAS. “This recognition validates SAS innovation in addressing this issue. SAS customers using such advanced technologies have higher detection rates and more accurate scoring of claims for suspicious activity. And they benefit greatly from flagging – and stopping – fraud rings sooner.”

Learn more about a hybrid approach to insurance fraud detection.

The award was presented at the annual SMA Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Boston on Sept. 24.


Boston, Mass. (Sept. 24, 2012) – Strategy Meets Action (SMA), a leading insurance strategic advisory firm, announced the winners of the SMA Innovation in Action Awards during its annual SMA Summit at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Boston.

The 2012 winners in the insurer category are GuideOne Insurance and Great American Insurance Group, and SAS in the IT solution provider category for its SAS® Fraud Framework for Insurance solution.

“The quantity and quality of submissions in both the insurer and solution provider categories were indeed remarkable!” said Karen Furtado, SMA Partner. “This confirms that real innovation is occurring in the insurance industry, and much of that innovation is possible because insurers are actively leveraging next-generation technologies.”

The SMA Innovation in Action Awards are presented each year to celebrate innovation in the insurance industry. SMA launched this award program to inspire, share, and recognize solutions that enable an insurance company to move beyond modernizing and optimizing to real innovation and transformation, ultimately creating differentiation and competitive advantage. The program spotlights both insurers and solution providers that have successfully implemented solutions that best leverage one or more of these five next-generation (next-gen) technologies: mobile, collaboration, analytics & big data, social media, and cloud.

SMA Innovation in Action Award winner GuideOne Insurance exemplifies what it means to be a data-driven company, where analytics and data enable the standardization and socialization of information, reporting, and metrics across the enterprise. Using the iPartners Insurance Scorecard™ business intelligence (BI) solution, GuideOne Insurance has created an environment for effective decision-making, there by empowering executives to guide the business by analysis.

“Today, executives, actuarial, claims, underwriting, sales & marketing, and finance have immediate access to current data, reports, and dashboards for informed analysis and improved decision making,” said Tom Fischer, SVP and CIO at GuideOne Insurance.

Great American Insurance Group received recognition as an SMA Innovation in Action Award winner for a suite of mobile apps they developed to give equine and trucking customers instant access to claims and billing processes, lists of approved service providers, and coverage verification. Great American was able to conjoin these mobile apps with a transformed, modern core system platform that includes in-house built solutions integrated with purchased packages including Guidewire BillingCenter® and Guidewire ClaimsCenter®.

“A flexible SOA infrastructure and up-to-date core solutions made the integration of these mobile apps much easier,” said Jane Bracken, divisional SVP at Great American. “Great American has been able to proactively meet the special needs of our customers. The value extends beyond excellent customer service to competitive advantage.”


About SMA Strategy Meets Action

Exclusively serving the insurance industry, Strategy Meets Action blends unbiased research findings with expertise and experience to deliver business and technology insights, research, and advice to insurers and IT solution providers. By leveraging best practices from both the management consulting and research advisory disciplines, SMA’s services are actionable, business-driven, and research-based – where strategy meets action – enabling companies to achieve business success. For more information, please visit the SMA website at strategymeetsaction.com.

About SMA Innovation in Action

SMA launched this award program to inspire, share, and recognize solutions that enable an insurance company to move beyond modernizing and optimizing to real innovation and transformation, ultimately creating differentiation and competitive advantage. The program spotlights both insurers and solution providers that have successfully implemented solutions that best leverage one or more of these five next-generation (next-gen) technologies: mobile, collaboration, analytics and big data, social media, and cloud.

About SAS

SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions, SAS helps customers at more than 60,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know®.