Helen Pitts, senior product marketing manager for Oracle Insurance, is blogging from the 2010 IASA Annual Conference and Business Show this week.

For the second time in two weeks an Oracle Insurance customer has earned recognition at an insurance industry event for its innovative use of technology to transform their business.

Access Insurance Company received the 2010 Technology Innovation Award during the 2010 IASA Annual Conference and Business Show this week in Grapevine, Texas. The company earned the recognition for its "Instant Access" application, which executes all the business rules and processes needed to provide a quote, bind, and issue a policy.

CIO Andy Dunn and Tim Reynolds stopped by the Oracle Insurance Booth at IASA to visit with the team, show their award, and share how the platform has provided a strategic advantage to the company and helped it increase revenue by penetrating new markets, increasing market share and improving customer retention.

Since implementing Instant Access in 2009 - a platform that leverages both Oracle Insurance Insbridge Rating and Underwriting and Oracle Documaker - the carrier has:

• Increased policies in force by 22%, from 140,185 to more than 270,000
• Grown market share by 4.6%
• Increased 2009 revenue by 26.5%
• Increased ratio of policyholders per CSR by 30%
• Increased its appointed independent producers by 43 percent

Now that's true innovation!

You can learn more about the company's formula for success by reading Access Insurance Holdings CEO and president Michael McMenamin's interview with Insurance & Technology, Data Mastery Drives Access Insurance's 'Instant Access' Business Technology Platform.

Congratulations to Michael, Andy, Tim and the entire team at Access Insurance on this well deserved honor - and for your role as a technology leader for the industry.

Helen Pitts is senior product marketing manager for Oracle Insurance.