Collapsing seven legacy technology systems into a single, integrated one while also winnowing 3,000 specialty insurance products down to 600 isn’t easy. Particularly when the changes impact some 200,000-plus agents who sell your policies.
Executive Summary
Andreas Kleiner, the CEO of American Modern, looks back at the rough terrain his company endured in climbing the steep mountain of an eight-year business transformation, including losing business and frustrating agents. Keeping their eyes on the summit helped move the program ahead, he said, a lesson he keeps in mind as the personal lines specialty carrier embarks on a new journey to conquer Yellowstone—American Modern's name for a program that will create completely digital interfaces with agents and customers.Still, American Modern Insurance is proving that it is possible to accomplish such a business transformation as an eight-year effort nears completion. “In actual fact, [the] end of August will be our last policy conversion, and it’s when we can close the chapter on it,” Chief Executive Officer Andreas Kleiner reported recently, referring to technology and product transformation that also involved reducing nine carriers down to one admitted carrier.
Kleiner, who first spoke to Carrier Management about the transformation that was already in the works back in 2017, less than a year after he had taken the helm at the Ohio-based specialty personal lines insurance subsidiary of Munich Re, provided an update during a March 2023 interview. (Related article: “‘Digitally Fit Future’ Ahead for American Modern as CEO Kleiner Dives In“) Asked about some of the obstacles that were cleared along the way, he remembered one of the ugliest parts of the journey: having to watch business go to other carriers.
