Insurance Carriers Need Enterprise Incentive Management -EIM- Solutions to Succeed, Say Synygy and Leading Research Firms; EIM is Required in Highly Competitive Insurance Markets

Business Wire, Nov 16, 2004

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. -- Several analysts at leading research firms have recently determined that enterprise incentive compensation systems will help insurance companies to address problems with managing and compensating sales forces and distribution channels.

"Today's financial services companies--especially insurance carriers--are faced with difficulties in finding and retaining good employees, in expanding and compensating new distribution channels, and in complying with regulatory obligations," said Mark A. Stiffler, president and CEO of Synygy. "Synygy's 100% web-based, zero-footprint Enterprise Incentive Management (EIM) solution allows insurers to manage, track, and customize commission plans for their entire distribution force, with error-free reports and audit trails."

Kimberly Harris, Research Director at Gartner, recently attended a roundtable discussion for financial service providers, including insurance carriers and banks, at the Synygy sponsored Incentive Compensation Conference & Expo. Best practices around compensation and rewards were identified by participants and Gartner that contributed to a report titled "Best Practices Improve Incentive and Compensation Processes." Harris concluded that "Financial services providers must develop new strategies targeted at producer retention, referral management and plan change maintenance. The use of incentive and compensation management software, combined with strategy modification, will support compensation transformation. This will be required for business success in the highly competitive financial services marketplace."

Earlier this year, Chad Hersh, senior analyst at Celent, wrote a report titled "Enterprise Incentive Management for Life Insurers: Getting Control of Distribution." In the report, Hersh wrote that EIM is a natural fit for insurers as they try to expand distribution and reduce expenses with a shrinking agent pool. He also notes, "By reducing the time needed to create compensation plans, dramatically increasing plan design flexibility, and giving executive management and field managers an unprecedented view of incentive plan effectiveness, EIM can provide a very significant return on investment. Simply put, EIM will eventually become a cost of doing business rather than a competitive advantage."

Todd Eyler, analyst at METAgroup, recently issued a report titled "Compensation Management Solutions Will Pay Off for Life Insurers," in which he wrote: "Most carriers now recognize that they cannot throw enough people and Excel spreadsheets at the compensation management challenge and that automation is the only answer. Life insurers' eroding profitability and new Sarbanes-Oxley requirements will also force them to more actively manage distributor compensation, because this is the single largest controllable expense for most life insurers."

Research analysts also noted in several reports that insurers need to align individual incentives with corporate strategies to ensure that the behavior of the sales force and distributors supports company objectives. Synygy offers a comprehensive range of solutions that enable companies to better execute their strategies by "operationalizing" how they define performance, reward success, and deliver results. Synygy's Objective Management Solution is a 100% web-based solution that helps organizations automate the management of both enterprise and individual performance.

To help insurers better understand the challenges and solutions around EIM, Synygy is sponsoring a special on-demand webcast titled, "The Keys to Optimizing Your Distribution Networks."

About Synygy

Synygy, Inc. provides software and services for creating performance-driven organizations. Synygy solutions enable companies to better execute their strategies by "operationalizing" how they define performance, reward success, and deliver results. Synygy's award-winning Enterprise Incentive Management (EIM) solutions have been proven by independent study to pay for themselves in eight to nine months. Synygy's EIM solution was also recently picked as the top-ranked EIM product in HR.com's 2003 Buyer's Guide to EIM. Based in suburban Philadelphia, Synygy's success and sustained growth were recognized when Synygy was named to the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame, reflecting Synygy's fifth consecutive inclusion on the Inc. 500.

Synygy is a registered trademark and "Performance Defined. Results Delivered." is a trademark of Synygy, Inc. All other trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.