Transforming Complexity into Clarity
Facing fragmented legacy systems and regulatory pressure, a national carrier needed more than just a software update—they needed a cultural and operational transformation. By implementing Value Stream Management and utilizing ICON’s AI-Native diagnostics, the carrier turned a modernization struggle into a competitive advantage.
A national insurance carrier serving more than eight million policyholders across property, casualty, and specialty lines was struggling to modernize its claims and underwriting systems. The company operated multiple legacy platforms, worked with several third party administrators, and faced increasing pressure to improve digital experiences while maintaining strict compliance with state and federal regulations.
Executives had invested significant resources into modernization programs, yet delivery speed and quality continued to lag behind expectations. Leadership sought a proven partner with a deep understanding of regulated environments, large scale transformation, and the unique complexities of the insurance industry. ICON Agility Services was selected based on its strong reputation in financial and regulated sectors and its history of guiding organizations toward measurable, lasting improvements.
The Challenge:
The Roadblocks to Modernization
The carrier’s challenges were both operational and customer facing. Claims modernization moved slowly due to fragmented processes across adjusters, IT teams, data groups, and third party administrators. Underwriting systems relied on inconsistent workflows that made automation and risk modeling difficult.
Compliance related updates tied to state filings, privacy rules, and fraud prevention required extensive coordination between legal, actuarial, and engineering teams. Without a unified system of delivery, these updates often slipped past target dates, increasing regulatory exposure.
Customer experience suffered because digital claims features, policy servicing enhancements, and quoting updates required long integration cycles across old systems. Leaders struggled to prepare accurate forecasts for board meetings, state audits, and market regulators because their reporting came from multiple disconnected sources.
Executives needed a partner who understood the insurance domain and could bring clarity, alignment, and measurable delivery improvement across product, actuarial, underwriting, claims, engineering, and compliance teams.
Despite significant investment, the carrier was stalled by:
- Fragmented Ecosystems: Disconnected processes across adjusters, IT, and third-party administrators slowed delivery.
- Regulatory Risk: Compliance updates frequently missed deadlines due to coordination gaps between legal and engineering.
- Data Blind Spots: Executives lacked a single source of truth, relying on conflicting spreadsheets for board reporting.
The ICON Agility Approach
AI-Native Diagnostic
ICON deployed an AI-driven value stream diagnostic to pinpoint bottlenecks across adjusters, actuaries, and developers. Real data replaced opinion, building immediate trust.
Value Stream Reorganization
We restructured teams around outcomes—specifically Claims Experience, Underwriting Speed, and Risk Modeling—breaking down traditional silos.
Coaching & Reciprocity
Engineering and business coaches partnered with operations teams to streamline review cycles and introduce automated testing for policy rules.
Implementing Transparency
By deploying Broadcom Rally and Clarity, ICON created a single authoritative source of truth for digital claims, actuarial models, and compliance changes.
The Solution:
Evidence, Alignment, & Tooling
ICON Agility Services initiated an AI-Native Value Stream Diagnostic tailored to the realities of claims, policy servicing, and underwriting workflows. This diagnostic provided evidence based insight into bottlenecks across adjusters, developers, actuaries, legal teams, and vendor partners. Presenting real data established immediate authority and built trust across the organization..
ICON worked with leaders to reorganize work into value streams centered on claims experience, underwriting speed, risk modeling, and regulatory readiness. This structure created consistency and reduced the friction caused by siloed teams.
Engineering and business coaches partnered with claims operations, underwriting specialists, and technology teams to improve acceptance criteria, streamline review cycles, introduce automated testing for policy rules and rating logic, and establish more predictable release cadences. These improvements created reciprocity because teams quickly saw how the new practices reduced rework and clarified decision making.
ICON then implemented Broadcom Rally and Clarity to provide real time transparency across digital claims capabilities, underwriting enhancements, actuarial model updates, and compliance driven changes. The visibility created social proof as additional departments requested access to the system to improve their own processes.
Throughout the engagement, ICON coached senior leaders and governance groups to strengthen prioritization, improve reporting for regulators, and reinforce behaviors that sustain long term transformation.
The Outcomes:
Measurable Impact
- 35% Increase in Speed:
Claims modernization initiatives moved significantly faster with higher predictability. - Regulatory Confidence:
Compliance updates were delivered on time for the first time in years, reducing audit risks. - Unified Reporting:
Portfolio reporting transformed into real-time insights, eliminating the "spreadsheet shuffle" for executive leadership. - Cultural Shift:
A tangible move toward transparency and shared ownership between Actuarial, Underwriting, and Engineering teams.
Within six months, the carrier achieved measurable performance gains. Claims modernization work moved thirty five percent faster, and policy servicing enhancements experienced a significant improvement in predictability. Underwriting releases that once required lengthy testing cycles became more reliable and had fewer last minute defects.
Regulatory updates were completed on time for the first time in several years. The improved clarity helped the carrier navigate state audits and filing reviews with greater confidence and fewer corrective requests.
Digital claims and customer experience initiatives advanced more quickly, resulting in improved satisfaction metrics and faster time to resolution for policyholders.
Portfolio reporting transformed from a confusing mix of spreadsheets and conflicting contractor updates into a single authoritative source of truth. Executives gained accurate, real time insights for board meetings and quarterly reporting.
Culturally, the organization experienced a shift toward transparency, collaboration, and shared ownership. Actuarial, underwriting, claims, engineering, and legal teams gained a stronger sense of alignment and trust. Leaders recognized a clear connection between improved delivery practices and better customer and regulatory outcomes.
Client Testimonial
“ICON Agility helped us regain the clarity and momentum we needed. Their understanding of insurance operations, combined with their ability to guide behavior and improve delivery practices, made a profound difference. They earned trust quickly by showing us real evidence, establishing predictable workflows, and aligning our teams around customer and regulatory outcomes. Our delivery is faster, our compliance posture is stronger, and our teams feel more confident than they have in years. ICON has been an outstanding partner.”
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