InsureHiTech Sets Its Sights High, Opens Austin Office

Redefining the insurance industry is no small task. Just ask Rick Maloy, president of InsureHiTech, a company that has great hopes of changing the agency management system of every insurance agent, broker and carrier in the country.

“People have been telling me you can’t do this’ for a long time, but yeah, you can,” said the 32-year-old Maloy. “All you have to do is do it.”

And do it he is. Maloy and his company, which specializes in offering insurance products to technology companies, is as little as six months away from providing an Internet-based platform that streamlines the insurance writing process from the carrier all the way to the customer.

“A lot of people are trying to do this,” he said. “But we’re the only ones that are approaching the actual management system. If you don’t make [agents] more productive and you just try to streamline the carrier without even including the customer, you’re missing the whole point.”

Maloy’s ideas have garnered the approval of multi-national companies such as St. Paul Cos., which has hired additional information technology professionals in an effort to move Maloy’s dream along. It has also attracted a $10 million first-round funding infusion from J.P. Morgan Corsaid II Capital Partners. The funding, which has entered its second round, has allowed the company to open numerous new offices around the country and to work with six global insurance companies and ACORD to create and implement an XML standard for the industry. Two carriers, including Chubb, are expected to be live by as early as February.

In tandem with getting all carriers live, the platform will be offered to every independent agent and broker in the country in an application service provider model.

InsureHiTech operates on an eBusiness platform for the carrier, agent and customer that combines Internet efficiencies and on-the-ground sales and service teams in a “clicks and bricks” business model.

Essentially, the platform is a single-entry multi-carrier interface that provides a front-end web page backed by InsureHiTech’s platform. The platform is capable of handling claims, certificates, application processing—it’s a system that Maloy said could make an agency paperless.

Austin was chosen as one of the company’s 31 new branch locations because it is ranked as one of the nation’s leading information technology markets. The company’s new sales and customer service office will focus on the insurance needs of the state’s high-tech, biotech, venture capital and environmental industries an agent.

Doug Elder, an agent with more than seven years of experience in the commercial insurance industry, was appointed as the company’s vice president of sales to manage the Austin office.

“Being a native of Austin, coupled with Doug’s extensive experience in the commercial insurance industry, makes him an ideal representative for InsureHiTech,” Maloy said. “Additionally, his knowledge of affinity group marketing aligns perfectly with our marketing and sales strategy with technology associations.”

In addition to target-market expansion in Austin, the $10 million in first round funding will be used to hire additional licensed insurance professionals for sales and customer service across the United States, launch a marketing and public relations campaign in connection with sponsorship of the Council of Regional Information Technology Associations, and complete integration projects with several global insurance companies to create the XML standard for the commercial property and casualty insurance industry. And Maloy, who is a fifth-generation insurance man, wants to hire quality people who truly understand the industry to back it.

“Our people are trained in insurance products and the industries we serve,” Maloy said. “You will not find a more experienced or vertically focused team than ours.” InsureHiTech, headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, is licensed in 49 states and Washington, D.C. InsureHiTech provides risk management and insurance placement services for the business areas of information technology, new media, biotechnology, environmental, telecommunications, pharmaceutical, medical device and venture capital.

Topics Carriers Agencies Tech Market