MetLife "Collab" Competition Thread

Hi,

So I've been intrigued by the MetLife competition announcement and was wondering what the other companies CR8 are up against are all about. Well I finally had some time to look into them and thought I'd summarize my thoughts for constructive criticism and also to draw on the wealth of knowledge out there that I don't have, so I'd appreciate any input.

Capabiliti
· Software as a Service (SaaS) technology with a focus on simplifying training within organizations.
· Focuses on targeting companies with large field forces, service delivery teams and those needing a smart and effective way to train others.
· Attempting to popularise e-Learning and m-Learning to the masses. Utilizing mobile technology to reach a larger population.
· Mobile technology has won numerous awards and is touted as being highly adaptable to any organization.
· Key IP appears to be more in the tailored training and delivery facets, can’t see any ground breaking technology. Looks to be an easy to use content management system with sound training material behind it.
· Lists Microsoft as a client
Democrance
· Democrance aims to make insurance available to a wider population by working as a strategic partner and an enabler of growth for both insurance companies and mobile network operators.
· Creating synergies between insurers and mobile network operators to deliver continuous mobile services and low cost base insurance to the masses. (read the following for an in depth understanding of what’s the sell http://democrance.com/microinsurance/the-mobile-solution/)
· Essentially opening new markets to trade in and increase revenue streams while increasing customer loyalty to the brand.
· The key is reaching underdeveloped markets and creating NEW revenue streams, could be a huge sell point for MetLife, may not be worth their time I’m not entirely sure but it’s innovative that’s for sure.
Digital Fineprint
· Turning social data into insurance data and bringing life insurance online.
· Their aim is to make it easier for people to sign up to insurance, using the likes of Facebook or LinkedIn, using social media data to create risk profiles, cross selling opportunities and better relationship management with customers. Customizing insurance products based on data analysis of social media data. Creating better ways to engage with customers in the 21st Century.
· Have won awards from both Accenture and Allianz, as well as the “Best General Start-up in the UK” a government sponsored award.
· One would think highly enticing for MetLife
Kiddowear from Good Parents
· The first health and wellness tracker for children
· Essentially a way for parents to track their children’s general health and wellbeing. Imagine a fitbit for kids
· Selling points are better sleep for kids, easier ways to manage nutrition, tracking stress levels and other general health indicators and feeding them back to parents via mobile in real time.
· MetLife applicability? Would really be thinking outside the box but possibly they are looking to invest in this product before it takes off and have equity in the company. Help?
Shift Technology
· Using Artificial Intelligence to combat fraud in the insurance field.
· Not a great deal of information but for the most part they are using machine learning to analyse and build models for identifying/ detecting fraudulent insurance activities.
· Obvious sell point for MetLife, one of the biggest insurance companies in the world.
Sureify
· Creating effective digital customer engagement tools in the hands of insurers to drive customer loyalty, brand recognition and better customer experience.
· It’s cloud based software that creates a way for insurers to digitally engage with their policy holders via web, mobile, and various personal health and device data sources.
· Essentially an all in one solution for attracting and managing policy holders.
Uniphore
· Developing the ability to use speech to communicate with machines.
· The company is working on delivering solutions to allow any software application to understand and respond to natural human speech. Think of the banking voice recognition stuff.
· Already working with the likes of Airbus and American Express.
· Have won numerous awards from various competitions.
· Question for me is whether the trend is moving away from this type of technology or towards it?

How is this relevant to flamingo?
Well the way I see it flamingo offers more flexibility to the insurer than any of the above solutions. There is some seriously cool stuff that the other companies are offering and there are also some regurgitated recycled ideas that have been repackaged.

I’m not going to go into every bit of tech that flamingo have but in my opinion and only in my opinion it appears to be more robust and flexible at the same time.

What I had noticed from the other companies is that most of them have much more mature sales pipeline with many already having commercial agreements with numerous companies.

Looking forward to hearing what other have discovered about these companies