We recently attended PegaWorld in National Harbor, Maryland, on June 8-10. The conference focused on how businesses today must adapt to technological innovation and utilize new solutions that deliver business agility and empower organizations so they can rapidly close execution gaps and seize new opportunities. Pega's investment in a customer-centric strategy enables digital transformation, which is essential for an Omnichannel execution strategy that demands a new approach to software.

Pega 7 is a best in class Business Rules Engine (BRE) platform led by Chess Master and Founder Alan Trefler. These new BRE capabilities  enables Omni-Channel UX?, Next-Best-Action and Business Process Fulfillment, empower financial services firms to transform the way they engage with their customers, simplify their operations and adapt to market changes.

Kerim Akgonul, Pegasystems' Senior Vice President, Product Management, presented a very lively day-in-the-life scenario of a family man wanting to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle. Kerim and his team told the story with much humor, where Kerim ends up buying a scooter from the recommendations of USERV Insurance as a result of their next-best-action decisioning hub.  He then rode off the stage on a scooter, while his keynote transitioned to a video of customer interactions with various characters. The point being, the insurance firm had the tools in place to help the customer make a decision and subsequently underwrite a new policy.

Customer Showcase Theater

Pega also presented a hands-on keynote highlighting Omnichannel and Cisco's Remote Expert Mobile solution, led by PegaSystems' Insurance lead, Adam Field. The team demonstrated real business solutions to help a dad celebrate his son's graduation from college by rewarding himself with a Porsche 911 Carrera -aka midlife crisis. Adam and his team presented a similar scenario as Kerim's, however Adam used live data and software using iPads, laptops and desktops to imitate Omnichannel USERV applications. The demo connected the proud father with an insurance expert on video who helped increase the father's confidence in the wisdom of his new purchase. The next steps for Omnichannel that Cisco and PegaSystems is preparing are to connect the mobile application, BPM, on-demand video conferencing, live content sharing, and digital signature, so the application can be completed and the Dad can drive his insured Porsche off the lot. While this capability is available today, we did not have enough time to show it on stage.

Other Insurance Hot-Spot Demos:

• Customer Servicethat breaks down the barriers and steps in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that focuses on automated decisioning, customer service agents (aka CSR's), who are armed to do the right thing for the customer at the right time regardless of the communication channel, business intent or other customer circumstances.
• Distribution Managementthat helps every agent execute like a top notch performer regardless of tenure or skill. The presentation provides agents with predictive/adaptive analytics to personalize each sales interaction by dynamically matching the carrier's offerings to the client's unique needs, i.e. next-best-action.
• Underwriting and Claims Managementenable carriers to control and expedite both underwriting and claims processes across the organization by turning the opportunity into market growth.

Having a tight partnership with PegaSystems Insurance group provides a great go-to-market approach that enables insurers to take advantage of leading Cisco technology such as Unified Computing System, Unified Communication/Collaboration Platforms, core networking and security. Additionally, Cisco's Practice Advisors/Architects are working with insurance firms to assure positive business outcomes that align to carrier's growth objectives. To find out more about Cisco's unified computing system, visit our solutions page, and be sure to share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!