NEW YORK, Nov. 25, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BOLT Solutions, Inc. (www.boltinc.com), provider of the leading online sales and service platform to the property and casualty (P&C) insurance industry, congratulates its customer Citizens Property Insurance Corporation on being named the first place winner of this year's Insurance Networking News (INN) VIP Best Practices Award, presented at the recent 2014 Vanguards in Insurance Practices (VIP) Awards ceremony held in New Orleans.
Now in its 8th year, the VIP Awards are sponsored by Insurance Networking News (INN) in partnership with international financial research and consulting firm Celent, LLC. In addition to eight technology solution provider awards, five insurers were recognized in Phase II of the awards for their innovative IT implementations.
Invited to participate in Phase II of the VIP Awards, Bolt Solutions nominated Citizens as a "visionary" insurer for its implementation of the Citizens' Property Insurance Clearinghouse, designed to provide consumers and agents access to participating private insurers offering comparable coverage at competitive rates, resulting in greater insurance choice for Florida homeowners as well as reduced financial risk. Citizens was chosen as the first place winner of the INN VIP Best Practices recognition by INN's editors, INN's Editorial Advisory Board and Celent's insurance research analysts who reviewed the entries and determined the top-ranked technology best practices in action.
Summing up the overall significance of the 2014 awards, John McCormick, Editorial Director for INN and the award emcee, noted that "This year's winners really stood out for the innovativeness of their information technology implementations." Most importantly, he added, "Each one had a significant impact on the business."
The award winning Citizens' clearinghouse effort is powered by the Bolt Platform which enables a fully automated distribution solution providing both the level of service and choice required by Citizens' insurance customers as well as other Floridians seeking quality coverage. Unlike most carriers, Citizens' legislated responsibility to Floridians is to reduce the company's overall exposure and limit the potential assessment following a hurricane. With the Citizens' clearinghouse in place, a significant number of Citizens customers have moved to private markets, reducing Citizens' exposure while driving premium and growth to private carriers in the state.
"It is an honor to be recognized as a leader in technology innovation within the insurance industry, particularly with our efforts in launching the clearinghouse," said Consumer and Agent Services Vice President Steve Bitar. "This award is the result of a lot of hard work from an extremely dedicated group of people who made the clearinghouse possible."
Tim Attia, Bolt's Executive Vice President added: "We congratulate Citizens on their outstanding achievement and this well-deserved VIP Best Practices recognition. Citizens is a great example of an organization that is truly visionary and innovative in its goals, actions, and application of technology. We look forward to our continued work with the Citizens team as they add private insurers to the clearinghouse to provide even greater choice to Floridians. With the Bolt Platform as the underlying enabler of the clearinghouse, we are proud of the contribution we are making to this important and valuable program."
To learn more about the Citizens Property Insurance Clearinghouse, see the January launch statement from Citizens or visit https://www.citizensfla.com/policyholder/clearinghouse/.
About BOLT Solutions Inc.
Headquartered in New York and founded in 2000, BOLT Solutions Inc. (formerly SeaPass Solutions Inc.) offers the leading omni-channel distribution platform. The Bolt Platform supports all of the insurance needs of its customers, while driving market share, retention and increased revenue for its insurance industry partners. Bolt works with the leading property and casualty insurers. Bolt is an Actua company (Nasdaq:ACTA). For more information visit www.boltinc.com, email info@boltinc.com or call 212-608-4646.