Cognizant enables FCCI to propel its E&S specialty business

Aspirational business plans in the insurance industry are delayed for many reasons. Competing demands on leadership time, complex product architectures, underwriting challenges, or uncertainty are among the many reasons some ideas are slow to reach completion.

FCCI Insurance Group (FCCI) recognized the excess and surplus (E&S) business, a non-admitted form of specialty insurance, as a new business opportunity a decade ago. However, competing demands on leadership time and technological trials meant that appropriate resourcing for the idea didn’t advance.

Fast forward to 2022, when FCCI’s new CIO turned to a trusted advisor to revitalize the E&S business plan idea. FCCI chose Cognizant—with its deep history in the insurance sector and respected ability to lead complex insurance programs—to kickstart its E&S program. This venture demonstrates how an insurance carrier and an insurance service provider can collaborate effectively to pursue joint growth opportunities.

E&S business, a promised land in P&C insurance, is risky but very profitable

This is a time of new and always-morphing risk sources. Complex social and political landscapes, an unquenchable litigious culture, the effects of climate change, and the pandemic are just some of the factors that have maximized property and casualty (P&C) standard lines and driven demand for E&S.

E&S products address emerging and unique risks on a non-admitted basis, enabling greater flexibility in risk coverage. However, E&S is inherently complex and requires deep pockets of expertise, but it provides the opportunity for greater profitability. FCCI’s board recognized this but also had the vision to know it wasn’t just about having a good idea. It needed a partner with strong strategy and execution capabilities to set up its new E&S business. Cognizant rose to the challenge.

FCCI and Cognizant team up to shape the E&S business

It would have taken FCCI years to develop capabilities it did not have and a disproportionate amount of effort and resources to build an E&S business on its own. To successfully develop its E&S business, the company needed a trusted business and technology partner that knew speed and efficiency. While FCCI’s trust in Cognizant was strong, the service provider was still required to demonstrate the efficacy of its array of services. Cognizant had domain capabilities, a mature E&S-enablement offering called “E&S in a box,” and business-building capabilities incorporating strategy, design, structure, discipline, and the ability to harness technology, platforms, AI, data, and analytics.

FCCI trusted Cognizant to build the landscape for the E&S business and lead the evaluation and selection of the platform

Given the complexity and scale of building an E&S business, FCCI could not have accomplished it quickly without help from Cognizant. The insurer needed a partner to build a lean operating model, support the assessment of demands across 50+ industries and more than 1,300 classes, and drive the product specification process alongside FCCI’s legal and compliance teams. In addition, Cognizant’s recognized value at the core of the technology ecosystem for E&S enabled FCCI to trust Cognizant’s role as evaluation and selection lead in both the architecture and underlying application selection and integration phases of the program.

This approach struck a balance between “optimizing the existing” and creating an entirely new, modern architecture to harness technologies at scale to take advantage of the E&S opportunity.

Never overlook the distribution strategy—the core of the successful launch of a new insurance business

From the onset, Cognizant understood the vital importance of a distribution strategy to an E&S business. Therefore, the company spent time with key E&S distribution partners, including wholesalers and agents, in the business design stages of the FCCI E&S program. Cognizant also played the role of channel advisor, applying significant analytical skills to ensure FCCI has a channel mix of industry expertise with the volume needed to support profitable underwriting when it launches the business in Q4 2024.

The Bottom Line: Trust borne out of proven domain and execution capabilities enabled FCCI to partner effectively with Cognizant and transform business plans into reality.

Building a new insurance offering is challenging, especially one as complicated as E&S. FCCI partnered with Cognizant to access expertise, knowledge, skills, and technology assets. But perhaps more than anything, they partnered for Cognizant’s ability to LEAD.

Insurers seeking to grow through reimagining products and operations should look to their service partners. In this case, FCCI’s trust in Cognizant will be realized later this year when that business plan completes its journey from idea to reality.