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Echo Ridge Partners: Simplifying Policy Administration Operations

Chuck Cross, President, CTO & Co-founder, Stacy Butak, VP Quality Assurance & Co-founder, Echo Ridge PartnersChuck Cross, President, CTO & Co-founder, Stacy Butak, VP Quality Assurance & Co-founder
Gaining integration, agility, and flexibility while managing policy and transactional data has always been a priority of insurance companies that are battling to replace their legacy systems with the latest tools and solutions. And even with a deluge of available software and technology approaches for policy administration, many insurers still face barriers related to customization, configuration, and migration of historical data while leveraging proprietary systems. Besides, “The acceptable standards for software performance and usability are higher today than ever,” states Chuck Cross, President, CTO and Co-founder, Echo Ridge Partners. With a deep understanding of the insurance business, the Madison, WI-based firm, Echo Ridge Partners offers state-of-the-art software to help insurers overcome complexities around policy administration. “Our software is configurable, extensible, and scalable through the use of elegant design and leading edge industry standard technologies. Our approach to client customization helps control time and expense, and results in a great user experience,” adds Cross.

Echo Ridge Partners’ flagship product, iCatalyst, is a premiere solution that is setting a new standard in the policy management arena. The software is a modern architected application built from the ground up specifically to support insurance policy and claims management systems. With a flexible core system, custom-built modules, and deep integration capabilities, iCatalyst bestows insurance companies with complete control over the entire policy lifecycle. “From initial sales calls, to quotes, and follow-ups through policy issuance, we guide, coordinate, and streamline the new business process for our customers,” says Cross. Additionally, iCatalyst has a full set of policy administration features like Customer Relationship Management (CRM), document management, reporting, and billing systems.

iCatalyst also supports deep integration with Microsoft Office products. “With effective synchronization, users have the ability to import and export important contacts, dates, and tasks,” says Cross.


Our software is configurable, extensible and scalable with elegant design and cutting edge industry standard technologies


iCatalyst also offers a self-contained Document Management System (DMS) where all relevant documents and communications can be created, executed, and stored. Documents can be easily retrieved with a ‘two click’ philosophy. Also, with iCatalyst’s internal workflow, underwriters can generate any number of indications and quotes, and maintain a history of quotes that can be reviewed at any given time. Additionally, the optional claims module provides claim specialists full access to policy history, allowing rule-based claim validation and alerts.

The prowess of Echo Ridge is evident in the way it has helped many insurance companies overcome specific business challenges. For instance, a renowned insurance company was planning to grow their product line and enhance collaboration with other insurance providers. However, the client was feeling constrained by the limited document management abilities, restrictions on customizable reporting, and the inadequate responsiveness of their current vendor. Installing iCatalyst helped the insurance company resolve all these concerns. As part of implementation, Echo Ridge also created custom integrations with external financial institutions to automate billing processes, and a public web presence which provided a standards-compliant web-based collaboration point to seamlessly import sales and quote information from their portal into iCatalyst underwriting. More importantly, Echo Ridge was able to re-create and validate the historical policy, claims, and billing data for the client’s entire business history.

Carrying a zeal to disrupt the insurance software industry, Echo Ridge is planning to focus their ongoing innovation on the areas of Business Intelligence and Big Data. The firm is working toward delivering enhanced user experience on mobile devices, and investigating new generations of rules engines, based on recent advances in machine learning. “We are going to be working on our community communication to spread our message and reach out to more customers,” concludes Cross.