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2013 Innovation Awards: STARS Discovery

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2013 Innovation Awards: STARS Discovery

CS STARS L.L.C.

STARS DISCOVERY

www.csstars.com/landingpage/starsdiscovery.aspx

With its STARS Discovery iPad app, CS Stars L.L.C. taps the capabilities of the iPad to provide risk managers with a mobile risk assessment tool that allows them to perform risk assessments in areas where Internet connectivity is limited or nonexistent.

“We basically started out looking at mobility for our customers,” said Joel Plofsky, product owner at Marsh Inc. unit CS Stars in Chicago, who developed the app with Anurag Mishra, a CS Stars principal application architect. A customer survey had shown that the area in which CS Stars could make the biggest impact in providing a mobile tool was in the risk assessment area.

“So much of the work is done on factory floors or in warehouses or in out-of-the-way spaces where connectivity doesn't exist,” Mr. Plofsky said. “So it seemed like the perfect way to start out and get into the mobile space was to go after the need.”

Meeting that need earned the product a 2013 Innovation Award from Business Insurance.

The STARS Discovery app displays push pins on a map of nearby locations at which the user has risk assessments to perform and allows users to create new risk assessments on the fly from an existing template. The app lays out multiple-choice, check-box, essay and applicability questions in a survey-style format and allows the user to use the iPad's camera function to shoot and attach photos to individual questions. Risk assessment progress is tracked through a “completed questions” status bar.

The app can automatically generate recommendations and action plans to address noncompliant responses. It's also designed for seamless integration with CS Stars' STARS Enterprise claims administration and risk management platform, allowing completed risk assessments to be uploaded to the platform.

The app is in the process of being rolled out to clients and prospects, said Mr. Plofsky.

“The feedback has been fantastic, both in the efficiency and the quality of the information that they're getting,” he said.

Mr. Plofsky said additional functionality likely will be added to the app in the future. “I'm sure there will be enhancements,” he said.

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