Automation is the key driver in an insurance industry where information technology leads business innovation. For the insurance business, up-to-the-minute individualized rates requires trustworthy real-time data. To achieve this, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. is relying on ServiceNow Inc.’s Configuration Management Database as the foundation that maintains safety and reliability while enabling increased speed of delivery to the marketplace.

“Good trustworthy data enables faster incident resolution, better problem solving, more rigorous change management,” said Mike D’Ippolito (pictured), vice president of run services, infrastructure and operations, at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

D’Ippolito spoke with Dave Vellante (@dvellante) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during this year’s ServiceNow Knowledge17 event in Orlando, Florida. They discussed Nationwide’s implementation of the ServiceNow platform and the new patterns and models within the insurance industry. (* Disclosure below.)

Nationwide implemented the ServiceNow platform approximately a year and a half ago, and it has noticed huge benefits over its previous highly customized on-prem platform, according to D’Ippolito. Previously, a new release or upgrade required a year and a half, a lot of planning and an investment of approximately $1 million. In contrast, the company’s recent upgrade from ServiceNow’s Fuji to Helsinki took six weeks and cost approximately $100,000.

Blurred lines

IT and business are mingling, with IT innovation driving the business. “We’re starting to see ourselves as more of an IT company than an insurance company,” D’Ippolito said.

Answering a question about the ongoing issue of gaining customer trust for access to individual data, D’Ippolito described the solution as a value equation. “If you can provide that value, customers will give you the access and the data because they see a value in return,” he said.

One value that the Internet of Things will provide is the ability to predict problems before they occur so that insurance will be a preventative aid rather than relief after the disaster, D’Ippolito explained. One scenario could be where a sensor detects a weak and overloaded pipe before it bursts.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of ServiceNow Knowledge17. (* Disclosure: ServiceNow Inc. sponsored this Knowledge17 segment on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither ServiceNow nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE