ALLSTATE

The 'Allstate Corporation' is the largest publicly held personal lines insurer in the United States. Allstate was founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Company.
The company slogan is "You're in good hands." The current advertising campaign, in use since 2004, asks, "Are you in good hands?" Their current spokesperson is Dennis Haysbert. Allstate sponsors various sporting events, including the Allstate Sugar Bowl, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard NASCAR race, and the United States Olympic Committee.

Contents

Products Available

Accolades

Catastrophe Exposure Management

Competition

Criticism

Auto insurance claims

Home Owners Insurance

In 2006, Allstate's HR department decided to outsource some of its major, transactional functions to IBM. This transformation was designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of HR services, while allowing HR’s retained services to concentrate on Allstate's overall talent strategy. In the fall of 2006, Allstate signed an outsourcing contract with IBM to deliver some of the transactional HR work. IBM will provide Allstate with an integrated HR technology platform and improved HR processes, decommissioning much of the legacy HRIS system in place. This will lead to better data collection, tracking, and reporting and trend analysis - and, ultimately, better data-driven talent decisions, per the HR leadership. The transition of work from Allstate to IBM began with a first wave on May 1, 2007. The second wave, initially due to occur on August 1, 2007, was postponed and is now due to take place on August 27, 2007. To date, it has not been announced how many HR employees will be affected by this outsource, but several HR groups have been identified. Some of the groups that will be affected by the outsource are the HR Service Center, Talent Acquisition, Payroll and Education. IBM will be utilizing their facilities in the United States as well as the Philippines to absorb these functions. Allstate will administer 60 day notices to those employees whose current job functions will be outsourced.

References

External links

Products Available

Allstate sells auto insurance, home insurance (in certain localities), life insurance, umbrella insurance, and commercial insurance, to name a few. Its advertising campaign is centered around its "your choice auto" product, which offers accident forgiveness and lower deductibles for all drivers willing to pay an extra premium.^[1]

Accolades

Allstate has been recognized with numerous awards, including

★ The World's Leading Top 100 Companies- ''Forbes'' magazine, (2004-2005).

★ America's Most Admired Companies - ''Fortune''

★ 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers – ''Working Mother''

★ Top 50 Companies for Diversity, ''DiversityInc''^[2]

Catastrophe Exposure Management

Allstate, like many other insurance companies, has stated intentions of reducing its exposure in hurricane-prone Florida. In November, Allstate began dropping 120,000 policies that were up for renewal at that time. Governor Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet passed a 90-day emergency order to temporarily prevent insurance companies from dropping policies.^[3] On February 20, 2007, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty clarified the order, stating that insurance companies can drop policies if they satisfy certain conditions, including filing new, lower rates with the state and give customers 100 days notice.^[4]
On May 11th, 2007 Allstate announced it would no longer offer new homeowners policies in California.

Competition

Major insurance competitors include State Farm, American Family, Farmers Insurance Group, Nationwide, Progressive, and Geico.

Criticism

Auto insurance claims

An article published on May 2006 in Business Week details how Allstate routinely tries to deny its policy-holders their full legitimate benefits, often paying out less than they're entitled to. Quoting a critic of Allstate, Business Week writes that "Claimants in the 'good hands' category may get swift reimbursement, but they will end up with less than they're entitled to," he says. Those who hold out for more — and retain a lawyer to help them get it — face battering in the courts and potentially years of delay. "You can get your claims resolved promptly or fairly," he argues, "but not both." Also according to the article, "Allstate deploys a variety of systems...to make sure it pays the minimum necessary — and it plays hardball with those who seek more."^[5]
An investigative report in February 2007 by CNN found that major car insurance companies, lead by State Farm and Allstate Insurance, are increasingly fighting auto insurance claims from those who incurred soft-tissue injuries by their insured members.^[6]

Home Owners Insurance

The PBS television program "Now",^[7] in conjunction with Bloomberg Markets magazine, did an exposé regarding Allstate's home owners insurance policy change. The idea was to increase profit by not living up to the customers' policy expectations.
Allstate changed the terminology of the policy to "extended coverage", in order to convince the policy holders that coverage was still the same or even better. In reality the coverage was lowered.
Interviewed customers said insurance agents lied about what was covered with the policy change. When claims were filed, Allstate fought tooth and nail to avoid paying the full amount of the claims. Allstate used delay tactics in court, in order to make the customer give up.
The program also mentioned State Farm as having used the same consulting firm that came up with this idea. State Farm customers were complaining as well.
The unhappy insurance customers urged everyone to review their policies to make sure their coverage is adequate.
==Business Process Outsource

In 2006, Allstate's HR department decided to outsource some of its major, transactional functions to IBM. This transformation was designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of HR services, while allowing HR’s retained services to concentrate on Allstate's overall talent strategy.
In the fall of 2006, Allstate signed an outsourcing contract with IBM to deliver some of the transactional HR work. IBM will provide Allstate with an integrated HR technology platform and improved HR processes, decommissioning much of the legacy HRIS system in place. This will lead to better data collection, tracking, and reporting and trend analysis - and, ultimately, better data-driven talent decisions, per the HR leadership.
The transition of work from Allstate to IBM began with a first wave on May 1, 2007. The second wave, initially due to occur on August 1, 2007, was postponed and is now due to take place on August 27, 2007. To date, it has not been announced how many HR employees will be affected by this outsource, but several HR groups have been identified. Some of the groups that will be affected by the outsource are the HR Service Center, Talent Acquisition, Payroll and Education. IBM will be utilizing their facilities in the United States as well as the Philippines to absorb these functions. Allstate will administer 60 day notices to those employees whose current job functions will be outsourced.

See also==

★ Allstate Arena

★ Northbrook Technology

References

1. Allstate Insurance
2. Awards and Recognitions
3. Date set for insurance rate filings; Insurers can resume policy cancellations as soon as they file required rate reductions in mid-March
4. Ruling: Insurers can drop policies
5. Business Week
6. In some cases, Allstate proposed settlement amounts as small as , asking claimants to "take it or leave it". The investigative report found that insurance companies often make it so expensive and time consuming to go to court to get full settlement amounts, that it would not be worth the victims time. The claims handled in the matter were very minor collision type losses that did not result in any () damage to the car, and therefore was the insurance company protecting it assets and the premium paying public money, by keeping rates as low as possible. Auto insurers play hardball in minor-crash claims
7. PBS.org

External links

★ Allstate.com - Official website

★ Allstate Auto Insurance - Auto Insurance Section

★ Better Business Bureau - Allstate

★ BusinessWeek.com - 'Business Week Article on Allstate's claims practices'

★ Lermanet.com - 'Stalked by Allstate: Being an agent for the giant insurer can be tough--even terrifying. An extraordinary war between a company and its own troops is only getting fiercer.' Richard Behar, ''Fortune'' (October, 1995)

★ TheCIA.net - 'Allstate applied Scientology methods to train its management', Rochelle Sharpe, Wall Street Journal (March 22, 1995)

★ SeattlePI.nwsource.com - a former adjuster's experience using the Colossus software program used by Allstate in adjusting claims, ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer''

★ Yahoo.com - 'The Allstate Company Profile'