Vlocity Debuts Vella, A Virtual Agent Delivering Highly Personalized Insurance Experiences

LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Oct 3, 2017) - Vlocity, Inc., a leading industry cloud software company, today unveiled Vella, a new consumer-friendly mobile application that enables insurance carriers to offer a personalized and modern way for their customers to handle their insurance needs. This new application will be available later this year and will be showcased through demonstrations at InsureTech Connect from Oct. 3-4, 2017 in Las Vegas.

"Usage-based insurance, virtual agents, and micro-coverages are among the top topics in the insurance industry today. They have the potential to both disrupt and augment traditional agency-based distribution," said Raja Singh, senior vice president and general manager of Vlocity Insurance. "Vella combines all those functions in a consumer-friendly application that our customers can completely rebrand and integrate into their channels. The components that underlie the Vella experience are all reusable across the front office, which maximizes the opportunity to learn from and improve customer engagements."

Vella was created using Vlocity's deep industry functionality and microservices architecture, which combined with natural language processing (providing a text-based user interface) and data from the Salesforce IoT, offers a modern approach to personalized insurance with the following features:

• Easy Assessment and Instant Coverage: Vella shows the policyholder where they are insured and where they have gaps, and then guides them through simple questionnaires about their assets and potential liabilities. Once recorded, coverage can be added with a few swipes of a finger. Coverage for personal valuables, business pursuits, excess liability and other risks can be cross-sold to the benefit of the carrier and the insured.
• Connected Protection: Combining the power of Salesforce IoT with MapAnything, a geo-productivity platform also built on the Salesforce Platform, Vella leverages vehicle telematics and other IoT sensors to personalize auto insurance rates and premiums. Coverage can be tailored based on usage and continually updated. For example, premiums can be charged based only on miles driven and rates can incorporate speeding and braking tendencies to reward the policyholder for good driving habits.
• Real-time Alerts: By setting rules to trigger proactive business actions in real-time with Salesforce IoT, Vella offers alerts for relevant information and offers. For example, a policyholder can receive an alert when their connected water sensor indicates a leak in their home, or an offer for travel insurance based on new location data from their phone. 
• Conversational User Interface (UI): Vella offers instant access to policy details and common transactions through a conversational 'chat' UI, or "virtual agent." You can ask when your payment is due, the amount of the premium, or even be guided through a new quote. With Salesforce SOS from Service Cloud, a human agent is also just a few clicks away.
  
  

Vella leverages Vlocity OmniScript for efficient guided interactions, easily injecting simple forms or product information within a chat and/or in the mobile app. Sales and service transactions that normally take numerous steps can be achieved in just a few swipes or clicks. Vlocity's modern microservices architecture enables the virtual agent to process transactions across multiple functions with a single call.

"Insurance has always been a data-driven industry, and insurers can now leverage IoT data to improve products and relationships," said John Stewart, CEO of MapAnything "We are excited to be working with Vlocity and Salesforce to deliver usage-based auto insurance that rewards good driving behavior - a win-win for the customer and insurance provider."

Vlocity provides a full suite of digital insurance applications to power business processes for agents, channel managers, brokers, customer service representatives, and customers on top of the Salesforce Platform. Insurance carriers can now leverage the world's leading CRM functionality and the most trusted cloud platform, for industry-specific transactions like quoting a policy, changing a beneficiary, or setting up a payment plan. Powered by Salesforce IoT, Vlocity can deliver highly personalized, usage-based insurance and monitoring capabilities.

"The Internet of Things has the potential to transform a number of Industries, but perhaps none more than Insurance. IoT creates the opportunity for more innovative and personalized products such as usage-based insurance, and increases the engagement between the carrier and the insured," said Rohit Mahna, general manager and senior vice president of Financial Services at Salesforce. "The Vella app delivers these concepts directly to the consumer in a very useful and engaging way, and allows carriers to jump-start IoT initiatives with a pre-built app."

To learn more about Vlocity Insurance, or to request a product demo, please contact info@vlocity.com.

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About Vlocity Insurance

Vlocity, a leading industry cloud software company with deep domain expertise in vertical applications, empowers companies to deliver a unified digital and industry-specific customer experience. Vlocity is one of Salesforce's fastest growing partners, a strategic level Salesforce ISV, and was recently named to the Forbes 2017 World's Top 100 Cloud Companies. Vlocity Industry Cloud Apps are award-winning cloud and mobile software that embed industry-specific functionality, best practices and business processes for customer-centric industries. Built in partnership with Salesforce, the world's #1 CRM company, Vlocity Industry Cloud Apps leverage the omnichannel capabilities of the Salesforce Customer Success Platform to enable companies to achieve faster business agility and time to value from the cloud across digital and traditional channels. Vlocity delivers modern cloud solutions for the Communications & Media, Insurance & Financial Services, Energy, Health Insurance and Public Sector industries. Learn more at www.vlocity.com and follow us at @vlocity.