Exstream Software, Inc. today announced that Celent, LLC, a leading research and advisory firm focused on insurance technology strategy, has recognized its client, the Principal Financial Group, for innovative use of technology in an agent portal initiative. The Principal was named a “Model Carrier Component” in the new report, Celent Model Carrier 2007: Case Studies in Effective Use of Technology in Insurance. The application used by The Principal was implemented using Exstream’s enterprise personalization software, Dialogue. Celent defines “Model Carrier Components” as key technology best practices that a “model carrier” would use to improve performance and meet market demands. The Model Carrier Components of the report were selected from over 100 insurers in the US and internationally by Celent’s team of insurance analysts. The Principal earned recognition by using Exstream Dialogue to develop and deploy a web-based application that gives its sales force real-time access to customer-specific and pre-approved corporate information for dynamically producing client sales presentations. The presentations are customized and given to prospective clients covering different retirement products and plan options. The Dialogue-developed web solution enables over 250 sales users to create personalized, high-quality sales presentations on demand with any combination of products. Online functions include viewing, editing and ordering. Using the web-based application, document preparation time for the fully customized sales presentation was reduced from several hours to 20 minutes, resulting in a 75 percent cost reduction for the company. Additionally, providing real-time access to customer-specific information ensures that no matter what type of products or plan options are requested, each presentation is produced in a consistent way, supporting the company’s brand appropriately and in a compliance-approved manner “In the past decade, agent portals have gone from a novelty to a necessity for insurers. In many cases, they are the primary channel of communication between agents and carriers,” said Matthew Josefowicz, manager of Celent’s insurance practice and lead author of the report. “The initiative at The Principal is an excellent example of a best practice that uses today’s technology to help insurers improve performance, meet market demands and operate efficiently.” “The Principal is a forward-thinking, innovative enterprise that is using Dialogue to its fullest capacity to improve both internal productivity and the customer experience,” said Michael Charest, vice president of insurance solutions for Exstream Software. “We are very proud of Celent’s recognition, and congratulate The Principal on their industry-leading Dialogue application.”