Konnect named Innovative Hi-Tech Services Company of the Year

Konnect Net has been awarded the Innovative Hi-Tech Services Award for 2011, announced last night at the Hi Tech Awards in Wellington.

Over the last year the company’s SureMed service has been adopted by the great majority of New Zealand GP Practices to save valuable practice time and respond much more quickly and securely to insurance medical information requests.

SureMed was the winner from a strong field of entries assessed by a judging panel including the Wall Street Journal's Global Business Advisor of the Year, Gary Hamel, and Dell founder, Michael Dell.

In making the award the judges said: “Konnect has solved a problem previously seen as too hard to be fixed by automation given the number of different stake holders and complexity in handling insurer requests.

“The judges were impressed with Konnect's speed to market, distribution strategy and uniqueness. It has successfully solved a problem for the insurance industry as well as the notoriously difficult private health sector. “

In its first year SureMed has driven a 50% reduction in the time it takes doctors to complete and return insurance information requests by enabling the automated, secure electronic exchange of health information between doctors and insurers for the first time.

Hamish McLachlan, one of its founding directors said, “Konnect Net was created to bring health, insurance and business organisations together to deliver new efficiencies. All over New Zealand, doctors have told us that using SureMed has freed up more time for providing patient care, while insurers and policy-holders are getting policy applications turned around much more quickly.”

“While technology is an important part of what we do, I think this award also reflects Konnect’s focus on delivering improved business process management solutions and services that help everyone in the sector work more effectively and have more time to deliver the key services people are seeking from them.”

Since launching in early 2010 SureMed has been taken up by 11 New Zealand insurers. Konnect Net is currently developing the service for deployment in Australia.

www.konnect.co.nz