Jackson National's Prieskorn Takes on SITE

As her new title conveys, assistant vice president of the operations SITE (Support of Internet, Technology and Executive Client Services) at Jackson National Life ($47 billion in assets, Lansing, MI), Laura Prieskorn has her hands full.

"Actually, that is one of the challenges of my position," responds Prieskorn, when asked about managing the various groups that report to her. "I deal with each on a daily basis."

One group that reports to Prieskorn is Executive Client Services, or, in Prieskorn's words, the "well-trained group of people that handle special, or escalated, services for our customers." Executive Client Services also answers all incoming customer e-mail inquires.

"Executive Client Services ties into SITE because the e-mail gives them a connection to the Web," Prieskorn says. "Because of their high skill set and their broad knowledge that covers all product lines, they are a good source to reply to e-mail."

Also, Prieskorn frequently consults Executive Services on technology enhancements. "That group will keep us in touch with any service improvement that should be made or ideas on how to improve technology to help customers," she adds. Part of Prieskorn's responsibilities involves submitting IT requests for systems maintenance, in order to improve customer service.

Prieskorn plans to continue to leverage Executive Services' advice to help with Jackson National's ongoing work to improve self-service capabilities for producers and policyholders. "My goal is to continue to help improve self-service capabilities on the Internet," Prieskorn says. "We are trying to make it easier for producers to do business with us."

Internally, Prieskorn will focus on adding "smart" automation technology to help internal administrative associates keep up with "the ever-changing insurance and tax regulations. You have to have an extremely skilled associate to keep up, and we are trying make it easier for internal users," by automating some regulation information, she adds. Prieskorn is also focusing on integrating "many disparate systems" to help improve customer service, just as "I'm sure many other large insurance companies are doing," she jokes.

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio