HSB advances IoT protection with new app

Hartford Steam Boiler's launch of its Meshify Protect IoT Sensor App is the insurer's latest development in it's eight years of using IoT technology to protect homes and businesses.

"This really brings all that experience together and transforms the fundamental interaction that people have every day with our sensor solution, which is what's in their hands, the mobile app," says Gordon Hui, vice president of HSB Applied Technology Solutions. "It represents a complete ground up rebuild of the IoT app experience and it's designed specifically to support any type of commercial or home environment."

HSB, a unit of Munich Re, is one of the few carriers with its own IoT technology subsidiaries. HSB has been providing its own IoT sensor services to its property and casualty and personal lines insurance partners who insure homes, businesses and institutions. These partners, in turn, provide those IoT services to their clients. 

Most carriers partner with outside IoT technology providers rather than developing their own services. "We felt we would not be doing what we need to do to support our clients, if we weren't providing some of our own solutions to market," says Hui. "We know that there's gaps in that market. By being able to provide some of our own solutions, we can ensure the robustness and the customer experience that we know is crucial to the insurance market."

Meshify Protect, which is set for launch sometime this fall, will deliver "a more powerful monitoring and alert experience," says Hui. "Because of the diverse snapshot views we're providing, the more advanced graphing of signal strength and battery, and sensor reading, it's going to enable activation of sensor in a simpler way for a better customer experience."

Using the Meshify Protect app, HSB policyholders will able to remotely monitor their property from anywhere on a 24/7 basis. The app will notify users about water leaks, frozen pipes, temperature extremes, equipment failure and other damaging conditions. Meshify Protect is also notable because it gives policyholders a direct path to IoT property security management, according to Hui. 

"They can have a custom program complete with the program design, figuring out what sensors to use, getting the dashboards they need to track their program, and the support that they need from a program management perspective," he says. "All those things that allow you to scale a solution and also that tailor experience for the insured – software, hardware, alerts and call center support."