Brian Pook

2015 Wealth Management Industry Awards -- the ZONE Software WealthManagement.com Oct 2015 The WealthManagement.com Industry Award program is the first of its kind to acknowledge excellence among vendors and suppliers serving the financial advisor community. Delivering outstanding advice to investors requires a strong combination of industry expertise, superior products, top-notch service and innovative technology. Awards were presented in several categories, with the ZONE winning in the Custodians – Insurance category.The ZONE tablet application is interactive and presents… Show more The WealthManagement.com Industry Award program is the first of its kind to acknowledge excellence among vendors and suppliers serving the financial advisor community. Delivering outstanding advice to investors requires a strong combination of industry expertise, superior products, top-notch service and innovative technology. Awards were presented in several categories, with the ZONE winning in the Custodians – Insurance category.The ZONE tablet application is interactive and presents various investment options for CUNA Mutual Group’s MEMBERS® Zone Annuity. The application features an easy-to-understand interface and engaging visuals, giving financial advisors, including those with CUNA Mutual Group’s own broker-dealer, CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc., a valuable tool to help their clients set their own risk comfort zones."The ZONE" is a unique tablet application that creates an emotional engagement that is rare in software development. The strong customer reaction is even more rare when the software is a sales tool for selling annuities. Show less

CIO100 Award CIO Magazine Jun 2015 Our 3rd CIO100 Award in as many years for our iDia (Individually Design your Income Annuity) app. Another successful collaboration between our Strong, Creative Engineering Staff and our Visionary Business Team. A state-of-the-art tablet animated sales tool that helps advisors develop an active, illustrated financial plan of annuity income for customers seeking retirement confidence. The iDIA system simplifies and elevates the often-challenging lifetime income sales process for… Show more Our 3rd CIO100 Award in as many years for our iDia (Individually Design your Income Annuity) app. Another successful collaboration between our Strong, Creative Engineering Staff and our Visionary Business Team. A state-of-the-art tablet animated sales tool that helps advisors develop an active, illustrated financial plan of annuity income for customers seeking retirement confidence. The iDIA system simplifies and elevates the often-challenging lifetime income sales process for financial advisors by using interactive, gamified visuals to create a dynamic, financial illustration of the lifetime retirement “paycheck” available for the customer.Our highest technology Mobile Optimized Web App yet, uses Single Page Architecture (SPA), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and Client Side In-Memory Computing (IMC), to name a few technologies. Approximately 90% of the app is loaded into browser memory using components of Node.js. Performance is outstanding and the app is tolerant to connection interruptions. Show less

CIO 100 CIO Magazine Jun 2014 CUNA Mutual Group’s the ZONE, a tablet application that helps credit union members plan for retirement security, is the honored project. Launched in August 2013, the ZONE presents CUNA Mutual Group’s registered index annuity, MEMBERS® Zone Annuity, in a unique, high-performance web application for the iPad. The ZONE helps advisors and credit union members work together to create a zone of risk and reward aligned with the member’s investment goals.This is a high performance web app using… Show more CUNA Mutual Group’s the ZONE, a tablet application that helps credit union members plan for retirement security, is the honored project. Launched in August 2013, the ZONE presents CUNA Mutual Group’s registered index annuity, MEMBERS® Zone Annuity, in a unique, high-performance web application for the iPad. The ZONE helps advisors and credit union members work together to create a zone of risk and reward aligned with the member’s investment goals.This is a high performance web app using Single Page Application (SPA) architecture. Many technologies were used to create a small application payload that loads quickly and then runs from browser memory at speeds of a local app. Optimized so no server calls are required once the app is loaded. Revenues are driven by sales so very high performance is required. Since Face-to-face (F2F) sales can take place under a variety of environmental conditions connection durability was required. Along with a straight forward UI this software is popular among sales people and customers alike.2013 Sales Target was exceeded by 300%! Show less

Information Week "Elite 100" Award Information Week Magazine Apr 2014 "The ZONE" is a unique application that creates an emotional engagement that is rare in software development. The strong customer reaction is even more rare when the software is a sales tool for selling annuities.Our highly innovative engineering staff and highly creative marketing staff collaborated to create a high-performance iPad optimized web application that presents a complicated product in a pleasing and enjoyable user experience. Gamification is used in this app to help… Show more "The ZONE" is a unique application that creates an emotional engagement that is rare in software development. The strong customer reaction is even more rare when the software is a sales tool for selling annuities.Our highly innovative engineering staff and highly creative marketing staff collaborated to create a high-performance iPad optimized web application that presents a complicated product in a pleasing and enjoyable user experience. Gamification is used in this app to help advisors and credit union members work together to create a zone of risk and reward aligned with the member’s investment goals.Product sales reinforce the ZONE’s success with sales of the MEMBERS Zone Annuity reaching $22 million in the first month after launch, and first year sales exceeding target by more than 300 percent for 2013. Show less

BISA Technology Innovation Award Bank Insurance & Securities Association Mar 2014 "The ZONE" is 1 of 9 BISA Technology Innovation Award recipients selected for the honor. The BISA Technology Innovation Award recognizes leadership in the advancement of the financial services industry’s products, services, and platforms through technology innovation. The award recognizes companies’ commitment to advancements in technology-based solutions for the industry.The ZONE removes this anxiety by providing a simple and effective tool for the advisor to present investment… Show more "The ZONE" is 1 of 9 BISA Technology Innovation Award recipients selected for the honor. The BISA Technology Innovation Award recognizes leadership in the advancement of the financial services industry’s products, services, and platforms through technology innovation. The award recognizes companies’ commitment to advancements in technology-based solutions for the industry.The ZONE removes this anxiety by providing a simple and effective tool for the advisor to present investment options. Launched in August 2013, the ZONE presents our MEMBERS Zone Annuity in a unique, high-performance web application optimized for the iPad. The ZONE allows advisors and customers to customize a zone of risk and reward aligned with their investment goals using the MEMBERS Zone Annuity product.Product sales reinforce the ZONE’s success with sales of the MEMBERS Zone Annuity reaching $22 million in the first month after launch, and first year sales exceeding target by more than 300 percent for 2013.The ZONE is a Web App using a Single Page Application architecture with many advanced capabilities around code "minification" and pre-caching: user experience is often defined by the performance of the app. The high-performing architecture makes for a strong user experience even in degraded wireless-bandwidth environments. Show less

InformationWeek 500 InformationWeek Magazine Sep 2013 CUNA Mutual Financial Group ranked #19 on InformationWeek 500 technology innovators list for our Retirement RADAR Mobile Annuity Sales Enablement Software. This iPad-optimized Web App uses the latest technologies and an innovative "gamification" marketing approach. The software creates a pleasing approach to selling a complex product that ensures a reliable income throughout a customer's retirement years. CUNA Mutual Financial Group is the highest ranked insurance company on the 2013… Show more CUNA Mutual Financial Group ranked #19 on InformationWeek 500 technology innovators list for our Retirement RADAR Mobile Annuity Sales Enablement Software. This iPad-optimized Web App uses the latest technologies and an innovative "gamification" marketing approach. The software creates a pleasing approach to selling a complex product that ensures a reliable income throughout a customer's retirement years. CUNA Mutual Financial Group is the highest ranked insurance company on the 2013 InformationWeek 500 list. Show less

CIO 100 CIO Magazine Jun 2013 Working closely with our business partners, created an Annuity Sales Enablement tool called Retirement RADAR. This software is used for Face-to-Face sales of Single Premium Immediate Annuities (SPIA).The creation of this industry first entailed full visual design with an external design firm, full business requirements, technical requirements, and some elements of Agile project management methodology. The award requires an excellent business problem to solve and excellent IT… Show more Working closely with our business partners, created an Annuity Sales Enablement tool called Retirement RADAR. This software is used for Face-to-Face sales of Single Premium Immediate Annuities (SPIA).The creation of this industry first entailed full visual design with an external design firm, full business requirements, technical requirements, and some elements of Agile project management methodology. The award requires an excellent business problem to solve and excellent IT implementation of that solution. Gamification marketing techniques were implemented using MVC was one of the key attributes of this iPad optimized web application software. Show less