Posted by
Joseph Westlake
on
5/28/2010 at 12:09 PM
During this year’s sessions, the discussions centered on the technology imperatives for carriers and agencies to help lead them through these ultra-competitive and fast-changing times. Three points from a trio of industry analysts nicely summed up the direction that carriers need to focus:
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“Insurers should invest in IT for capability more so than cost efficiency.” – Matthew Josefowicz, Director, insurance, at New York-based Novarica
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“Being fast doesn’t help if you have the wrong product mix.” – Kimberly Harris-Ferrante, VP & distinguished analyst at Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner
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“Insurers need to think more about the big picture, and use that to make tactical adjustments.” – Craig Weber, SVP at Boston-based Celent
There is additional emphasis on technology being customer centric and improving distribution channel productivity. We’re already witnessing a strong pace of core system replacement amongst carriers with more stable and agile systems able to accommodate future growth. Today, this flexibility is a norm in the functionality of the systems.We also observed a renewed focus on straight through processing with the intention of reducing transaction friction to ensure agents’ focus remains on selling.
Additionally, technology should provide a platform for agents to take on diverse roles and be more flexible with their sales efforts. Utilizing the services of Customer Relationship Management as a part of their internal systems seems like an old idea, but it’s still not deployed uniformly through the industry and is one of the most reliable returning technology investments. Equipped with the right insight, both product specific and customer specific, agents can establish their value as insurance advisors, resulting in greater customer loyalty.
In a nutshell, the major takeaways are:
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Agile and capable systems
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Growing and diversifying distribution channel
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Utilizing CRM
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Carriers focusing on loss prevention rather than solely on loss reimbursement
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Posted by
Stephen Bruno
on
5/12/2010 at 6:30 AM
The 2010 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum is right round the corner, and we are excited to participate in meaningful dialogue about emerging insurance technology. As an active member at the forum, VUE Software plans to showcase its role in providing extraordinary results to agencies and carriers through cutting-edge solutions.
Carriers and agencies who have implemented VUE Software solutions have experienced gains in agent and broker productivity, performance, and customer service. With VUE Software, agents get the ability to sell multi-carrier, multi-line products and still feel like they are working with a single carrier. Agents can improve their operational efficiency as they can monitor everything from quoting, managing compensation and client bases to performance tracking in a single window.
Backed by service oriented architecture and web services, VUE Software solutions are designed to help insurers confront today’s economic and business challenges. Carriers can continue improving their operational efficiency well into the future as the solutions remain scalable and flexible to accommodate changes and business growth.
A huge advantage for carriers is the ease with which VUE Software solutions can integrate with multiple systems. Case in point is a recent project where VUE Compensation Management was integrated with many diverse systems, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, at Insphere Insurance Solutionssm, the largest independent career agency distribution group with a sales force of approximately 3,000 agents nationwide.
At the conference, you can hear straight from Jeff Walker, VP of Corporate Strategy of Insphere Insurance Solutionssm about the value of their platform through their presentation titled Customer Relationship Management: The Key to Supporting a Collaborative, Customer-Centric Model. Each attendee of this session held on Tuesday, May 26 at 3:00 PM PT will receive a free flash drive and will be entered to win a prize. I look forward to meeting many insurance professionals at this event.
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Posted by
Stephanie Castro
on
5/5/2010 at 7:15 AM
This article is part of a series of interviews with insurance agents and brokers about carrier technologies that impact their business. Stay tuned for future articles.
When Sandra Anderson, Office Manager of Vermont Brokerage Services, says that her firm truly cares about placing their clients with the best coverage for them, you believe her. Perhaps it’s because Ms. Anderson, a native of Boston, has been in Vermont long enough to assimilate into the culture of genuine niceness that Vermonters are known for. But beyond just being nice, Vermont Brokerage Services’ dedication to helping their customers also makes firm business sense.
The following is the transcript of an interview with Ms. Anderson about her views on why personalized service is here to stay and which carrier technologies are best.
Q. In addition to offering group health, life, disability and retirement financial products, some of your brokers are also assisting clients with enrollment and helping with HR issues such as COBRA applications. How does that affect your relationship with your clients?
Ms. Anderson: Our clients like to work with us because they get personal attention from their brokers. We even help represent them when dealing with carriers in the event of a claims or billing issue. As a result, we retain a lot of clients and keep longstanding client relationships.
Q. How do you process commissions?
Ms. Anderson: We receive monthly statements from the carrier, and then we enter the information into our in-house system to calculate our brokers’ commissions. Processing the statements can be difficult because each carrier’s commission statements are different. Some carriers don’t list all the information we need in a convenient place; for example, the broker’s name won’t be listed in the same place as the policy information, so it takes us more time to sift through the paperwork to find the information we need.
Q. Which carriers are the easiest to work with in this regard?
Ms. Anderson: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont’s commission statements are the best. When we’re entering information into our system to pay our agents, all the information we need is right in front of us so it’s easy to enter in quickly. However, most carriers are making strides in this area as they update their technologies.
Q. How do you use technology in your business?
Ms. Anderson: Our in-house system helps us enter and track all our carrier’s commissions, as well as our payments to our brokers. Some carriers have online sites where we can login on behalf of a client to help manage their enrollments. It would be great to see more carriers using similar technology.
Q. What technology challenges do you face?
Ms. Anderson: It’s difficult for Vermont Brokerage Services to stay up to date on our clients’ policies. If there have been changes in our clients’ accounts that we didn’t know about, it’s usually not until we get the commission statement that we find out. Even then, there’s no way for us to verify the changes are correct; we just have to trust the carrier. It would be great to be able to go online to access this information.
Q. What is the current state of your business?
Ms. Anderson: Commissions and bonuses seem to be dropping among nearly all the carriers we write for. Some carriers offer incentives to clients to write directly with them instead of going through a broker. However, when this happens clients are usually not aware of the type of agreement they are entering into, and are usually disappointed.
Our clients come to us saying, why isn’t our COBRA being managed anymore? It’s because they’re working directly with the carrier.
Carriers are just too large to give groups the personal attention they want. That’s the difference a broker can make. We represent our clients’ interests and are the conduit to the carrier to make sure everything’s fair and everyone’s happy.
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