Posted by
Joseph Westlake
on
5/11/2012 at 12:49 PM
Property and casualty insurance systems are evolving. From our vantage we see more and more functionality being split off from the core policy administration system as expectations are elevated for distribution functions, cross-selling, and service. I expect this will be a major topic for the analyst panel and throughout this year’s ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum.
VUE Software will be showcasing VUE CRM for Insurance solution alongside our enterprise distribution management suite. We’ve had great traction with our CRM system and of course it integrates with our producer onboarding and compensation management systems to deliver sales and marketing automation, all fully connected to distribution management.
I encourage you to visit our booth to learn more about the potential for these systems in your business and we’ll also highlight how one of our clients, Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company, improved their billing, collection, and distribution processes using VUE Billing & Collection Management and VUE Compensation Management. Find out more about VUE Software’s presence in the “Microsoft Booth Partners” section at the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/insurance/acord.
Posted by
Stephanie Castro
on
3/26/2012 at 11:09 AM
The time is ripe for health plans to strategize their options to meet the PPACA-required changes for Summaries of Benefits and Coverage (SBCs). In another six months, it will be mandatory for health plans to provide timely, tracked, uniform SBCs. Some plans may have developed in-house processes and systems that can support the generation of these summaries. But not every organization may have the required skillset or acumen to develop supportive systems in-house.
Every organization is different in terms of business processes, resource availability, risk tolerance, and infrastructure complexity. All options may not be viable for every company. I’d like to share three aspects that you may want to consider while deciding if an outside vendor would be a good choice with regards to meeting the SBC requirements for health plans.
-
Familiarity with the regulation: Do you have internal subject matter experts who are familiar with the regulation? While some companies have devoted large task forces to working on understanding the regulation for months, others might have begun investigating fairly recently. If you are in the latter camp, your resources will need to devote time to get familiar with the regulation, analyze what changes will be needed in your company, develop and implement a process and infrastructure to support necessary changes. If the task seems overwhelming, it might be a good idea to partner with people who have understood the
approach to meet the PPACA-required SBCs rules and
developed a packaged benefit summary solution that would bring a viable option to organizations facing the regulation.
- IT priorities: What are your IT organization’s commitments at the moment? Can they take on the responsibility of performing the work that will be needed? If not, you can outsource the work to an experienced vendor who has successfully implemented at other organizations. You’ll save time, effort and costs as well, as the speed of implementation would justify. However, if you have a strong IT bench with resources to spare, the in-house option could potentially be less costly.
- Infrastructure complexity: If you have a complex business process in place that demands integration between multiple systems such as claims or member portals, then I recommend going with a vendor who has not only the required subject matter expertise on SBCs but also proven experience in completing such complex integration implementations. The right mix of your IT and business users’ involvement along with the consulting service team will ensure both successful project execution and meeting the PPACA September deadline.
With change comes the opportunity for growth. I sincerely wish that these three areas of consideration help you channel your efforts in the right direction, so that PPACA-compliance changes bring growing value around the benefit summary generation process.
Posted by
Joseph Westlake
on
3/13/2012 at 12:30 PM
The task of optimizing compensation management processes is significant, as it can bring numerous advantages to insurance companies. While many life, health, and P&C insurers have already begun the process of replacing legacy systems with advanced vendor solutions, there are insurers that are still behind the curve. With regulatory changes afoot – and competition from advanced competitors increasing – insurer interest in compensation management solutions remains high.
A recent research report by Gartner outlined many business drivers that spur insurers to take a closer look at this important area of operations. I would like to share the following five areas, which are some of the most common business goals that prompted our clients to evaluate and select VUE Software’s insurance compensation solution suite.
- Increased efficiency: Many insurance companies rely heavily on personnel resources and specialized knowledge to manually manage some aspects of licensing and commissions. Legacy compensation systems may not provide the functionality needed to automate these processes. A robust automated solution can streamline much of the inefficiencies involved in a manually-intensive process for not only commissions, but also agent service and onboarding.
- Improved sales force management: More insurers are reaping the benefits of access to in-depth reporting about the productivity of agents and agencies. Insightful reports and dashboards help management to fine-tune sales management and incentive strategies to achieve the desired results. Existing legacy systems rarely provide the business intelligence necessary to accomplish control at a peak level.
- Automated producer management: Insurance distribution channels are often complex, with multiple-level reporting hierarchies, geography-specific licensing requirements, and elaborate appointing rules. Without a system that readily accommodates all aspects of producer management, insurers are still left to do manual workarounds. Advanced, insurance-specific compensation and distribution suites not only calculate commissions accurately, but also provide automation for several producer management and onboarding functions.
- Decreased costs: With today’s mounting pressure on insurance costs, cost is nearly always a factor when evaluating compensation management solutions. As stated in the Gartner report, insurance customers typically find that VUE Solutions offer the highest value for the money among other vendors. Additionally, benefits such as increased efficiency, automation, producer self-service, and paperless processes can lead to decreased operational costs.
- Ensured regulatory compliance: All insurers must meet regulatory guidelines. In particular, health insurers may need to make changes in the face of health insurance exchanges and other PPACA-imposed rules. It is imperative for insurance companies to choose solutions that not only meet business requirements, but provide flexibility for future compliance-driven restructuring as well.
These and more compelling business drivers are prompting more insurers to investigate advanced incentive compensation solutions. Is it time your organization did the same?
For more information on the Gartner MarketScope report, visit Gartner.com or contact info@vuesoftware.com.
Disclaimer: All statements in this article attributable to Gartner represent Computer Solutions & Software International’s interpretation of data, research opinion or viewpoints published as part of a syndicated subscription service by Gartner, Inc., and have not been reviewed by Gartner. Each Gartner publication speaks as of its original publication date (and not as of the date of this document). The opinions expressed in Gartner publications are not representations of fact, and are subject to change without notice.
Posted by
Joseph Westlake
on
2/28/2012 at 5:54 AM
The 2012 LIMRA Distribution Conference was a great opportunity for me at to connect with our clients and other industry professionals. I use these events as a way to focus the feedback to our product development team and identify new challenges and trends that are top of mind for companies that can make use of our solutions.
The event started off with a very thoughtful and emotional presentation by Thomas Smith from Knights of Columbus on the pride he has for his individual work as well as the value of the industry to our society overall. Mr. Smith underscored his premise with a touching video which highlighted the impact life insurance was able to make for those members who lost loved ones on September 11th.
As the conference picked up momentum, a distribution panel was held to share their thoughts on growing a successful channel. Ken Fasola, CEO of Insphere Insurance Solutions, a VUE Software client and one of the panel members, stressed the importance of implementing successful best practices to effectively establish distribution channels and maintain market leadership.
Ken expressed his view that technology plays an integral part in pursuing his organization’s vision of expanding their channels – with the right measures. The story of Insphere creating their innovative platform is a compelling case study that we played a part in and is a good primer for any insurance organization assessing their channel strategy.
The panel also discussed the need to improve existing processes in producer recruiting and onboarding. Finding the best possible techniques, like just-in-time appointments and automated and precisely placed credit and background checks were a couple of aspects touched upon to streamline agent onboarding. The conversation was a validation of the capabilities and approach we’ve introduced with our own producer onboarding.
The other topics of note discussed at the conference were the ability to cross sell and the importance of aligning agent objectives with company objectives. The cross selling options between life and health insurance segments are growing. It is now necessary for insurers and distributors to be nimble enough to accommodate a new mix in their product portfolios.
What were your experiences at the conference?
Posted by
Arjun Somanchi
on
1/24/2012 at 5:41 AM
With technology advancements, every aspect of routine processes can be optimized, paving the way to streamlined and efficient methods that can make the difference between success and failure. Producer onboarding is one such functional process that insurance carriers, be it health, life, or property and casualty (P&C), need to focus on to improve.
The following six areas for improvement should be top on the list for carriers to examine in order to optimize their producer onboarding process.
- Onboarding Velocity: As a forward thinking carrier, you need to look at the timeframe that your process takes to onboard a single producer. Is this in line with your organizational planning and execution, or are there steps that could improve your onboarding velocity?
- Costs: Usually, carriers pay appointment fees to all new producers irrespective of their productivity. Add this to the Producer Database (PDB) license verifications and National Insurance Producer Registry (NIPR) service fees. Are there ways that you can reduce these costs in such a way that you can immediately see cost savings without losing talented producers?
- Producer Friendly: Many carriers require producers to fill out paper-based application forms, submit them via mail and do frequent follow up to understand the appointment status. Do you think this is the best experience you could afford to your potential producer? Does this present you as a carrier that prospects want to work with?
- Internal Adoption: You may require that licensing specialists spend time reviewing application forms to find the right information on each prospect, respond to follow up calls, and address application exceptions. Compare this with a process where licensing specialists intervene only for exceptions on the application forms. Which one suits your business?
- Paper Usage: Paperwork is rife with human errors. If prospect applications contain omissions or unclear handwriting, the same incorrect data could be entered into multiple systems. Imagine the effect this could have on completing onboarding in a timely manner if something important must be corrected in multiple places.
- Compliance: Does your process maintain audit trails that are easy to track and report, and to ensure regulatory compliance? If you find yourself spending hours in achieving this, then you may need to look for alternatives that can save you this extra effort.
Reach out to us on info@ecssi.com or call us at 1.877.488.3763 if you need additional information on the best practices in producer onboarding .We’ll be more than happy to help you. Or register here for a free VUE Producer Onboarding product demo.
Tags:
distribution management,
producer lifecycle management,
producer,
distribution management,
producer,
onboarding,
producer management,
onboarding,
licensing,
producer management,
licensing,
appointment,
appointment,
vue producer onboarding,
vue producer onboarding
Categories:
Distribution Management |
Distribution Management |
Producer Lifecycle Management |
Producer Lifecycle Management
Post Information:
Permalink |
Comments
(0) |
Post RSS