As insurance players continue to rapidly upscale their technology investments, many insurance agents and brokers are inadvertently creating a new and expensive problem; siloed and desynchronized systems.
These siloed systems often introduce more complex data problems that insurance agents and brokers have to navigate which diminishes the very goal that modern InsurTech solutions intend to solve.
While disconnected systems might seem harmless enough at face value, the problem seems to pose much more of a challenge when you consider that it means your Agency Management Solution (AMS), Customer Relationship Management System (CRM), and Configure, Price, Quote System (CPQ) work out of synch from each other. The lack of interconnectivity results in a lack of quick, easy, and reliable access to the customer information agents and brokers need to service customers.
What's more, disconnected systems introduce overly manual processes associated with moving data from one system to another. If agents are entering client data manually—or entering data multiple times into different systems—they will almost invariably make critical errors and omissions at some point in time.
Brokers and agents are seeing a rise in “on-demand" customers that are accustomed to customer-centric, omnichannel service across their preferred channel, whether over the phone, face to face, or through online portals and mobile apps. If brokers and agents are not delivering real-time service, their clients will seek alternative providers.
Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or offering. Instead, modern customers choose to stay with an insurance company because of the experience they receive. Agents and brokers that cannot instantaneously access client data to provide timely and accurate services, will not be able to compete with those that do.
Let's imagine a customer calls their broker to help them shop around for an appropriate insurance product that will help them cover their fleet of delivery vans. If a broker or agent is unable to seamlessly access carrier information, perform industry classification, quote the customer and track the customer's journey from inquiry to a successful sale, it becomes almost impossible to quickly and efficiently service the customer. When systems are integrated, brokers and agents can act decisively make well-informed decisions, and provide a more personalized customer experience.
Conversely, if this data is trapped in multiple siloed systems, the same broker could end up spending hours manually entering data between systems and make errors that lead to incorrect quoting or insufficient cover for the client's fleet. “On-demand" customers will not stand to receive poor service of this magnitude.
WHY Is building a harmonious group of integrated systems so paramount?
Take a moment and consider how your business solutions work together. Is there an overlap? Are you still using different programs or workflows that do not make sense anymore? Is there a gap in your InsurTech that you have not addressed? These questions should be top of mind for agents and brokers as they aim to improve their performance and prevent themselves from falling behind the competition.
Integrating systems can break down silos and bring together data from disparate sources. This enables agents and brokers to streamline processes, gather insights from the data for the purpose of reporting, and make data-driven decisions.
The adoption of well-integrated solutions eliminates paper-laden workflows and manual processes that have long weighed agents and brokers down. This empowers them to automate tedious tasks allowing agents and brokers to focus on driving sales and growing relationships with customers. By integrating systems Brokers can:
- Get their CRM system to sync properly with their AMS solution
- Automate the rate/quote/bind process
- Extract policy data locked in different solutions and aggregate data for reporting purposes
- Better manage customer sales funnels
How can a Hybrid Integration platform help you build a harmonious group of integrated SYSTEMS?
A large part of getting the most out of your systems requires organizational effort and the ability to pull data together from different systems, push it out to the right system, and operationalize data as needed.
Hybrid Integration Platforms (HIPs) are designed to provide the tools you need to build a harmonious group of integrated systems. Using a HIP equipped with ETL, Integration, API Management, and Warehousing capabilities all within a single unified tool means insurance companies can identify, collect, and integrate disparate data. This enables agents and brokers to deliver data that is meaningful, ready to use, and specific to their needs at the required time.
HIPs like Synatic sit at the juncture of your solution stack and allow you to rapidly unify your insurance systems. By connecting systems with a HIP, agents and brokers can ensure that the right data can be accessed by the right person, at the right time, which speeds up turnaround times and eliminates process deficiencies
Simply put, a HIP will help you as an agent or broker boost productivity, enhance communications, and better serve clients.