In the 1990’s, financial technology or “fintech” began to flourish concurrently with the rise of internet and ecommerce business models. The idea behind financial technology was to improve and automate the delivery and use of financial services. This digitization of the finance industry began to spread and soon influenced other industries to follow, which became the case for the insurance industry.

Today insurance is just another, once-traditional industry that is being changed through innovation. After initial pushback by some major market insurance players, the effects of insurtech are being felt. Due to the high level of automation that results in significant time savings and better customer experiences, insurtech is oriented towards the modern consumer that is accustomed to next day delivery and at home shopping from companies like Amazon.

Today almost every insurance company is using software for some function of their day to day operations although not every one of those companies is experiencing the same efficiencies from their solutions. This could be due to shortcuts taken by a company during the evaluation or implementation process to lower costs in the short term. The most common reason is they have a legacy system that has just met standards for so long that they don’t feel the need to upgrade. 

While it may not be a huge problem at the moment, in a few years, those who missed the moment now will barely be able to catch up with the early adopters. Here are a few features you should look for when evaluating or re-evaluating your current insurance software needs:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A CRM allows businesses to manage all company relationships and interactions with existing and potential customers. It’s also used to store customer and prospect contact information, identify sales opportunities, record service issues, and manage marketing campaigns, all in one central location — and make information about every customer interaction available to anyone at your company who might need it.

Commissions

Commission tracking software enables you to enhance your commission structure in a way no manual system could. With a commission tracking software, your sales reps will be able to see their commission statement with all detailed information. They’re a great way to pay out your commissions electronically and even set up alerts to notify an employer when an agent hasn’t been paid their commissions. 

Onboarding

Onboarding software helps employers facilitate a smooth transition for new hires and allows a company’s talent acquisition team to easily communicate with one another and track the progress of each hire as they move through the employee onboarding stages. This includes I-9 verification, compliance insight and tools, integrations for payroll and benefits administration.

Online Enrollment

Online enrollment software saves your business time by eliminating the need for paper forms, reducing errors, and creating digital employee files for you and your groups. Brokers that provide their clients with online enrollment are able to shorten the enrollment cycle by enabling employees to self-enroll in benefits programs, review their benefits data and report life event changes. Employees are also able to choose plans based on eligibility criteria as well as compare costs and coverage of previous elections against new offerings.  

Quoting

Online quoting solutions allow brokers and agents to generate client ready presentations in a matter of minutes and eliminate the building of spreadsheets. The quoting aspect of an insurtech solution should be able to run single, dual or triple option presentations, calculate different employee contributions and have the ability to create composite rates in member level rating areas.

Marketing Functionality 

The marketing functionality in your insurtech solution should not be confused with the functionality that comes with a CRM, despite  the two being complementary. These features should help you cross-sell and stay compliant, send clients renewals and other important news about plan changes. Mass emailing to prospects with information stored in your CRM is also a “nice to have”, when it comes to limiting your company’s tech stack.

Selecting the right Insurtech solution for your business isn’t always the easiest task, however it’s vital in today’s technocentric age to remain competitive and operationally efficient. The less integrations needed and more centralized your system is, the better. Solutions that can be seen as costly in the short term will have lower costs and maintenance down the road, especially when it comes to all-in-one insurtech solutions. Don’t be a laggard in today’s competitive insurance landscape!

About AgencySmart: AgencySmart is an “all-in-one,” cloud-based solution designed for general agents and retail brokers who sell employee benefits, insurance products, financial services, and other industry related products (HR and consulting) to the commercial and individual marketplace. By combining CRM, Commission Tracking, Quoting, and On-boarding/Benefit Administration technologies, AgencySmart solves the problem of using multiple systems to manage your business.