.jpg)
The pull of blockchain might be strong as insurers show growing interest in investing in the technology. However, for insurance agents, the technology solutions that occupy most of their time at work are agency management systems and, increasingly, more agencies are updating their systems as new products enter the market and upend the traditional, and now-outdated, ways of managing all of their data.
“Traditional management systems lock their users’ data inside of them and they don’t provide ready access, either for free or for a nominal fee, to their data on a regular basis,” said Laird Rixford, CEO of Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC). “That’s why you’re seeing a lot of agencies and brokers switching management system vendors because they’re looking to free their data to make that data more accessible so they can use it in their rating platform, their marketing platforms, their business analytics and BI platforms.”
The benefits of releasing that data include being able to use the information across a variety of platforms to reach customers in all the digital places they’re active, according to Rixford.
“If you have a marketing system that is really effective at marketing insurance consumers and you’re able to free that data out of the management system, [you can] use it in a multitude of marketing systems to market to them via text message, online, via social media, email marketing, direct marketing – whatever it may be,” he told Insurance Business. “Having the ability to make that data available allows you to expand not only your usage for marketing purposes, but also for the purpose of making and improving your workflows within an agency.”
New-and-improved agency management systems can enhance workflows by creating seamless interactions with an accounting system or a human resources information system so that any and all information related to an agent’s job is readily accessible on the same platform.
“Having all that information just seamlessly available to out-of-management systems into all these third-party systems, like phone systems, really makes companies more productive and that’s what agencies are looking for,” said Rixford.
If your agency is still working with an isolated management system that doesn’t allow for those channels of data to be opened up across the company, you’re not alone. A system that’s been used by an agency for many years might hold data in a ton of different places, which can make it difficult to migrate that information to a new system.
“First and foremost, every agency and broker should never be locked into their management system,” said Rixford, adding that some providers will charge agencies when they want to get their own data out of that system, though the cost in the end is worth it. “Once you’re available to get the data out of the system, you’re able to migrate it successfully to the many different options that are out there.”
