This publish is a part of a sequence sponsored by AgentSync.
We discuss lots on this weblog in regards to the hassle with information silos, the ache of guide information entry (and re-entry), and the way irritating it’s for producers, workers, and enterprise companions to always cope with these points.
In case our prior arguments haven’t been convincing, I need to let you know a narrative that would seem, on the floor, to don’t have anything to do with insurance coverage or your insurance coverage enterprise. Just humor me for a minute although, and I believe you’ll perceive the way it relates.
Almost two years in the past, I moved homes. Never a enjoyable endeavor, however I’ve moved a minimum of a dozen occasions in my life and it’s by no means been this dangerous. It wasn’t the truth that the transferring truck bumped into our powerline and knocked out the web for every week. Nor was it that our new neighbors quickly proved to be busybodies who’d voice their each criticism about garden upkeep to the county authorities.
It was the mail. The change of tackle varieties to be actual.
The downside is twofold:
First, we moved to a rural space the place the Postal Service doesn’t ship mail to the bodily home tackle. If one thing doesn’t have our P.O. Box quantity on it, neglect about it. Because the publish workplace doesn’t have a simple, fast, and automatic manner for our tackle to be linked to our field quantity, the workers simply flat-out refuse to do the work of redirecting our mail into our field.
This means something addressed to the house itself will get returned to the sender as undeliverable. If you attempt to think about the variety of essential issues we don’t obtain as a result of somebody had our bodily tackle and never our P.O. Box, multiply it by 100 and also you is perhaps shut.
Second, regardless of submitting change of tackle varieties (and sure, together with itemizing the P.O. Box quantity) with everybody from the Postal Service, to the IRS, to the state division of income, to the division of motor automobiles, to the county treasurer, county tax assessor’s workplace, and extra, mail continues to be despatched to our outdated tackle – or generally despatched to our new tackle however with out the field quantity, that means it’s equally undeliverable.
Last time I acquired a chunk of mail that lastly made it to me because of the very variety new householders of my earlier residence, I known as the federal government entity to appropriate the tackle (once more). I used to be actually at my wit’s finish with the poor girl on the cellphone who needed to hearken to me rant about all of the occasions, and all of the locations, I’ve already stuffed out my new tackle during the last 18 months.
“How is it possible that you still have the wrong address for me?” I begged to know.
“I’m sorry. It’s just, the systems aren’t connected.”
It was at this level I spotted there was a really giant disconnect between my expectations as a client and the technological capabilities of each authorities company I’ve to work together with as a citizen.
Are you beginning to see the similarities between my story of woe and what your workers, producers, or insurance coverage distribution companions could also be going by way of? Just to be tremendous clear, let’s break it down:
Manual-only processes: It’s attainable that the folks answerable for producer license compliance at your group are tasked with some crazy-manual processes. Like cross referencing between paper paperwork, spreadsheets, and web sites. It’s attainable that they should re-check issues regularly as a result of there’s no real-time technique to immediately confirm a producer’s license standing.
All of this implies it’s attainable, identical to my native postal employees, that they merely opt-out of performing some guide work, or let issues slide, or simply don’t have time of their day to get to it. Even if everyone seems to be taking the time to diligently work by way of these guide processes, they’re nonetheless error-prone, so that you probably find yourself with less-than-ideal ranges of accuracy. Like the time somebody transposed the numbers for my P.O. Box and by accident gave another person a field of reside wasp larvae meant to regulate the fly inhabitants on my farm.
Multiple, disparate programs: If you’re an insurance coverage service that contracts with many alternative businesses (or different intermediaries), or an insurance coverage company or MGA/MGU that contracts with a number of completely different producers, it’s virtually assured that somebody alongside your insurance coverage distribution channel is coming into the identical info into multiple place. In truth, they’re most likely coming into the identical info into greater than two or three locations. Not solely is that this irritating for everybody concerned, however it may result in errors and oversights that might put your group into compliance sizzling water.
No single supply of fact: Imagine the frustration of a licensed producer who’s making an attempt to replace or appropriate some piece of data. Maybe it’s a brand new non-resident state license, or possibly they simply handed a licensing examination for a brand new line of authority. How many alternative locations have they got to enter this info? Depending on what it’s, they may should go to your organization’s human assets info system (HRIS), your company administration system (AMS), your buyer relationship administration system (CRM), your incentive compensation administration system (ICM), their state division of insurance coverage, and different regulatory our bodies – simply to call a number of! And, since we don’t know what we don’t know, they’ll proceed to play whack-a-mole with incorrect info for so long as it takes for every location housing that info to floor.
Now, think about, if that’s how it’s for one single producer, what it have to be like for anybody within the distribution channel who’s tasked with managing info for a number of producers. Do you may have a headache but?
To sum it up, the value you pay for sticking with guide, labor-intensive processes could embody:
- Data that’s old-fashioned as quickly as you test it
- Frustrated workers, producers, and distribution companions
- Risk of compliance and regulatory mishaps
- Losing the very best folks to a corporation that makes their jobs straightforward and painless
The nice information is that AgentSync may also help eradicate these points to your insurance coverage group and its companions. On my finish, I’ve acquired no selection however to fill out varieties for the umpteenth time and pray that the day will come when everybody who wants my tackle has the appropriate one. You don’t know the way a lot I’d give to have an answer at my fingertips that might make this downside disappear faster than my ever-shortening endurance.
So, for all of the individuals who don’t have an answer to the issues of information silos, guide processes, and outdated expertise wherever these could creep up in life, don’t you owe it to your self to take a look at AgentSync?