Web-Enablement Investment Checklist
Carriers that fail to leverage todays leading technology to integrate their Web portals to their back-end legacy systems will quickly fall to the wayside in the onward march of technological change sweeping the p-c industry. When pondering Web-enablement investments, carriers should be sure to have the following on their checklists:
New business processing. Agents should be able to perform online, real-time processing of new policies, submitting applications through the Web with instant risk-underwriting, immediate quotes and the close of a sale with a credit card payment.
Policy inquiry. Agents can also harness the Web to pull up complete histories and the current status of policies and associated claims. Todays most sophisticated tools can automatically search carriers policy files and pull up historical or current information for every new claim.
Endorsement/automated underwriting. With todays leading Web solutions, agents are able to process endorsements online, automating many of the complexities associated with changing transactions. Carriers are able to give agents real-time access to the various software applications that manage policy-change orders, claims transactions and other underwriting criteria.
Rapid deployment to agent desktops. Using advanced Web deployment technology, carriers can roll out their software applications to large numbers of agents and representatives in the field, eliminating the need for costly and timely manual installation. Agents can access the applications and information they need from any device, over any connection–wired, wireless or Web.
Real-time interfaces to third-party sources. Todays best-of-breed Web-enablement technology also provides real-time Web interfaces to important third-party sources so that agents can obtain necessary information like credit scores, loss histories, additional driver discoveries and motor vehicle records.
The competitive advantages that can be achieved with these Web advancements are particularly valuable for small- and mid-sized carriers. They benefit those who dont have the luxury of large information technology staffs to create custom solutions, and who need low operating structures and fast turnaround times on policy issuance to sustain a ratemaking process that can compete with big-name carriers.
Gordon Gaar is chief technology officer for INSpire Insurance Solutions, based in Fort Worth, Texas. He can be contacted at ggaar@nspr.com.
Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, July 1, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.
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