A new agent portal that helps small- and mid-size property and casualty insurance companies to compete with large of insurrers has been introduced by Insurance Data Processing, Inc.
The service, called the InsuraSphere Agent Portal, provides users with real-time quoting, 24/7 agent access, and a customized portal environment to satisfy the business needs of agents. The portal integrates with virtually any back office, requires no upfront licensing fee, and is available on a tiered pricing scale.
According to Bob Blitshtein, president and CEO of IDP, InsuraSphere was developed specifically to meet the agent support needs of smaller property and casualty insurers, as well as Managing General Agents (MGA).
"Prior to the introduction of InsuraSphere Agent Portal, only larger companies that have millions of dollars in IT resources could provide their agents with reliable real-time quoting," Blitshtein says. "At IDP, we have a tiered pricing model that makes InsuraSphere Agent Portal affordable for virtually any size company. We are the champion of small and mid-size insurance companies, so our solutions are priced accordingly."
Blitshtein notes that some smaller agencies currently employ a data feed that transmits quotes to agents and use generic agency management systems for fielding their inquiries. However, the EDI feeds can not usually deliver real-time quotes to agents and the agency management systems are devoid of the insurer's brand or cultural expression.
"Very few small to mid-size insurers have real time quoting," says Blitshtein. "For inquiries, some insurers are able to connect with agents through an impersonal agency management system, but such systems build no brand equity for their users. With the InsuraSphere Agent Portal, IDP establishes one-on-one relationships between a carrier and its agents. The portal will show the carrier's brand images and incorporate its visual theme in both background and functional graphics."
All business processes in the portal are specific to that carrier, including alerts and messages, loss reporting as well as the carrier's specific quoting process, according to Blithstein.
"The portal's advanced capabilities will give a competitive advantage to early adapters who can rightly claim agent processing capabilities equal to that of the property and casualty industry's largest players," he says.
System functionality includes real-time quoting for any personal and commercial line of business, policy inquiry and download, claim inquiry and reporting, billing and payment inquiry, payment processing, and commission and operational reports. Added features include credit reports, CLUE integration, MVR, policy bill payment, document printing and distribution, electronic funds transfer for commissions, and OFAC compliance checking.
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