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October 20, 2002 at 08:00 PM
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Today, theres a tremendous amount of competition among agents and brokers. As a result, they need every tool they can find to remain competitive and to satisfy their time-sensitive, convenience-driven customers.
Agencies and carriers want the most cost-effective tools to assist agents with sales, but there are many to choose fromincluding wireless PDAs (personal digital assistants), ASPs (application service providers), IVRs (interactive voice response), Web-enabled systems, and e-mail. How can an agency find an integrated tool for its agents and underwriters to efficiently process and book more business at the right price?
Decision management technology, which helps to automate the process of making and managing decisions, may hold the key to bringing the capabilities of all these tools together. By simultaneously managing decision processes across multiple channels (phone, PDA or Internet) and automating up to 90% of new business decisions, these systems provide agents with the access to information and the decision-making capabilities to close business in a real-time environment.
Because of the hardening insurance market, premiums are increasing across the board, and clients are requesting quotes from many agents, brokers and other sources to get the best deal. In order to keep clients interested, agents need quick answers and responses to their new business inquiries. As a result, they want systems that can provide not only real-time quotes, but also policy recommendations and associated risk management services that their agencies, carriers or business associates can offer.
Helping clients select the right bundle of insurance products and services has been a challenge, when information is not effectively shared or delivered to agents in the field.
Decision management systems help to automate these decisions quickly and accurately, ultimately reducing new business processing costs. In addition, they extend an agents acquisition reach by improving productivity and minimizing new business and renewal fallout.
Available via an ASP model, agencies can access such systems without a significant increase in technology or the IT budget. Agencies do not have to invest in purchasing or licensing software, and they do not need to hire IT professionals to maintain or upgrade the system.
Todays decision management systems are also flexible and scalable, allowing agencies to retain control over their unique decision processes and policies. These systems do not lock agents into generic industry practices that yield no competitive advantage.
Instead, the systems automate an agencys unique business model and processes, so the agency can control the steps in the decision workflow, the business rules that move applications through the approval process, and the data input, scorecards, decision trees and other decision logic.
At any point, the decision engine will seamlessly interface with pre-existing systems such as point-of-sale, account booking, policy administration, provisioning, and letter generation programs. Perhaps more important, the system also interfaces with vital internal and external data sources such as client pre-approval lists, customer master files, in-house negative files, consumer credit bureaus, industry fraud and negative lists, and regulatory agencies.
Until recently, most decision management systems were only available at the headquarters office, where much of the application and approval process must be handled because of the extensive amount of data and computing capabilities needed. Producers are rarely there, however, because they are usually in the field meeting with clients and potential customers.
