A survey by Agencyport Software on multichannel retail distribution shows dramatically changing requirements for non-life carriers selling personal and commercial lines. Delegates from European and global insurance companies attending the Uniglobal Annual Conference in Berlin, May 2012, responded to a questionnaire posed by Agencyport, who teamed up with PwC as co-lead sponsors for the event.
The responses highlight demand among non-life carriers for next generation web technology that can automate multichannel distribution in tomorrow's marketplace. Respondents currently source most of their business via the direct channel with bancassurance and brokers as the next most important channels. Whilst phone remains the most-frequently used method of communication, carriers want to exploit other ways to serve customers better and scale their businesses.
Phil Race said: “The use of phones in providing quotes is not cost effective or efficient. A portal can deal with higher volumes and help brokers compete more effectively. The issue we have now is that European carriers have developed their own portals but they are inflexible and unable to adapt swiftly to technology, market and product changes.”
Respondents cite online collaboration as a crucial feature of portals to help policyholders and brokers who need to communicate with underwriting to understand the product or convey details about the exposure. Features of web portals cited most often include quotations, binding, renewal and claims tracking.
Phil Race inferred: “As carriers invest in developing some channels faster than others, configurable business rules are imperative to handle inevitable channel conflict and brand compatibility. The systems that were built to last need to be replaced by systems built for change.”
Agencyport submitted the same questionnaire to delegates of last year’s conference. Year-over-year comparisons yield that web portals are more important to non-life carriers in 2012 compared to 2011 survey but also more carriers are moving on mobile portals (23% more important in 2012).
Agencyport has been working with European customers for more than four years on distribution technology solutions such as broker portals, coverholder portals, cedant portals, and a variety of XML interfaces. Agencyportal is its market-leading platform for insurance companies to offer self-service portals to their retail agents, brokers, MGAs and policyholders, an off the shelf product providing best of breed portal features that carriers can implement quickly and at low cost, and constantly adapt to meet evolving business needs.
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