AMS Integration and Capabilities for Commercial Lines Agents

Digital capabilities are growing in importance as the pace of business increases. Agents and brokers are looking to leverage digital capabilities as a potential competitive differentiator and to improve agency operations and customer experience.

Agency management systems (AMS) are key to this goal and central to the performance of an independent agency. These platforms help enable sales, support customer service, and orchestrate the management of the agency, all in one platform. Not all AMS platforms are built the same. Agents are aware of the restrictions and benefits of their current system. While AMS platforms have been around for a while, today’s platforms emphasize speed, usability, and integration with external data and applications.

Agents who are exploring a new AMS need to consider the long-term needs of the agency as well as evaluate what capabilities are most important. Some agencies evaluate systems by component, creating their own tailored environment. Others prefer a larger package that can support their needs in one solution. Young agents are becoming a larger portion of the labor force. Their digital and omni-channel expectations are challenging AMS vendors to advance their capabilities and help agents operate a modern insurance agency.

Sales Enablement

Sales enablement capabilities can include indicating underwriting appetite, generating quotes, managing leads, and organizing digital marketing. These capabilities are an area of opportunity for many AMS solutions. Most agents find the sales enablement modules in their current AMS platforms to be immature.

For some lines of business, it is becoming common for an AMS to integrate with agent portals or access underwriting appetite from the insurer directly. This information helps producers place business more quickly, especially for industries or risks that are unfamiliar. Often, agents must juggle multiple systems when filing a quote. An insurer-integrated AMS, or an AMS subscribing to one of many distribution connectivity solutions, can allow producers to remain in their preferred system throughout the quoting process.

Many young producers are interested in digital marketing capabilities. They use social media, paid search, display or content marketing, and direct email to communicate with their local communities and industry niches. Currently, AMS platforms are weak in this area, but many are enriching their capabilities.

Customer Service

Customer service capabilities can include updating policyholder information, executing endorsements, uploading/downloading information to the insurer, and managing documents. An agency’s AMS is often used as a repository that keeps records, policyholder information, and status for quotes, renewals, and claims.

Alerts can be set up to remind agents when important dates (e.g., billing, claims, renewals) are approaching. This allows the producer to be proactive with their clients and keep on top of their game.

In a recent study, Novarica found that 38% of young agents’ AMS did not support upload to insurer systems. This is a large area of opportunity. When a customer updates an insurer or agent, they expect a cohesive experience where the information is shared in real time. From the agent perspective, this limits redundant data entry and helps better steward the client relationship as they interact with an insurer.

Agency Management

Agency management capabilities can include monitoring for compliance, updating license/credential management, providing performance dashboards, and tracking commissions.

Many agents find their AMS platform’s compliance and license management to be suboptimal. These capabilities are important from a professional liability perspective. Having automated reminders to ensure producers maintain their licenses can lessen the agency’s administrative burden.

Agencies are becoming increasingly interested in examining their agency, producer, and book of business performance. Some AMS provide performance dashboards where managers can quickly visualize KPIs against benchmarks.

Insurer Integration

Connectivity between agency and insurer systems is limited. Proprietary data elements can hinder the exchange of data. Novarica found that nearly a quarter of agencies do not have any access to real-time quoting and 20% of agents cannot upload to insurance carrier systems. The ability to integrate allows for a better agent experience, increased speed of doing business, and improved customer transparency.

Continued Evolution

Young agents are beginning to see the advantages to using a modern AMS, providing a workbench that allows them to better service existing clients and drive new sales.

AMS platforms are constantly evolving, and, to expand capabilities, some AMS vendors have taken to acquiring peripheral or related technologies. For example, Zywave acquired ITC and Advisen; Applied acquired EZLynx, Indio, and TechCanary; and Vertafore acquired QQCatalyst. Continued M&A activity means that larger providers are adopting new capabilities into their existing product suites. These new capabilities are filling in the gaps and broadening what an AMS can offer.

A fully integrated AMS platform places at an agent’s fingertips digital marketing, pipeline management, real-time quotes, streamlined submissions for binding a policy, at-a-glance policy information for customer service, endorsement capabilities, as well as analytics-driven workflow and productivity management and reporting. Compared to their competitors, an agency with these capabilities will sell more insurance more quickly, and better retain both customers and talent.

For more on the trends in this space, read our report Agency Management Systems and Software Suites.

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