It’s well established that the digitization of the insurance industry is continuing and that insurers looking to stay competitive should integrate cloud-native solutions into their workflows. But how should an insurer measure the success of that new technology? What’s a good key performance indicator? How should you determine the return on that investment?
To measure the value of your investment in a cloud-native agency management system, you need to answer a simple question: What’s a minute worth?
Too Many Clicks
One MGA built an ROI algorithm to predict what they’d save by automating processes and reducing their dependence on agents to complete repetitive manual tasks. Their modeling found that their manual processes were taking too long, requiring as many as 25 mouse clicks just to issue a single policy (not counting the clicks needed in their lead, submissions or quoting processes). The need to reenter information for every step of the process was taking too much time and resulted in errors and inaccuracies. The model revealed that customer and policy data was stored in too many separate applications and resulted in data silos.
The model also revealed incredible time savings the MGA could realize if it were to eliminate these silos and connect applications. Doing this would reduce the number of clicks required to complete these routine tasks. For example, if clicks were reduced by 50%, that translated to 15 minutes of an agent’s time saved for every submission. Even more staggering, if clicks were reduced by 95%, that would enable agents to save almost 30 minutes for every single policy they issued.
To an enterprise-level insurance company, a minute is worth six or even seven figures. And for this particular MGA, with over 2.4 million submissions annually and more than 600,000 policies, the cost of those lost minutes and excessive clicks was impossible for them to ignore. Time really is money.
What if the integration of applications allowed many steps in those workflows to be automated? By using a simulation model to measure the benefits of such a streamlining, this MGA was able to reduce the 25 clicks required to issue a policy down to just two. A full 20 minutes were shaved from their renewal process, and 25 minutes per quote. All those minutes add up to more than $65 million in savings per year.
Further Benefits
Of course, the benefits of a streamlined and open platform go beyond time saved and clicks reduced. By eliminating the need to enter the same information over and over again throughout the entire lead, quote and submission process, insurance organizations can drastically reduce the risk of human error, which can lead to delays and potential legal or compliance issues. Employee satisfaction, efficiency and performance increase, freeing your best talent to focus on the more complex tasks requiring human skill and insight.
An open platform that enables the interpolation of data also allows for the elimination of redundant, disparate systems. Organizations that leverage this type of platform can greatly reduce their tech stack, which saves money and improves efficiency.
Enhanced customer experience is another key benefit. When an MGA’s front, middle and back offices are all drawing from the same, centralized repository of data, everyone has a more consistent experience, especially the customer.
Today’s customers expect quick and seamless digital interactions, and that includes interactions with their insurance providers. Manual processes often lead to delays in policy issuance, claims processing, and policy changes, damaging the customer experience. Streamlining workflows enables self-service portals, online claims submissions and instant policy generation, providing customers with convenient and efficient services. Meeting those customer expectations can boost loyalty, renewals and positive word of mouth.
Clearly, in the modern insurance industry, every minute counts.
