How technology can make your brokerage more efficient 

As we approach 2020, do you feel like your brokerage may be falling behind when it comes to adapting to our digital world? You are not alone, studies of brokers in North America, UK and Ireland showed only 20% of brokers use the data collected by their management system to gain useful insight. A similar percentage offer mobile apps or self-service portals. 

This tells us, many brokers are not getting the efficiencies digital transformation offers. If you want to adapt more InsurTech into your brokerage to squeeze more efficiency from an increasingly pressed area of the insurance business, there are a few key areas to start:  

Although you may be using SaaS products to manage data there are actions that may be required to drive efficiency in your brokerage
 

• Smooth interaction with legacy software or a full migration to the SaaS product
• Data analysis to gain insight to retain existing clients and attract new ones

Linked to big data and artificial intelligence (AI), this is where the real benefit of a SaaS product can be found. 

API’s have been used in many different industries. They are responsible for many disruptive services like Amazon and Netflix. More recently they help insurers integrate their products into non-insurance websites. This has the potential to be hugely beneficial to brokers allowing your business to integrate your services within aggregators or related websites.   

Global digital transformation has increased the amount of third party data available to insurance brokers exponentially. Coupled with AI  it can allow your business to predict what may happen in the future with more accuracy and understand how actions may change an outcome. If you want to find efficiency in risk identification, analysing big data will help your business structure risk and, over time, reduce exposure. 

The Internet of Things is in the process of revolutionising the insurance industry as a whole. Telematics can now track how we drive, providing car insurers with more insight on levels of risk within their existing clients. They can use this information to make more informed decisions when quoting potential customers. IoT has had a major impact on the healthcare industry. It is most actively used by medical professionals around the world to track patients and improve outcomes. 

In terms of impact on brokerages, internet of things data has the potential to identify risk, optimise the best care for a patient and may enable payment of care providers. In essence, when implemented correctly, it should provide the information needed to simplify complex processes.

One of the challenges for many in the insurance industry is knowing which of the technologies will align best with their needs when budgets are limited. 

To choose the right options, analyse your business to understand where the gaps in the customer journey are. They will vary by business but some common areas of weakness include:

• acquisition
• insurance-partnerships
• risk identification
• customer engagement 
• customer retention
• claims resolution

Once you have identified the areas of your business you would like to drive efficiency in, it will help you find an area of focus. Find out more about joining our global network of intermediaries.