Insurers and software houses must come together to bridge any communication gaps between platforms and extranets as the industry nears a critical point in the move to eTrading, says Applied Systems’ chief revenue officer
By Dave Chapman
Digital transformation has been a hot topic in the insurance industry for as long as many of us can remember.
But we haven’t always had an accurate picture of how quickly independent insurance brokers are actually transforming their businesses. That’s why Applied has partnered with Insurance Times over the last few years to survey the industry – to see how far along brokers are in their digital strategies and compare previous years to track change over time.
We were pleased to see a significant increase in the percentage of brokers who said they have a digital strategy as compared to last year – 73% compared with 63%.
This aligns well with the types of conversations I’ve had with customers over the last year, spanning topics from commercial lines and customer experience digitalisation to using data and APIs.
However, while there are plenty of digital trailblazers within the broker channel, there are still brokers that have reservations about adopting new technologies to improve their businesses.
Don’t forget that there are still 27% of brokers who took this survey that don’t have a digital strategy in place.
This reticence is understandable since the amount of information out there about how to digitally transform your business can be overwhelming. How do you know what’s true? How do you know if it will actually work for your business?
With the amount of time and effort required to adopt new technologies, it makes sense to be conscientious and thorough about the decision. That’s why we love to talk with our customers, discuss goals and business benefits and be trusted advisers to our broker customers – hold their hands if you will – through the process of choosing, implementing and optimising their technology.
We also encourage our customers to talk to other brokers about their experience. Not just about Applied, but their specific areas of focus, the technology they adopted to improve those areas, and the benefits they experienced.
We think that nobody knows a brokerage like a broker – which is why Applied has hired so many previous brokers.
In the spirit of peer-to-peer learning, we sat down with a few of our broker customers to learn about their areas of focus in their digital strategy.
My advice for brokers looking to implement or improve their digital strategy is take a look at your peers, learn from them, identify your strengths and values and ultimately don’t get left behind.
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