The Ivans Superhighway: Automating the Commercial Lines Policy Lifecycle

The commercial lines policy workflow is historically riddled with inefficiencies. From searching for markets and data capture to submitting to the insurer and receiving the bound policy, these manual processes cost agencies and insurers time and money. Agents and insurers must take advantage of the technology available to streamline these inefficient workflows because their businesses are ultimately what’s at stake.

To illustrate how Ivans has revolutionized the commercial lines policy workflow, let’s move down the Ivans Superhighway and discuss how each stage creates a more connected and efficient ecosystem for all stakeholders.

1. The Necessary Tools to Drive

   The agent’s home along the superhighway – meaning their agency management system or commercial submission application – enables the commercial lines policy lifecycle, including the ability to connect to market search technology and data capture and submissions solutions. Next to the house and ready to get on the superhighway, is the agent’s car. The car represents the customer data as it journeys down the superhighway.

2. The GPS of Commercial Lines Insurance

   Agents use their GPS – market search technology – to find an insurer on the superhighway with the appetite for the prospect’s risk. They type in the line of business for the commercial risk and size of the business. The agent finds an insurer that they’re already appointed with on the GPS and chooses a destination.

3. The Fuel for Customer Interactions

   To enable our agent and passenger to drive down the superhighway with speed, they need a digital data capture solution – or fuel. The fuel enables the agent to digitize the application and supplemental forms and automate data population across each individual insurer application. By providing a collaborative and digital experience for customers to provide information and then auto-mapping the data across multiple forms, agents reduce duplicate data entry for both their staff and their customers.

4. The Agent-Insurer Superhighway

   Once the prospect has filled out the applications and the agent has worked with the prospect to ensure all the submission components are prepared, the next step is for the agent to submit everything to the insurer for a quote. Thanks to its open architecture, Ivans’ distribution partners, including agency management systems, data capture solutions and other InsurTechs, are already connecting into the superhighway, creating distribution connectivity – or exits – for independent agencies. Furthermore, insurers are implementing APIs that send the structured data collected by data capture solutions directly to their policy administration and underwriting systems, eliminating the need to prepare the documents before sending them to the insurer or the need to rekey the information into the insurer portal.

5. Greater Visibility on the Superhighway

   While the superhighway works one way to submit the information via API to the insurer, it also works the opposite way to provide the agent with information on the status of their submission. As Ivans continues to innovate, the goal is to provide automatic updates from the policy administration system to the agency management system as the submission makes its way through the underwriting process.

6. The Journey Back Home

   As we conclude our journey on the superhighway, the agent has brought their passenger through the commercial lines policy lifecycle, back home. They are working in their agency management system and receive an automated notification that the bound policy is available. They check the download that includes eDocs and policy information and then notifies the customer that they can access their policy information in the online self-service portal.

View the full article on the Independent Agent website.

Commercial Lines, 2021, Agents, Industry Trends, Carriers, Agency-Carrier Connectivity, MGAs