Insurance technologies and innovations improve agency workflows

The insurance industry thrives on the smart use of technology. From the pioneers in the ’90s that first leveraged the Web for advertising new policies and managing existing customers to today’s innovators that use automation to make processing easier at the agency level, insurance technologies differentiate top firms from the also-rans. Leveraging Web-based interfaces and automation to improve agency workflows, Motorists Insurance of Columbus, Ohio is standing out in the industry for its innovative practices.

Implementing a state-of-the-art system for policyholder data management
At the core of the Motorists system is a carrier solution that pushes a host of policyholder data — billing, policy details, claims, and more — on a nightly basis to the relevant agency that handles that policy. The system uses an XML data standard in the insurance industry that is seamlessly interfaced with the policy management applications the agency already uses. Agents are able to easily access this data from an in-house, Web-based portal offered by Motorists.
What used to be a manual process that involved each agent downloading the relevant data now has been replaced by an automated system developed by a Motorists partner, IVANS Insurance Solutions. This automated process saves valuable time for the agents and improves overall operational efficiency. The company rolled out the new system to a few agencies for a trial period and was met with great success.
Currently, 90 Motorists agencies are using the system, and the insurance company is looking at having agencies who handle its commercial lines start using automation. This is an example of the promise that insurance technologies focused on improving efficiency offer to agencies.

Taking advantage of a content delivery network for additional efficiency
Insurance companies already using Web-based systems for policy management gain additional efficiencies by using the Web acceleration technologies offered by an industry-leading content delivery network (CDN). Transmission control protocol anycast routing allows policyholder data to be downloaded faster than ever before, while Gzip compression actually minimizes the amount of data that needs be transferred in the first place.
Smart insurance companies looking for the most improvement from their technology investments need to research partnering with an industry-leading CDN to ensure their agencies operate as efficiently as possible. In a competitive industry, any advantage gained is good for the bottom line.
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