Recent trends show that operational excellence has replaced growth as the driving force behind digital tranformational efforts in the insurance industry this year. Finding ways to minimize the inefficiencies, inaccuracies and tedium that go with agents having to manually input data is taking center stage for insurance agency leaders. Fortunately, an all encompassing Data Integration Hub (DIH) can remove a good deal of the burden, freeing agents’ time so they can focus on their clients to drive better service, and increase revenue for the business.
The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey gathered data from 2,203 CIOs from 81 countries, including 91 CIOs from the insurance industry.
Consensus from the C-level respondents showed that in the wake of an economic downturn insurance leaders were placing an increased focus on operational efficiency in an effort to drive more value for their stakeholders. The survey found that over half of CIOs are increasing technology investments in 2023, with automation continuing as a strong focus in the year ahead as CIOs look to reduce manual inputs.
There are any number of videos and articles about how successful insurance agents structure their day. Giving preference to their high priority leads and ensuring they are including enough time for new client prospecting are right at the top of almost all these advice pieces. But very few report the silent reality that today’s agents are facing; soul crushing hours spent inputting data from various siloed systems across the organization.
Despite a good deal of digitalization in the insurance sector, many agents are still bogged down by manual processes that negate the centralization, automation, and standardization of data. Entering data multiple times from multiple systems across the organization will inevitably lead to critical errors and omissions all of which add layers of operational costs.
A particular pain point arises when it comes to managing commissions. In an environment that is not properly integrated, agents are forced to download statements from carriers and transfer that data to an agency’s AMS and accounting systems, often resulting in errors.
This suboptimal environment will in turn result in inaccurate commission calculations that can lead to overpayment for some agents and underpayment for others. And, in an economy where insurance agencies are fighting to retain their agents, the risk of having unhappy teams is a real operational risk.
Another major challenge that comes with being overburdened by frustrating administrative tasks is employee dissatisfaction that can lead to disengagement at best and resignations at worst.
The cost of disengaged employees is far more than many think. Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace report found that today’s workers are experiencing exceptionally high rates of disengagement and dissatisfaction. A significant 60% of those surveyed reported being emotionally detached with 19% saying they were miserable, while only 33% reported feeling engaged.
The impact of disengagement is having a very real impact on productivity. The same Gallup report highlighted that employees who are actively disengaged cost the global economy $7.8 trillion in lost productivity, or roughly 11% of global GDP. Meanwhile, the poll showed that business units with engaged workers reported a 23% higher profit.
Picture an insurance agent working late at night, painstakingly loading data from CSV files from commission statements into their agency’s core AMS system. Imagine their frustration at having to spend their personal time doing this manual work so they can perform their ‘actual job’ during office hours.
Smart insurance leaders are increasingly realizing that employees freed from these tedious and frustrating data capture processes are able to deliver a far more personalized customer service experience. Not only do they have the time to spend on their high-priority tasks, but the extra time means they are delivering the very best service to their clients. The business wins because they have satisfied customers, but also because their agents are fulfilled and find their work rewarding, all translating into better productivity and a healthier bottom line.
What many insurance leaders don’t realize is that the journey to reach a place where agents aren’t locked into a keystroke purgatory is much simpler than they may have thought.
Synatic’s Data Integration Hub (DIH) allows an organization to integrate data between multiple agency systems and then automate that data to complete several insurance-specific tasks at the push of a button.
By investing in a DIH, agencies can easily verify, integrate and orchestrate data allowing them to automatically move data into supporting downstream systems to uplift other insurance processes.
This not only reduces the number of manual keystrokes agents must perform, but by limiting the human element, the business also benefits from increased data accuracy.
All of these benefits help organizations boost efficiencies, minimize inaccuracies and create a rewarding work environment. So, while growth may not be the number one focus for insurance companies in 2023, If you want to quickly realize operational excellence and achieving the growth that your stakeholders are looking for contact Synatic today.
