Pull to Push

Economical Insurance has launched a pilot project with eight broker partners that use The Agency Manager (TAM), sigXP, Power Broker or The Broker Workstation broker management systems (BMSs). The goal of the month-long pilot, which runs until the end of April, is to validate the quality of the company’s eDocs solution. The next step will be to roll out eDocs to the company’s brokers across the country.

Gone will be the days when the only option for broker partners to receive these electronic copies in their BMSs was coming to Economical’s broker extranet to “pull” policy declaration pages for downloading. With the implementation of eDocs, the company will automatically “push” broker declaration documents electronically through CSIO download to the BMS of each broker partner.

Beyond making this critical information readily available to all staff in the broker’s operations, it is anticipated the new approach will drive real cost efficiencies for broker partners.

The pilot implementation is being conducted to test the functionality of Economical’s eDocs solution, which supports broker workflows in place today. The goal is to help broker partners increase the efficiency of their operations with streamlined business processes for receiving broker declaration documents for personal lines and individually rated commercial auto.

In addition, eDocs supports the company’s sustainability practices as it moves towards turning off the print function. Brokers who elect to turn on the eDocs option will no longer receive print copies of declaration documents they receive electronically.

Economical’s eDocs solution will be delivered by the company’s team of dedicated broker solutions specialists, who work closely with broker partners and understand both their workflow needs and system requirements. This specialized knowledge will help foster seamless integration of Economical’s eDocs solution into brokers’ workflows.

Although a significant number of brokers asked to be part of the pilot project, the final eight selected by the company represent the four BMSs noted earlier. End-to-end testing had been done internally with the four systems, each of which has received download certification from each BMS vendor.

The selection criteria also included the requirement for brokers to be currently suppressing print with Economical and to be using eDocs with another insurer. This ensured that the pilot involves experienced brokers, thereby allowing Economical to focus on workflow validation and integration over the course of the pilot.

Besides being electronic data interchange-equipped to download for personal lines and individually rated commercial automobiles declaration documents, the company further sought pilot brokers who were committed to providing feedback and experiencing a sufficient volume of transactions during the pilot project.

Throughout the initiative, the goal is to validate the quality of Economical’s eDocs solution. The company will not move to full implementation until the solution has been fully validated with pilot brokers in a real-world production setting.

Feedback from pilot brokers is critical. A dedicated specialist assigned to each pilot broker will help gather feedback on workflow and ensure the solution is functioning as expected. The specialist will relay this information to the company’s business implementation leader who, in turn, will be able to ensure that any changes or issues that arise during the pilot project are quickly addressed and corrected.

FEWER TOUCHES, GREATER EFFICIENCIES

It is anticipated the benefits that broker partners will realize from implementing eDocs are significant – and will be derived from a number of sources. For those who want broker declaration documents within their BMS systems, the integration saves the time that would have been spent coming to the broker extranet to retrieve the documents. With eDocs, the material is automatically pushed to broker partners, which lowers the number of touches required to get documents into the BMS.

It also alleviates the need to manually file and store paper documents, scan incoming paper into electronic format and shred incoming paper copies.

This increased efficiency gives brokers the option to re-allocate staff time to more important and potentially revenue-generating tasks.

There is time and cost savings for insurers, as well. As insurers work towards eliminating printing personal lines broker declaration documents, they will collectively be making significant reductions in paper consumption, which is good for the environment.

In the event there is some electronic issue and a transferred document is lost, there are several options for brokers to receive their documents. Brokers can do the following:

• “pull” the document(s) from the broker extranet;

• request a re-issue of the document which, in turn, would be sent via the next eDocs download delivery; or

• re-print the document.

For those brokers who continue to request printed declaration documents, change management is the key. Over the coming months, Economical’s broker solutions specialists will work closely with these brokers to educate them on how eDocs can enhance efficiency of their business operations by removing paper-based tasks.

It is important for brokers to adopt this solution for two main reasons: the first is to drive cost out of broker operations and to improve customer service; the second relates to insurers and BMS vendors.

Industry players have worked collaboratively – led by brokers themselves – to identify the need for eDocs. From there, CSIO standards and an agreed-upon workflow were developed.

Understanding the initiative’s importance, many carriers and vendors put aside other priorities to develop this functionality, which clearly supports an independent broker channel. The next step is for brokers to implement that functionality.

Customers today have high expectations with regard to the speed and quality of service they receive. For brokers to remain competitive, they need immediate access to information while controlling the number of touches required to get that information.