Leading insurance companies have expedited their digital transformation initiatives to address the changing needs and expectations of their customers. New technology investment continues at pace, but, unless IT leaders have ensured adequate data integration, insurance agents and brokers will be left with a host of new systems to learn, an additional work burden, and growing resentment – all of which could end up destroying any potential benefits the new systems may have delivered.
As insurance companies invest more into technology in order to address their new digital requirements, they also have to ensure they have adequate skills to run their operations. However, if not planned properly, this growth can easily elude them as their tech stacks start to grow exponentially.
One of the unintended consequences of rapid tech growth is their solution stack splintering into silos. Poor integration means some systems are lost to the core operations, with agents and brokers even forgetting they’re there and reverting to manual, time-consuming, and laborious inputs.
What’s more, many CIOs implement new technologies aimed at boosting efficiencies and simply assume that their agents and brokers know why they are there and how to use them. These assumptions are dangerous and can often result in significant damage when it comes to accurate data management, eventually resulting in a poor customer experience.
The growing burden on insurance teams should not be underestimated. Research from Gartner shows that: “The number of skills required for a single job is increasing by 10% year over year, and over 30% of the skills needed three years ago will soon be irrelevant”. It is clear that insurance agents and brokers are quickly becoming overloaded. Finding ways to make system and data delivery simpler, faster and more accurate must be a business priority.
When adding new technologies, insurance companies can sometimes neglect adequate training, making the new systems seem overwhelming to agents and brokers. What’s more, teams who are used to how things were before may resist the change, choosing to revert to old habits, or even find workarounds.
Before long the new investments will lie idle, wiping out any kind of return on investment. Even worse, forcing agents and brokers to use new tech that is siloed from their usual systems will create more work and lead to resentment and reduced job satisfaction.
Purchase decisions often look good on paper. However, insurance companies are run by agents and brokers they employ, and leaders must consider the human factor when rolling out new implementations.
Rolling out new technology without proper integration and buy-in from your teams can lead to a fear response that will impact your long-term success.
Accenture, a well know information technology services and consulting company, recently analyzed the effect of automation and augmentation on the financial services industry. Its research shows that cost saving and productivity gains from automation could lead to up to $140 billion in cumulative value for the North American industry. However, it also points out that around 10 percent of tasks in the industry could be automated and a sizable 48 percent can be augmented by technology.
The fear, uncertainty and doubt already surrounding new technologies need to be carefully managed by business leaders in the sector. To ensure their teams accept and properly use these investments is crucial, but technology leaders must also make every effort to ensure the new systems are easily accessible and that they seamlessly integrate with existing systems to guarantee easy usage.
Tech should be a tool to help insurance agents and brokers perform optimally, a foundation on which they can build their success. Quite simply, technology should be seen by management and staff as an enabler.
By integrating the various tech solutions, insurance teams can quickly access all the tools they need from one place. Data from multiple systems can become immediately available allowing agents and brokers to get their jobs done more effectively. Synatic’s Data Integration Hub (DIH) empowers insurance companies to streamline their agents’ and brokers’ day-to-day operations, optimize staff efficiencies, and improve overall agency performance.
Synatic, allows insurance agencies to reduce their IT spend by identifying where tech is either not being used, is underutilized, or where it could be better used.
An integrated organization is better able to deploy automation that leaves its people to focus on customer excellence. This will not only ensure better delivery, but agents and brokers will have the chance to upskill, making them more relevant to the company and securing their long-term job security.
Most importantly, by creating an optimized work environment, agents and brokers will welcome new technology, embrace the benefits of automation, and feel confident in their worth – leaving insurance agencies in the best possible place to focus on growth. To learn more about how you can leverage integrated solutions to improve agent and broker performance, contact Synatic today.
