Blog

E-Docs Downloads – The time is now

David Gallagher — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 16:04:00 GMT

Our blog covers a wide range of topics, and today's focuses on a specific product area that is extremely hot right now - downloading documents in a standardized e-docs solution, from insurance carrier to broker. iter8 has developed a solution called communic8 e-docs.

Insurance carriers will be able to meet their broker’s demands for an e-docs solution as a standard download for Broker Management Systems (BMS).

We're using two of the CSIO e-doc standards.

(1) real-time XML Activity Note Messages - this standard specifies that each message can contain only a single pdf and is sent individually.

(2) EDI/AL3 standard that produces one daily document download file containing all of the pdf's for that day, typically sent the following morning. It is a separate file that is separately created from the typical daily AL3 policy download file.

Each of the carriers determines which documents and how many pages they are capable of creating and making available within the pdf, although all of the carriers are including Policy Declaration pages from the outset.

Delivering documents through this real-time or batch download infrastructure remains flexible and can be leveraged for future expansion because additional client documents can subsequently be inserted into the pdf that is created by the carrier, as either their capability and/or need to do so increases. In other words, the content of the pdf's can be changed (such as adding Billing Notices for Direct Bill clients) without necessarily needing to change the mechanism that delivers and digests the pdf's at the brokerage.

Both of these formats support the automatic updating of the client records in the BMS - delivering a big productivity benefit to brokers on day-one of the roll-out! This benefit also improves both customer service levels and E&O assessments for the brokerage - the ultimate goal achieved when the standardized e-docs workflow and procedures are enabled and supported by all of the carriers within any given brokerage.

After the initial productivity benefit is delivered to the brokerage, carriers want the standard workflow and processes to be audited, trusted, and secure so that brokers are able and willing to grant approval for the carriers to cease printing expensive paper documents.

That's the win-win part that characterizes the best solutions because it can drive a broad adoption by all of the stakeholders to their mutual advantage.

To learn who is implementing e-docs solutions with iter8, through communic8 e-docs, and what benefits they’ll achieve, contact us and ask for a free consultation.

The Results Are IN

David Gallagher — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:55:00 GMT

Since it is award season in Hollywood we thought we’d announce our award as a finalist in the ICTC awards. iter8, along with Keal Technology and Unica Insurance submitted an entry for the ICTC awards, based upon their live, real-time policy change solution for personal lines auto and property.

iter8 has been working on a real-time policy change solution for many months, responding to the needs of independent agents and brokers for the capability to change insurance carrier policies from within their broker management or agency management systems. We’ve taken it live at two insurers, and have begun work with a third.

The process is complex, but iter8 is able to make it straight-forward and simple. The agent/broker works within their own systems, makes a change to the policy records, submits it, and receives the updated information in real-time. Whether this change is straightforward or involved, the iter8 real-time solution can smoothly, quickly and easily make the policy change and deliver the results in real-time.

This needs tight cooperation between the multiple systems involved. In particular the broker or agency management system must be able to retrieve and upload the information, and then receive and update the adjusted data after the change is made. To-date iter8 has been working closely with Keal Technology, the developers of sigXP (although the system can accommodate any agency or broker management system). The solution also needs full data exchange and integration at the carrier, as well as integration with core back-end systems.

And the solution has been selected as an award winner, one of three finalists for the Insurance Canada Technology Conference. Final results will be announced at the conference in March. The competition is fierce and the solutions of the three finalists are innovative and deliver numerous benefits. In this case the adage “to be nominated is reward enough” really does apply. iter8 has been recognized for technology leadership and innovation.

But the real winner is real-time policy change, which saves agents and brokers time, money and effort, and enables insurers to improve service levels and the scalability of their online service capability, and positively impact their distribution channel to improve competitiveness and save money.

Learn more about the award and the iter8, Keal and Unica solution.

iter8 sponsors major research study

David Gallagher — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 16:59:00 GMT

iter8 has sponsored a major research study led by Strategy Meets Action. The study collected information from both insurance carriers and independent agents and brokers and examined the key opportunities for agents and insurers seeking to capitalize on improved linkages and connectivity.

The research was completed in 2012, and was followed by a webinar in December to present the findings. A white paper was published year-end 2012 to provide additional insights on the results.

View an archive of the webinar click here.

As indicated in the white paper, “real-time connectivity between the agent and insurer must go beyond interaction and provide the ability to complete the transaction. Agent portals need to do more than handle data capture and quoting – they need to be the platform for all information, as well as the support for collaboration.”

Add to this the relationship between consumer, agent and insurer and the needs for full 360 trip of information sharing becomes even more critical.

The white paper explores these areas. Learn more, read a copy of the free white paper.

regul8 makes risk sharing pool submissions more manageable

David Gallagher — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:28:00 GMT

regul8 is designed to improve statistical reporting for insurance carriers. Statistical reporting activity to National, State or Provincial regulators and Insurance Associations needs to be done effectively, in a timely manner, and cost-effectively, and our efforts have focussed on ensuring regul8 can help insurance carriers meet these goals.

But, we’ve now extended regul8, to help carriers in improving profitability through their Risk Sharing Pool (RSP) submissions.

After consultation with our customers and with other insurers, we’ve recently added key functionality to our Risk Sharing Pool submission solution, regul8 RSP.

We added rules capabilities and algorithm development abilities to regul8, so that insurers putting policies into the risk sharing pool now have evaluation tools to enhance the process. No longer do carriers have to worry they have put lower risk policies into the pool than their competitors. They also can be confident they are not keeping too many policies they should be ceding.

Such advanced functionality may make the RSP playing field no longer level. Insurers that do not have regul8 RSP will be operating at a disadvantage. Therefore we are able to offer the solution to all insurers that cede policies to the RSP.

I suggest you contact us to learn more. We will complete an operational review to make sure we understand the problems you are facing, and we’ll also be able to explain how the rules and algorithms can work to help you optimize what you place in the pool.

regul8 for RSP can also come with an enhanced user interface to facilitate user evaluation and testing, further tilting the field towards those that use regul8.

TENCON 2012 -- Applied Systems and ASCNet

David Gallagher — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:21:00 GMT

Last week Debbie Olsen, VP of Product Innovations at iter8 attended the Applied Systems and ASCNet meetings (TENCON) in Nashville, and passed on her feedback....

The meetings were packed full of information, with representatives from across the P&C Insurance business in attendance. This included many of the contacts iter8 has formed with insurance carriers and independent agents. There was lots of catching up to be done, plus time to attend the many sessions.

iter8 integrates with The Agency Manager (TAM) in many ways, from simple upload to full data bridging to download. For the non-technical folks, data-bridging is where TAM sends an XML request to the Carrier when the user clicks on the Real-time Blue Butterfly in TAM, but the Carrier cannot fully and reliably respond inside the maximum 30-second window allowed by TAM for Real-time responses – so the Carrier sends a ‘link’ to TAM instead. This ‘link’ can be clicked in TAM to navigate the user to a secure and unique web page with the Real-time response. This method can be used regardless of whether the response link builds a pdf, a message screen or even a Carrier portal. The Carrier can easily specify a secure and unique link to send to TAM inside of the maximum 30 second window. While this data-bridging solution approaches a Real-time response in the practical sense of providing instant response information, it does not meet the real-time objective of starting and ending in the AMS.

Much of the discussion focussed on the new Epic system from Applied. Epic represents the next generation Agency Management System with new architecture and technology to support real-time, multiple lines and devices – all in a single system platform and database. It’s been live in the U.S. for over 3 years now and many bugs have been worked out, with plans to undertake a general Canadian roll-out in Q2 of 2013. Epic incorporates real-time rating inside the AMS, a requirement that drove the acquisition of Compu-quote in Canada. Since iter8 can fully and completely support done-in-one real-time transaction capability, we look forward with enthusiasm to working with the new Epic Canada product in early 2013.

To Applied and ASCNet I say – thank you for a great conference. Professional, informative and interesting – it doesn’t get any better.

iter8 and Appulate to work together

David Gallagher — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 12:37:00 GMT

The summer is flying past us. Already mid-August, and back-to-school commercials have been running for several weeks.

We’ve not blogged in the past two months, but have a stockpile of news to pass on.

The first piece of big news is our recently announced partnership with Appulate.

Appulate is a leading provider of forms parsing and data bridging technology, and the partnership allows iter8 to offer Appulate Uplink™ as an integrated part of iter8 product and service solutions. This ensures that the flow of data from agency management system to carrier policy administration system is smooth, easy to use and effective, and represents another way iter8 is working to offer choice to carriers, and independent agents/brokers, to use technology to effectively compete and grow.

At present Uplink can be used to bridge ACORD forms directly out of an agent’s management system or it can be used as a back-office tool to extract data from pdf forms. Insurance carriers can then use communic8™, to integrate the information with core systems, or apply business logic to validate, update or qualify the information. The solution aligns with both ACT and ACORD standards and needs, and represents a big step in improving the operating effectiveness of independnet agents and the carriers with which they work.

The partnership is in place for the US market, and the two companies are examining how to operationalize this in the Canadian market.

So Canadian carriers – let us know if this makes sense for you --- having independent brokers upload information from the BMS or via a pdf file, and have it captured and processed in a once and done manner.

Sounds pretty good to me!

Agents Council on Technology discussion on 4 key consumer trends

David Gallagher — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:12:00 GMT

The 12 ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum is now in the rear view mirror, and another successful conference is complete.

As in past years iter8 was an exhibitor and participant at the ACORD Forum and at the pre-show ACT and AUGIE meetings.

The pre-show ACT meetings included an update and discussion pertaining to the 4 key trends and industry “must-do” items identified by ACT earlier in 2012.They are:

i) Social Web

ii) Demographic/Diversity Transformation

iii) Mobile and Mobility

iv) Connected Consumer

In four bullets ACT has identified trends that will dictate technology investments for both independent agents and brokers and insurance carriers.

For example, Jeff Yates of ACT elaborated on the connected consumer, “...this consumer is empowered through technology to interact with the world around them and thereby shape how business responds. They find, share and communicate differently than a traditional consumer. They live on smart phones and tablets and network with friends and businesses through social and mobile technologies......they make buying decisions differently, and broadcast those decisions to their networked community....”

iter8, as a key technology provider to insurance carriers needs to lead the effort to develop new technology solutions, so that the connected customer has options to deal with multiple insurers.

And, we are.

Our new consumer portal launched at this year’s ACORD LOMA Conference, is designed to meet the needs of a connected consumer.

Built upon the same engine as the agent or broker portal the consumer portal enables not just billing and policy inquiry, but also policy change and new business quote capabilities. iter8 strongly believes portal solutions are not “just a pretty face”, and that the portal architecture is as important as the user interface.

Contact one of our portal experts to learn how the iter8 consumer portal can help you in dealing with these four key trends.

iter8, Keal technology and Unica Insurance award winners

David Gallagher — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 13:03:00 GMT

iter8 is an expert in the P&C software arena. And, once again we have been recognized as an award recipient.

Unica Insurance, Keal Technology and iter8 were recognized at the Insurance Canada Conference as a Technology Award Finalist.

The award was given for the Keal Connect solution that links Keal’s Broker or Agency Management System (sigXP) directly to the carrier (Unica) without any middleware of third-party software required by the broker. Keal Connect sends XML data in real-time directly to the carrier so that agents/brokers can perform Inquiry, New Business Upload and Manual Endorsement transactions.

Independent agents and brokers want seamless integrations that start and end in their AMS which this satisfies. This integration was delivered to the marketplace in less than 60 days due to iter8’s proven configurable software, Unica’s motivation to benefit their brokers, and sigXP’s modern architecture. Each of the transactions begins, and ends, in sigXP, with the inquiry transactions requiring no engagement with the Unica portal, allowing the Broker to work in the environment they are most comfortable with.

The next step for Keal Connect is the development of policy change transactions

Katherine Evans, CFO at Unica Insurance, Dave Patrick, VP at iter8 and Renee Durepos VP at Keal Technology were on hand to pick up the award.

The iter8 team of Phil Henville, Dave Patrick and Steve Gugler celebrate the iter8 award.

Why add an Underwriting rules configurator to core systems?

David Gallagher — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:05:00 GMT

iter8 has just completed a study to examine the top reasons P&C insurance carriers add a modern, configurable rules engine (or configurator which is the term we use) to their legacy systems, or to their new core systems, to better evaluate new consumer and agent interactions.

4 top benefits to such efforts emerged.

They are:

1) Integrate Predictive Analytics results into underwriting production systems

2) Make better underwriting decisions 3) Expand underwriting capabilities

4) Push underwriting system management to business users

Click here for a more complete description.

Modern solutions, such as simul8 offered by iter8 are able to integrate with legacy or modern policy administration solutions, and provide portals and web interfaces with rules and business logic to evaluate new business, renewals and policy changes.

Whether you have instances of Full touch underwriting, Light touch underwriting or No touch underwriting, a rules configurator enables fast, easy to use rules application to streamline workflow, ensure consistency, and better assess risk.

Independent agent and broker collaboration with Insurance carriers

David Gallagher — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:06:00 GMT

iter8 recently participated in the NAMIC Commercial Lines Seminar, and the Insurance Canada Technology Conference.

In both sessions there was a strong sense of the need to enhance agent or broker collaboration with the insurance carrier. In past years independent agents and carriers squabbled about technology details. Arguments such as “I want fewer keystrokes....or ....that’s your job, I don’t want to do your job....or ....we want more share of your business.....or....we built this technology, you’d better use it” often overrode more strategic issues. They were and are important, but don’t build the long term market.

Yet this year I sensed a greater need to work together to address strategic issues such as: How can we develop more user-friendly on line applications? How can we integrate agency management systems with carrier systems? How can we meet policy holder needs to deliver better service? How can we automate commercial lines tasks?

You may ask, is this just short term, or are carriers and agents and brokers working more collaboratively?

My observation, this is not short term, and it represents a strong will to work collaboratively. Each group is looking at ways to address the continued loss of market share to direct writers.

In the commercial market, where agents have often felt secure, the direct writers are automating tasks to write smaller packages, creating specialized offers, and building their marketing plans and supporting technology.

Broker and Agent driven companies need to do the same. What technology is necessary to connect agents and carriers to address commercial packages, BOP and mid-market accounts? How is collaboration to be obtained? How are tasks to be automated, workflows managed, and underwriters provided with tools to effectively manage larger commercial accounts?

iter8 has answers and solutions. You can learn more about them at several upcoming conferences and industry events where we are participating.

Carriers need to start acting now so that technology is put in place to automate commercial lines quoting, new business submission and provide policy holder and agent self service, so they will be able to compete with direct writers that are planning their next round of technology innovation.

Insurance carrier Portal strategy does not equal Portal tactics

David Gallagher — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:59:00 GMT

For insurance carriers portals used to mean agent portals. And, for many insurers that meant a tactical, single purpose solution to facilitate online quoting.

But as Deb Smallwood of Strategy Meets Action explained in her recent webinar, Leveraging Portal Power, (Click here to view the archived version) portals have changed, and a strategy on how to use the components from your existing portal, and/or how to incorporate underwriter portals, consumer portals, and other third party access points such as social media is required.

Such a strategy is necessary to ensure front, middle and back-office systems are integrated, and changes in one are promoted to the others. It is also necessary to ensure your portal is scalable, repeatable and adheres to standards.

Ultimately insurance carriers want a well architected solution so that the needs of independent agents, policy holders, prospective customers and underwriters are met.

According to the CTO at iter8, anyone can build a portal UI – but the devil is in the creation of an integrated data model, rules engine, integration layers, and configurable solution. And for this to occur, insurance carriers need a well defined portal strategy. Such a strategy must focus on IT architecture, and build a strong foundation. It also must consider the future. So while integrated to an agency management system for upload may be straightforward, what will happen for the next agency management system? And for the facebook uploads? And the iPad calls for inspection reports? And the requests from the agent online portal, as they also interact with policy holders?

Iter8 has thought through these issues, and is developing solutions for the future.

If you would like to hear more just let me know – I will set up a one-on-one with our CTO, who can bring a depth of knowledge gaining for years of insurance expertise.

Leveraging Portal Power: The latest webinar sponsored by iter8

David Gallagher — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:58:00 GMT

iter8 is sponsoring a webinar on February 9^th at 2:00pm entitled “Leveraging Portal Power ...to deliver growth and profitability”.

Deb Smallwood, founder of Strategy Meets Action, an insurance industry leading consulting firm, will be presenting along with Glen Piller, President and CEO of iter8.

The webinar will focus on how agent portals and consumer portals need to change and evolve in order to meet the needs of independent agents and policy holders. For many insurers portals were put in place to address a short term need. For example to generate straight through processing, or to facilitate inquiry functions.

However, now and in the future, portals will evolve to act as centralized landing hubs for multiple transactions and provide the insurance carrier face for multiple third-parties. The use of standardized components to integrate with consumers, policy holders, independent or captive agents generates internal efficiencies and improvements to customer care levels. The days of one-to-one usage are disappearing, and this webinar will explore how newer modern portals can handle multiple transactions, extensive collaboration, and provide an overall integrated approach to the insurance carriers’ external actions.

Insurance clients want to access an insurance carrier on their terms, on their time, using hardware that they choose, where they like – not limited by bricks and mortar, defined hours, and other restrictions.

To attend the webinar, and hear from these industry experts use the attached registration link.

Six essentials for pain-free statistical reporting

David Gallagher — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:02:00 GMT

iter8, a market leader in statistical and bureau reporting has identified 6 essential factors to solve P&C reporting needs. Based upon extensive experience in this area our internal regul8 experts have identified 6 essentials that will help carriers in their planning efforts. Read them, and use them to help in your next compliance reporting upgrade.

These six essentials can help all P&C insurance carriers faced with providing frequent, accurate, timely bureau or regulatory reporting. They can help you make the right choice in third-party solutions, or help your internal experts in their planning and strategy formation.

Click here to view the six essentials.

The costs of inattention to your statistical reporting needs can be high. For example high penalty fees, high internal costs for rework, and high costs for system changes are just a few of the costs.

So, read the six essentials, and contact us if you need more assistance.

Wawanesa Insurance saves money, improves quality and saves time

David Gallagher — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:09:00 GMT

A Case Study: Wawanesa Insurance saves money, improves quality, saves time --- what's not to like!

iter8 has just published a case study that examined the impact of new statistical reporting processes, and software (supplied by you-know-who). The project saved money, improved data quality, streamlined the filing processes, improved timeliness and decreased the overall costs of ownership as system maintenance is handled by iter8. If only every project could have such clearly defined benefits.

Read the case study, and see what was done and why.

The project was also implemented successfully. The project management at Wawanesa was excellent, as was the quality of their technical and business teams.

Were there lessons to help your company?

I think so. Read the details, and see how Wawanesa identified priorities and then worked to ensure they were resolved. From problem identification, to proof of concept, to a phased project with achievable, well-defined milestones Wawanesa ensured the project delivered on-time, and on budget.

Ps – we identified 6 essentials for pain-free statistical reporting I will be able to share them with you next month.

5 key factors for a successful data migration project

David Gallagher — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:29:00 GMT

The data experts at iter8 were talking about how and why data migration and system transformation projects can run into troubles.

They mentioned to me that there are several key actions that are needed to guide such projects, and following these rules greatly improves a projects chance of success. I took these rules, and summarized their feedback into “5” key actions (I would have preferred 8, but what can you do) and asked them to give me more details on each point, and explain why they were important, and the impact they could have on insurance company success.

This is what they produced. 5 key factors for successful systems integration projects.

Follow them, and a project will succeed. They are not in any order, just five common sense steps that when practiced give IT planners a good chance at success. And, they are proven in real-world examples. iter8 has many successful projects ranging from Policy Administration System data migrations to the creation of data warehouses, to the successfully integration of multiple data sources.

Here are the five factors:

1) Choose a third-party solution provider to assist in providing tools, systems, expertise, experience, and an independent outside perspective

2) Select a partner that understands insurance

3) Select a solution in which the results can be reconciled

4) Apply technology that is built for complex data transformation

5) Choose a technology approach that is modern, innovative, yet proven.

Click here to read the full explanation, and details on each point.

Straightforward, logical, common sense. Yet putting them in practice separates the experts from the wannabes.

iter8 can help you execute.

Contact us to learn more. The five steps do not include a “trial” or a proof of concept, but we’d be happy to go down this path. Just another way to ensure risk is reduced, and success is achieved.

Complex Data Migration project is a BIG success

David Gallagher — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:53:00 GMT

After La Capitale Financial Group acquired York Fire and Casualty Insurance they required a consolidated Policy Administration System to create a common system of record with common data storage. York sought a strong claims control system, and quality data to enable actuarial pricing enhancements.

To do this, and meet their stated objectives, they turned to iter8 to partner with them on a complex data migration project in which disparate systems were integrated, and ongoing translation was required to continually integrate web services with the new Policy Administration System.

A case study has just been published that reviews what was needed, what was done, and why it was done.

The complexity was high – the Policy Administration System was “under construction” as the project was underway; 10 years of history, over 2 million transactions were to be migrated; differing data semantics existed between systems (image based and delta based)

The stakes were high – billions in assets and premiums were involved, 48-hour cut-over was mandatory, multiple data sources were involved, and support of the legacy system was poor as it remained with the previous York parent company

The results were tremendous – accuracy was 100% (with only insignificant differences); a translator was built such that the award winning York portal and independent broker and agent interface was untouched, and agents were unaware of the migration to a new system; the single data base led to enhanced pricing, data security improvements, and a common system of record

To get more details, read the case study. Learn how a large, complex data migration can work, using declarative techniques that scale beyond those of more straight-forward ETL tools.

An iter8 Case Study

Small Mutual Insurers Technology Challenges

David Gallagher — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:17:00 GMT

Trillium Mutual Insurance Company is the third largest farm mutual insurance company in the Province of Ontario. They are a leader in the property and farm property categories. Their products are innovative, competitive, priced right, and service levels are high.

All good, except with one big challenge -- how to keep up with the technology offered by larger carriers.

Trillium wrestled with this problem, and used tactics to help them stay competitive:

i) They partnered with another insurer to implement a new system jointly. In this way they could draw upon the business knowledge and expertise of another insurer and save some of the system implementation costs by sharing the costs.

ii) They implemented solutions in stages, such that their business and IT staff could continue with their “day jobs”, and still work with a vendor to implement new solutions.

iii) They used third party vendors to partner with. This meant they did not have to build solutions in-house, and equally importantly they found vendors they could build longer term relations with, that could understand their business, and work with Trillium to understand and solve problems.

iter8 was one of the “partners” chosen to work with Trillium. It has been one of the most positive relations we have built. A good partner, strategic thinkers, and a mutually beneficial relationship have led to success.

Smaller carriers need to work harder to succeed, and Trillium has mastered the formula.

Build versus Buy: What are carriers planning for their portals?

David Gallagher — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:03:00 GMT

Agent portals, and consumer self serve portals are one of the last areas in which some carriers believe an in-house build can meet their needs, instead of a third-party vended solution. As a vendor of portal solutions, data migration and agency connectivity solutions, iter8 wondered how many carriers felt this way. So we asked them.

The results were mixed. Most carriers felt vended solutions were superior, as the expertise provided by vendors in system design, implementation and requirements formulation was superior to in-house solutions.

However, vended solutions were viewed as more expensive.

Perhaps even more importantly, in-house solutions allow carriers to attract and retain good IT staff. If everything is outsourced and the in-house role of IT is focussed on maintenance then good people do not wish to stay.

See the summary chart, and some specifics on the build versus buy question.

What are carriers doing about Consumer self-serve portals?

David Gallagher — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:45:00 GMT

Carriers working with independent agents are faced with a challenge - How can they meet their policy holder needs for self-service, without alienating their independent agents?

Several options exist, (1) Develop self-serve web applications policy holders can directly access via carrier web pages; (2) Develop self-serve web applications policy holders can directly access via agent web pages; (3) Do nothing.

As iter8 is a provider of agent facing and consumer facing web applications who can address solution #1 or solution #2, we wanted to find out what carriers were planning. So we asked them. We retained the leading P&C analysts in the country, and asked them to undertake research with carriers and see what they were planning.

Over half (53%) indicated that they would be interested in purchasing a solution soon, or in the future, while only 34% had no interest. The balance had developed an in-house solution already, or was planning one. Results and interest varied by lines of business, and competitive threats, as did the strategies they were following.

We prepared a summary chart. Click here to review it.

Do agent needs integrate with carrier portal plans?

David Gallagher — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:29:00 GMT

In the third part of a series of blogs that discuss what problems and solutions P&C Insurance carriers are planning in order to upgrade their portals, strengthen market share and profitably grow their business, we turn to the views of the agent.

iter8 completed an extensive study in 2010 to speak directly with independent agents and brokers, and ask them their thoughts in a variety of areas, which included the following specific question – “ From the following list, select those functions you want but which are not provided by the carriers you most frequently represent”

It was followed by a ranking of these functions, with the top 8 functions ranked by importance.

The combination of the two measures produced some valuable insights. For example in the area of endorsements, the total number of “functions you want” was not high (103 in total, versus the top item listed with 173 occurrences). However, when weighted by importance, endorsements rose to be the top requirement, based upon the “importance mean”, while the total item in overall mentions did not even qualify in the importance mean.

Thus, while agents indicated the functions they wanted in the first chart, it only became meaningful when they indicated the priority of the wants and needs.

Click here to view the chart summarizing these results.

This can then be compared with the initiatives underway with Present carriers (see May 10^th blog), and top problems identified by carriers (see May 3^rd blog)

The plot thickens.

Are they aligned?

Are carriers investing in the “right” areas?

Are carriers making headway in meeting agent needs?

The short answer is – “somewhat”. The number and complexity of many of the problems can be overwhelming. (except for carriers that work with iter8, and let our insurance experts help prioritize, and share these research studies in their entirety). Agent needs vary by geography, by lines of business, and by other demographic variables, there is no magic bullet. There is no single solution. Therefore carriers need to identify several technology solutions, develop a timetable to implement in stages, and work with agents to let them know what is coming, by when, and how it will be rolled out.

#1 Portal Upgrade Planned by P&C Carriers

David Gallagher — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:07:00 GMT

To continue the reporting of facts, figures and details from our recent carrier research efforts (in which we interviewed a cross-section of P&C Insurance carriers) the research consultants asked P&C carriers what was the top new initiative they were planning to upgrade their portals.

The top answer can be summarized as - Address online quote and new business for commercial lines. This is different for BOP and small packages, versus larger packages and monoline products.

For BOP and smaller packages, portal enhancements focussed on investments to provide Automation and Upload from Agency Management Systems.

For mid-market and larger commercial lines the focus is on collaboration and policy holder/consumer access.

For smaller commercial markets, efforts are underway to improve straight-through-processing, through automation and integration. Services offered in personal lines need to be extended to commercial lines, and carriers are planning the efforts necessary to make this happen.

In the larger segment, efforts are underway or planned to improve real-time collaboration between carriers, agents and policy holders. As business in these areas is less structured and packaged, emphasis shifts to ensuring each participant can participate in creating a unique offering.

The challenge is that costs can be high, and resource requirements steep. However, these items are in carrier plans right now, and soon will be regarded as “table stakes” for many carriers to remain in the game.

To view a pdf summary of this portion of the research study, click here.

The top 4 problems P&C carriers face upgrading their agent portals

David Gallagher — Tue, 03 May 2011 18:59:00 GMT

A leading Insurance Consulting firm in the US has just completed a major study on behalf of iter8, whereby they interview a cross section of P&C carriers.

From the study, the top 4 problems faced by carriers in meeting their independent agent needs were identified (I wanted the top 8, but 4 clearly summarizes the issues).

Here is the top 4 list.

#4 Technology issues require too much time and/or distract attention and resources from higher priority tasks.

Carriers recognize that keeping technology fresh is a tremendous challenge, and that agent and consumer portals add new systems, and technology that is already complex for many carriers.

#3 Agent adoption of automated processes

The pace of change is fast, and agents are often slow to adopt new technologies introduced by carriers. The reasons are many, and carriers are looking to new technology and portal upgrades to improve agent adoption rates. The best technology in the world is of no value if it does not get used.

#2 Keeping up with the pace of change and delivering quickly

Getting functionality to independent agents and brokers is a major problem. IT projects require planning and research, but change is happening so quickly that carriers cannot keep up.

#1 Meeting agent’s expectations

Large direct writers keep raising the bar on automation and online functionality driving innovation. Keeping up is more and more difficult, especially for smaller carriers

View the pdf summary Top Business Problems.

Coming Next week: The Top initiative carriers are working on to address these problems.

10 years of P&C Insurance Solutions

David Gallagher — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:01:00 GMT

iter8 celebrated its tenth anniversary with a party last week, that coincided with the Insurance Technology Conference.

Customers, channel partners, and show registrants joined iter8 in the celebrations.

The party was a big success. It could have been the “iter8 martinis”, or the tables of food, but most said it was the good spirits in the room. Many of iter8’s best customers were in attendance, and the conversation turned to some of the topics covered at the conference.

Of prime importance were improvements to broker, agent and consumer portals. Most carriers have on-line interaction with their customers and their independent distributors, but it is also a fact that most of these carriers recognize that more is needed. More lines available; better connectivity to agents agent or broker management systems; broader geographic coverage; and the ability to deal with specific distributor complaints, such as fewer keystrokes, single sign-on – were all raised.

iter8 is developing a series of articles, case studies, research studies and presentation topics to examine this topic, under the broad heading of “Upgrading your Portal”.

What does this mean, how can vendors and carriers work together to address this issue, and what are winning carriers doing.

All will be examined in the coming months. iter8 has invested heavily to examine what carriers and agents need to effectively compete and grow, and ultimately service their customer needs.

iter8 has grown successfully in the past ten years, and through the upgrade your portal effort plans to be available for the next ten years working with carriers to improve their overall distributor relationship.

A 10th anniversary sculpture was front and center.

iter8 President, Glen Piller, christened the drink luge, trying the first iter8 martini of the night

Customers, prospects & partners enjoyed themselves, with Dave Patrick, V.P. Business Development listening closely

Optimum General Inc. adds Connected Agent Portal to 2011 schedule

David Gallagher — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:44:00 GMT

iter8 has been working with Optimum General Inc. (Optimum) on their exciting new connected portal for several months, completing the first Phase of the work in 2010.

In January of this year they committed to build the next phase – working with iter8.

The picture attached includes (left to right), Mr. Martin Carrier, President and Chief Operating Officer of Optimum, Mr. Glen Piller, President and CEO of iter8 and Mr. Paul Tremblay, Senior Vice President, Finance and Actuarial Services of Optimum, as they finalized and signed the terms and conditions contract at the Optimum offices.

Optimum has a large team of in-house IT experts. As a result iter8 will play a slightly different role in the implementation, scheduled to occur throughout the year. iter8 will be less involved in ‘doing’, and more involved in transferring knowledge to the Optimum team in how to implement and support the iter8 portal and connectivity products collabor8 and communic8, such that they can extend the rich functionality of the iter8 technology throughout the Optimum family.

This project kicks off in a matter of days, and everyone is excited about starting a project designed to be perhaps the most integrated, connected portal iter8 has worked on. Optimum General will enable their independent brokers to access the portal in a variety of manners, while the business logic of the portal will connect to third party reports and data sources.

iter8 products - a year of "firsts"

David Gallagher — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:50:00 GMT

The calendar year 2010 is now behind us, and iter8, with a fiscal year that ends January 31^st, is in “year-end” wrap up. When looking back at the past year, a first for iter8 occurred – Customers went live with each of iter8’s four core products.

The iter8 core products are:

collabor8 – the agent portal

communic8 – agent connectivity & third party reporting connectivity

regul8 – statistical reporting

transl8 – data migration

In 2010 each product went live with a customer, or with several customers.

collabor8, the agent and broker portal is in many ways the centerpiece of iter8’s products, and this was confirmed in 2010 as several customers took their portals live. Providence Mutual was of particular importance as they developed a functionally rich portal across several states, with multiple product lines, and connected to their independent agents using communic8 and (I need to stop and take a breath) accessed and integrated third party reports including claims history and conviction databases, property value estimating, credit services and geo-coding distance to coast information and (another breath needed) third party raters

communic8, which is often used with collabor8, went live with several customers, including a stand-alone application with Optimum General Insurance. Optimum used communic8 to access and integrate third party reports in 2010 and will be implementing collabor8 in 2011.

regul8, the regulatory statistical reporting solution also had several go-lives’ in 2010, including a go-live with Aviva Insurance, to address their Risk Sharing Pool needs for the Quebec market. regul8 does not have the glamour of other iter8 products, but is a star when it comes to ROI, with a track record of saving carriers significant costs, and improving accuracy in meeting their reporting needs

transl8 is the iter8 data migration solution, that is an unsung hero in the portfolio. La Capitale used transl8 in 2010 for the complete transfer of underwriting data from one Policy Administration System to another including all in-term data and 10+ years of historical data, for multiple lines of business.

As iter8 grows, and the numerous new customers that selected to work with iter8 in 2010 move towards their go-live dates, this might be a “first” that is often repeated. But for iter8, who is celebrating 10^th anniversary results, this represents an important milestone, whereby the implementation teams at iter8 successfully managed multiple go-lives with multiple distinct products.