According to FirstBest Systems, faster turnaround and easy, efficient collaboration with agents is most important to insurers in regards to their underwriting operations. This is what was found when FirstBest and CGI, an IT and business service firm, surveyed 45 insurance professionals with IT responsibilities, representing large and mid-size carriers in the United States.

When asked to rank the aspects of the underwriting process that can be most influenced by technology, based on your company’s priorities, insurers cited the following:

1. Improving collaboration and ease of doing business with agents – 36%
2. Consistent application of underwriting guidelines and discipline – 28%
3. Improving underwriting productivity and quality – 18%
4. Efficiency of underwriting process and work flow – 13%
5. Integration of third-party web services – 7%

When asked to rank the ways that improving underwriting operations can most benefit your company in boosting underwriting and collaboration, insurers cited the top benefits as:

1. Faster processing and turnaround time – 31%
2. Improve service levels with agents – 27%
3. Market growth – 24%
4. Increase book of business  – 14%
5. Leverage senior underwriter knowledge – 4%

“FirstBest surveyed a highly qualified group of insurers, most of whom represent the leading carriers in their markets, and asked the group to name a few additional areas where their ‘IT operations’ planned to improve in 2010 and 2011,” says Meira Primes, VP of marketing, FirstBest. “Not surprisingly, the most common responses were consolidating or integrating (legacy) systems, improving remote quoting for agents and speeding time to market.

Efficiency—of everything from business processes to overall system speed—was a prevalent theme as well.

Antiquated or disparate systems continue to challenge and occupy mid-size and large carriers, however many are planning to leverage new, flexible technologies to improve processes, agent relationships and profitability.

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