Workflows in the insurance industry have always been complex and time-consuming. Even with the wide adoption of modern insurance technology, many tasks take too much time—valuable time that could be spent on growth drivers like marketing, underwriting, quoting, and business management.
Many wholesalers, managing general agents (MGAs), and carriers who have decided to integrate insurance automation software into existing systems agree that rekeying duplicate data is a hefty manual process.
Whether transferring data from one system to another or extracting information from a PDF, word document, or Excel file, the core issue of having to rekey duplicate data—often over and over—continues to be an issue. When implementing new insurance technology, the problem of duplicate data entry arises for several reasons:
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Roadblock #1: Much of the document processing in the insurance industry includes a mix of structured and unstructured data that must be brought over into the new system. Structured data, from a CRM system for example, typically follows a predefined format, while unstructured data is often stored in documents or emails and is more diverse and complex. Regardless of the data type, moving over vital information typically involves the manual process of rekeying duplicate information into the new system.
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Roadblock #2: The other challenge involves the quality of data being moved. Insurers transitioning data to a modern platform often have to decide what to do with outdated and inaccurate records. When this happens, companies must manually rekey relevant data into the new system to help eliminate inaccuracies prevalent in legacy models.
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Roadblock #3: Lastly, there is the process of integrating data, vital regulatory information, underwriting guidelines, and sources across multiple systems. Data that isn’t transferred across multiple operating platforms must be manually keyed and rekeyed into multiple systems–again and again.
Eliminating duplicate data entry
Now, for the solution. By leveraging an effective automation platform, wholesalers, MGAs, and carriers can alleviate the challenges associated with adopting new technology and minimize the repetition of data entry tasks by:
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Pulling structured data via integrations and Excel file extractions. With advances in AI technology, there are also many ways to analyze and structure data from flat PDFs and other unstructured sources.
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Creating a unified workflow through fast and flexible integrations. This can prevent users from working out of multiple disjointed systems, while data remains searchable and reportable from a central location.
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Integrating different data sources, such as tax information or wildfire risk scores, is a key aspect of creating a streamlined workflow that prevents the use of multiple disjointed systems.
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Continuously improving through analytics – because automation isn't just about eliminating duplicate data entry; it's also about ongoing improvement. You can gain insights and identify bottlenecks by implementing an insurtech solution equipped with robust analytics capabilities.
When considering an insurance automation platform, it’s important to consider its holistic capabilities. While one aspect of automation may solve key issues, other challenges, such as manual and duplicate data entry, can arise and create additional problems.
Surefyre, a premier insurtech company that provides a cloud-based solution for property and casualty insurance wholesalers, MGAs, and carriers has recently become part of Vertafore’s Orange Partner Program, helping users by automating workflows and eliminating the process of manually rekeying duplicate data across multiple operating systems—for good.
Alex Bautista has spent over a decade building and implementing enterprise SaaS solutions for the life science and insurance industries. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Surefyre, a submission automation platform for Property & Casualty insurers.