By Stan Sauerwein
Compu-Quote's rating and business rules engine isn't quite ubiquitous in the industry yet, but the firm is clearly working on it.
The engine now serves duty from web sites to backroom company systems, from call centres to actuarial divisions and government. Soon brokers will hear about a new application for the industry-leading quotes and rating service. Depending on your point of view, the news could be the most exciting initiative employing Compu-Quote's regularly updated information in a long time.
One of Compu-Quote's customers will soon be using the web and underwriting engines to launch a consumer direct web application. The application will allow consumers to quote and issue - online.
"It's a very exciting opportunity," says James Nickelo, senior vice-president of sales and business development. "We see this (as being) akin to the bank service a number of years ago when they introduced internet banking. Not all, but many Canadian consumers are now comfortable in this environment and are interested in purchasing financial services through the web. We believe that it is time for insurance to be sold in this manner and we are delivering these solutions."
"We believe this is very positive for both broker and insurers alike because you can bet the direct writers are entertaining this as we speak."
"A decade ago, call centres were the direct writers' weapon du jour, and we heard many brokers complaining doom and gloom over the advent of this methodology (but today) our services are integral to a number of very successful broker call centres," he says.
Nickelo says the application went live on the Internet late in August.
"Our job is to help brokers get to the technologies that are going to deliver value and allow them to have those tools and techniques as part of their competitive arsenal," says Brian Schwab, executive vice-president. Allowing consumers to quote and issue online is one more option, in his opinion. It has been estimated that over 71% of Canadian homes are Internet enabled and that nearly one-third of Canadians would purchase home or auto insurance online if insurance web sites offered features such as online quotes.
Compu-Quote now has in excess of 25,000 users across the country quoting more than 1,000 different rate files for more than 100 different companies including direct writers and custom carriers. "We have 100 dedicated employees supporting these efforts with a turn around rate of less than five days on rate changes from modifying underwriting and rating files through extensive quality control processes and final delivery through online updates," says Dave Dyer, senior vice-president of operations.
The firm has seen clear evidence that brokers are turning to online resources to meet the growing demand from consumers to shop on the web. The firm's ezLeads service, Nickelo says, "has had an extraordinary year with an incredible increase in broker take up now exceeding well over 100 installs."
Besides the consumer trend, he feels the growth for ezLeads is also the result of softening markets in a number of jurisdictions. "ezLeads is generating tens of thousands of quotes each month for our clients."
Providing readily available online quoting to consumers, without the first step of speaking to a broker, has a definite upside for agency productivity, he thinks.
"Our clients see ezLeads as an advantage in two primary ways: One, as a prospecting tool that makes brochureware sites come alive with the advantages equal to or better than that offered by direct writers. Secondly, they see it as a means of reducing 'tire kickers' and therefore saving CSR time dealing with customers and truly interested prospects."
Nickelo adds that built in functionality, such as filter controls, allows the brokerage to set the type and amount of business they are handling through the web. "The added bonus of this tool is that its financial benefit can be empirically tracked."
Compu-Quote says ezLeads was designed with broker workflow in mind. As consumers request quotes and leave follow-up requests, the data set on the client - including all underwriting information collected - is emailed to the broker's office and integrated directly into Compu-Quote's AutoRater or PropertyRater services. The system then advices the broker that he has quote mail.
"The CSR simply goes into our service and is presented with the prospects along with all of their underwriting data. This allows them to call the customer following the same process they are used to following. The big advantage is that they are following up with interested parties, so the close rates are typically much higher. The added advantage is that the broker performs significantly less data entry as the consumer has already entered the quote information."
Nickelo says sales prove the advantages are real. Compu-Quote has been seeing substantial increase in broker take up of its mainstream products with record sales in each of the past three years. "We continue to integrate more and more company specific underwriting and business rules," he states.
"As we continue to build stronger relationships with insurers and trust in the quality of our underwriting systems grows, the greater the opportunity we have to reduce work effort and cost for the brokers. We are finally being recognized by the insurers for the value we are able to deliver at the point of sale," adds Schwab.
In addition to auto and property services, Compu-Quote offers a FarmRater service in all four western provinces as well as delivering other value-added services such as travel insurance to brokers. "This helps deliver additional revenue streams and increase customer retention," for brokers, he adds.
LINCQ, another Compu-Quote product, has grown into a specialized offering unique to specific insurers like AVIVA, Lloyd's, Dominion and Lombard. LINCQ is full feature point of sale, point of service software. Besides handling policy issuance, endorsement, cancellations and renewals, "we have seen a tremendous growth in insurers who are taking advantage of a number of LINCQ components including the enhanced underwriting and electronic data interchange (EDI) function," Dyer says.
"Some of the largest companies in the country and others have incorporated various LINCQ components within our rating services to assist brokers in making the quoting process and ultimately issuance as simple as possible. Our products and services are compatible with the majority of brokerage operations and broker management systems (BMS). I can't remember the last time we were not compatible with a broker's technology."
Nickelo says the introduction of the grid in Alberta has not altered the value proposition for another Compu-Quote product, OmniRater, as the grid function is performed in the AutoRater service when the prospect has moved to request follow-up.
"Outside some additional carrier access, the real advantage of OmniRater is in allowing brokers an opportunity to experience the web environment versus desktop applications and determining what environment is most applicable to their workflow.
"There has been some take up on this product, but quite frankly the vast majority of technology infrastructure in the broker community does not lend itself to process applications operating in the web environment," Nickelo says. "Most BMS applications are desktop based and for a very good reason. For business processes, the web does not really offer brokers much advantage today. It will eventually come, but at this time the mix of environments creates some definite shortfalls. For some brokers the web is of interest, but similar to the Association of Shareware Professions models in the market, it appeals only to a select group."
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