On-time and under-budget delivery of 27 A&H coverages within four LOBs in less than 11 months and great leaps in operational efficiency win accolades

Are you a benefits insurer planning to move down market? How will you win in the small case, small business market? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself and a checklist of 7 capabilities that you will very likely find you need.

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On February 2, Groundhog Day, something different happened at the annual LIMRA Enrollment Technology Strategy Seminar (ETSS). For the last three years, EIS Group has sponsored ETSS and each year, the latest approaches and challenges to benefits enrollment are discussed. But just as the venerable Punxsutawney Phil himself is prone to do, each year the attendees see their long shadows – of legacy technology constraints – and withdraw to comfortable, insulated dens rather than embrace an early spring of much-needed change. Not this year. For the first time, the conference coalesced around the root cause of enrollment problems: connectivity.

You got the email. “We need to improve our customer experience. Our conversion and retention numbers are down. What can you do?”  In fact, you got several emails and briefings from marketing and line-of-business leaders, and you were copied on a complaint from a key producer citing frustrated policyholders. You know what it will take, but how do you explain in a simple and concise way to peers that it will entail a whole new level of integration between your sales, marketing, and core systems?

Like the lives of so many celebrities and reality show families, whose relationships and daily interactions are splashed across our screens, insurers’ views of their customers present the same frustrating dilemma: sometimes they want to reach into the customers’ world and try to help influence decisions. But just like on TV, it seems today’s insurers can look, but aren’t actually touching their customers. True customer engagement continues to evade even the savviest of carriers. 

It has been a perennial topic. Much has been said and copious ink spilt on the suite vs best-of-breed core system debate. Adding to it, I recently participated in a webinar hosted by Insurance Networking News entitled “Have Suites Won the Policy Admin War?” It reviewed the pros and cons of implementing full suite core systems vs integrating various best-of-breed solutions. But this time I found it hard to repress the thought: “Why are we still talking about this? The war is indeed over. “

Where do you get a game plan for a game you have never played?     

The St. Louis Cardinals recently got themselves into a scalding pot of legal and ethical hot water for their alleged hack of the Houston Astros database. Baseball pundits speculate that the Cardinals knew exactly what they were looking for, where to find it and the competitive advantage it held for their game plan. 

This isn’t the case for many insurers as they undertake core insurance systems replacements, often for the first time in their careers.