By Jamie Peers, VP of Business Development and Alliances, Synatic
Data drives any business, especially insurance, and having access to the right data at the right time keeps insurance companies competitive. To harness the data needed to manage operations, many insurers are using specialty tools, such as Vertafore’s AMS360, BenefitPoint, PL RiskMatch, Rater, and Sagitta, and other data management resources, such as Customer Relationship Management (CRM), lead management, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. The challenge is to provide access to the same data across all platforms.
Insurance companies rely on data repositories from various sources to manage different aspects of their business. Some of these data sources are in easily readable formats and are easy to load into the system. Other sources aren’t as easy to capture and import for use by different business software applications. For example, ratings engines and comparative raters can’t readily accommodate other data formats, so information often must be re-entered manually, which is time-consuming and prone to errors. To be competitive, businesses need accurate, real-time data.
Like other industries, insurance companies are differentiating themselves by improving customer experience. Providing customer-centric services means insurance brokers need easy access to comprehensive customer profiles, so they implement CRM systems such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Salesforce, and HubSpot. To deliver benefits, CRM platforms should be integrated with other customer data systems. Integrating all customer data is the only way to create a 360-degree view of the customer and their needs.
For Vertafore users, a regular challenge is synchronizing data with CRM systems. Integration must be frictionless, and the processes need to be automated to eliminate errors when syncing. That’s why more Vertafore users are adopting Hybrid Integration Platforms (HIP).
Tackling the Integration Problem
When integrating different data sources to support Vertafore, the most common challenges include:
– Having to capture and transfer data manually
– Integrating different systems while ensuring compliance and making errors easy to fix
– Enabling reporting using real-time data
– Connecting internal third-party systems and coordinating data exchange to simplify integration with systems like Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce
Integration Needs to Be Rapid, Reliable and Repeatable
Brokers using Vertafore solutions need rapid, reliable, and repeatable integrations between systems. To corral customer data and optimize CRM and other applications, they need an approach that is nimble, powerful, and can handle complex and simple integrations. The solution also needs to be able to automatically aggregate data.
To date, most insurance companies have adopted a piecemeal approach, using different tools and strategies to integrate siloed data sources. This approach makes it more complex to integrate data across systems. Companies also have inefficient, legacy systems that lack the performance or flexibility to meet the need and are usually too difficult to overhaul.
Agents and brokers need a HIP to connect Vertafore applications. At the very least, work with a software company with proven connectors for insurance solutions and a flexible platform that makes it easy to build and maintain reliable integrations with customizable Application Programming Interfaces (API).
When shopping for a Vertafore integration solution that will help maximize your data, look for a Hybrid Integration Platform with the following features:
1. A fast and repeatable approach. Using a standardized method also ensures that integration is proven, reliable, and not subject to manual errors.
2. Customizable APIs to accommodate different platforms and data formats.
3. Automation to make data transfer and synchronization easy, consistent, and accurate.
4. A cloud-based solution that simplifies integration with existing systems and offers scalability and reliability.
5. A vendor-support solution with technical support, so you aren’t relying on custom code.
To illustrate how insurers can benefit from a Hybrid Integration Platform, let’s consider some use cases from actual Vertafore customers.
Vertafore Integration in Action
A common problem is exchanging data with CRM platforms. One independent insurance broker and risk management firm needed to build a two-way integration between Vertafore’s AMS360 Agency Management System and Salesforce. Using a cloud-based integration platform to create a client shell profile, the broker could ingest customer data from Salesforce, such as name, producer, address, and other information. Now they had a unified client record in AMS360, which made it easier to support clients and add customer value.
The same broker also created a connection that allowed a HIP to connect to the internal database of Vertafore’s BenefitPoint. This process eliminated the need to continually export data for reports and allowed the customer to report on a single view of customer data at speed.
Another insurance and risk management firm needed to integrate Vertafore’s Sagitta with Salesforce and turn Sagitta data into BI reporting. Sagitta uses complex data constructs in a Rocket UniVerse database, which makes clean data extraction challenging. Rather than writing custom code, this firm could use open database connectivity (ODBC) connector to extract and manipulate the data and port it into Salesforce for greater data accuracy and insights. The data was, in turn, stored in a warehouse to simplify reporting dramatically.
For agents and brokers to better serve their customers and make better-informed business decisions, they need to be able to combine data from fragmented resources into applications that promote better Business Intelligence. Finding the right Hybrid Integration Platform makes it easier to consolidate data from different sources, automates the process of capturing forms, and eliminates the need for manual data input. Frictionless data integration and exchange is what today’s insurance industry needs to stay ahead in an increasingly competitive insurance environment.
About the Author
Jamie Peers is vice president of business development and alliances for Synatic. Synatic is a powerful Hybrid Integration Platform (HIP) that allows for various forms of data to be extracted, manipulated, stored, and moved to a destination. With Synatic, solving complex data challenges is as simple as dragging and dropping connectors and steps into your workflow, removing the need for extensive programming knowledge or the need for additional plug-ins; this eliminates the need to create workarounds for the complex data requirements you may have.
