January 2023
In Canada, the Property & Casualty (P&C) insurance industry lags other industries on connectivity within the broker channel. As a result, brokers struggle with process friction and duplication of effort (double entry), resulting in unnecessary expense and a less than ideal client experience.
Brokers use their own systems to manage their clients and carriers use theirs. Initial data entry is done by the broker into their BMS and then re-keyed (by the broker) into the carrier portal.
This approach requires double entry by the broker and introduces delays and data quality issues, which in turn require manual intervention and negatively impacts the end client experience.
While most other industries have made great headway in real-time data sharing and transmission along the steps in the value chain, real-time data connectivity remains in its infancy in the P&C industry.
However, there is progress being made. Deltek has recently introduced some exciting new features, including:
- SMS Integration
- Upgraded the SMS module to facilitate first contact with the client to ask quick questions or to schedule a meeting
- Added the ability to send a link to the client to receive payment
- Enhanced Primaco integration
- The new Primaco integration allows the broker to preview finance plan options with the client on the phone and approve them
- Brokers now automatically receive payments in the Deltek BMS
- Brokers can update the Primaco financing plan through their Deltek BMS
- Payments without client contact
- A broker can create an invoice for their client and send it in PDF with a link for the client to pay by email or send the link directly by SMS
- Create & send a fees invoice for prospects using the same process as existing clients
- Upgraded Web Client Portal
- The client can complete custom questionnaires that automatically create an activity for the broker in the Deltek BMS
- The client portal automatically updates client eDocs for access by the client as soon as they have been received in the Deltek BMS
Real-time connectivity will not arrive in the broker channel all at once – the progress will be incremental. We encourage brokers to discover the enhancements that their vendor partners have already implemented and to make use of them. We also encourage
carriers and vendors to continue to make investments in real-time connectivity. Given that there are benefits to customers, brokers, and carriers, it only makes sense to push this as hard and fast as possible.
