Accuracy, underwriting quality and increased responsiveness are the highest priorities for commercial P&C carriers looking to grow and differentiate their companies, according to a survey of 64 executives, product managers and marketing professionals with business management responsibilities.
The survey, conducted by FirstBest Systems Inc., covered top organizational goals for commercial lines insurers, addressed insurance front-office questions and more, the company said.
“Carriers tell us that in order to profitably grow their business they need both speed and quality in underwriting,” said John Belizaire, co-founder and CEO, FirstBest Systems. “This survey showed many are held back by inflexible legacy systems that limit access to data and analytical tools. That’s why many are deploying modern, configurable underwriting systems that enable faster responses, ready access to data, and better decisions while responding rapidly to market changes.”
Respondents said their top strategies to achieve growth include:
• Make more accurate decisions; optimize underwriting quality (64 percent)
• Increase responsiveness and speed application process (61 percent)
• Make it easier for agents and brokers to work with us (47 percent)
The most common underwriting priorities related to the areas of improving loss ratio, quality and revenue growth:
• Increase efficiency and turnaround (55 percent)
• Improve loss ratio with greater quality (53 percent)
• Grow revenue with new and existing agents (42 percent)
The most common challenges preventing them from being more nimble in the marketplace include:
• Time and expense required to update inflexible systems (52 percent)
• The need to balance consistency with flexibility (38 percent)
• Lack of data access and analysis tools (36 percent)
• Organizational inertia and resistance to change (25 percent)
FirstBest Systems Inc., provider of collaborative underwriting systems for global insurance carriers, surveyed 64 people, representing 40 commercial P&C carriers. The survey was conducted at the NAMIC Commercial Lines Conference in March.
