Brokerages drowning in a sea of paper are clogging the insurance channel, says one recent board appointee to the Centre for Study of Insurance Operations; and the only solution is simplifying how business is transacted through the adoption of electronic standards.
“I’ve been involved in insurance in Canada for 20 years, and one of the biggest frustrations has been our inability to extend the adoption of electronic standards across the marketplace to simplify the ways that business is transacted,” says Andrew Wood, chief information officer at Northbridge Financial Corporation and the newest board member at CSIO. “I’m very, very keen to see the adoption of the standards and the expansion of the eDocs initiative. The ability for us to remove as much of the paper as possible from the channel has got significant benefit. Not only from an operational standpoint, but from a cost benefit as well.”
It didn’t take Wood long to agree to becoming a CSIO board director.
“When I was given the opportunity to participate, I’ve got to be honest, I jumped at it,” he told Insurance Business. “The opportunity to be able to influence and help simplify and remove the friction in the channel between brokers and carriers; it’s been a long time coming.”
Wood is joined by Sean Christie, chief information officer and vice president of information services at Gore Mutual Insurance Company. According to Steve Whitelaw, the CSIO board chairman and vice president of business solutions at Travelers Canada, the addition of Christie and Wood will go a long way to bolstering broker competition in the channel. (continued.)
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“I am delighted to welcome both Sean and Andrew to the CSIO Board,” says Whitelaw. “Their extensive industry knowledge and proven track record of success will provide valuable input as CSIO executes on its strategic priorities to strengthen the competitive position of the broker distribution channel.”
Convincing all brokers to embrace electronic standards won’t be easy, Wood admits, but he feels his background in brokering will help in the sales pitch.
“It is a difficult sell, and I think that a lot of it – and having come from the broker side as well – is very much the reluctance of brokers to change their own individual processes and methods of working,” says Wood. “It is a significant change in management, and I think that the challenge is really oriented around being able to articulate the benefits to them in terms of being able to simplify and automate the way in which they integrate the various partners.”
For the small-town brokerages, the advantages of an electronic system may not be readily apparent – but they are there for the taking.
“I think with some of the smaller agencies where it is very local, very relationship-driven and the principle is not involved in the administrative aspect of it, the extent of the benefit is not fully understood,” says Wood. “I’d be hard-pushed to give you a number on the exact number savings, but absolutely savings can be realized in operational savings and elapsed time in terms of the overall transaction.”
