Innovation is a frequent topic across the insurance industry, but Jennifer Kessel (pictured) believes its value ultimately depends on whether it improves how people work every day.
As chief operating officer at USG Insurance Services, Kessel said the company’s approach to transformation focuses less on adopting new technology trends and more on improving the mechanics of daily brokerage operations. For a national wholesale brokerage representing hundreds of carrier markets, she said, operational speed and expertise remain the core priorities.
Kessel said the company evaluates innovation through a simple test: whether it changes how teams operate in practice.
“The real question for us is always: does it actually change our day-to-day?” Kessel said. Rather than pursuing technology initiatives for their own sake, USG focuses on improving operational workflows that brokers rely on every day. “What we really focus on is practical innovation,” she said. “That means improving the mechanics of our day-to-day, or slightly tweaking the mechanics of our day-to-day to improve on them.”
One area of focus is how submissions move through the organization once they are received from retail agents. Brokers must quickly assess the risk and identify the right
markets, a process where timing can determine whether business is successfully placed.
“Speed in this industry, especially in the wholesale space, is number one in importance – speed and expertise,” Kessel said. Technology, she added, should support those strengths rather than replace them. “We’re really using the technology and the innovations to free up our team so that it allows their expertise to come in.”
Operating nationally means managing underwriting appetites across more than 400 carrier markets. Historically, much of that information has been stored in static formats that can be difficult for brokers to access quickly. “I’ll use the instance of underwriting appetite guides,” Kessel said. “Typically, they’re living in PDFs on someone’s computer. They’re living in OneNote. They’re printed out in binders on a desk.”
USG is working to convert that information into structured data that can be searched through internal systems. “Our process is: how do we take that and make it so that our team spends less time on a task like looking up an underwriting guide or looking up marketing appetite?” she said.
The firm is developing internal market intelligence tools designed to analyze appetite across hundreds of carriers and quickly identify potential markets for a submission.
“What we’re working through is technology that is market intelligence – a market bot, market intelligence that allows them, through innovation, to digest the underwriting appetites for 400-plus markets and, within minutes, find a really good set of a market list,” Kessel said.
Another area of focus is helping brokers review complex submissions more efficiently. Some accounts include hundreds of pages of documentation, from underwriting information to detailed loss histories.
“That’s extracting submission data and surfacing insights that it may have taken them hours to review before,” Kessel said. “Really going through sometimes 300, 400 pages of a submission or loss data.”
By organizing that information within internal systems, brokers can gain a clear understanding of the account more quickly. “Hours of review before may only take 30 minutes now for them to really get a grasp and understanding of the account,” she said.
The goal, she added, is to allow brokers to focus on their core role in the placement process. “We’re allowing them the time to evaluate that risk, build a relationship, and place the business.”
Innovation priorities are shaped by both leadership and employees working within operational systems every day. “I think it’s two-fold,” Kessel said. “We’re constantly talking to our teams.”
The company has embedded a feature within its internal platform that allows employees to submit ideas directly from the screens they are working on. “One of the things that we have within our system is the ability for any team member, no matter their position or level, to submit an idea,” she said.
Suggestions are reviewed by the technology team and senior leadership, and many originate with employees closest to daily workflows. “It isn’t always a producer or a broker,” Kessel said. “It’s an assistant who is sitting there processing day in and day out.”
Unlike many insurance organizations adopting third-party technology platforms, USG has largely built its systems internally over the past two decades. “For us, we do not use outside vendors,” Kessel said. “It is extremely, extremely rare.”
“We have built our systems from the ground up over the last last 20 years,” she said, noting that much of the development work takes place internally. That structure allows the company to tailor systems specifically to brokerage workflows.
Even with custom-built technology, however, adoption remains a key challenge. “It’s not typically the technology that’s the challenge,” Kessel said. “It’s the change management that is the challenge.” To address that, the company introduces improvements gradually rather than through large-scale system changes. “We’re asking them to adopt something small,” she said. “It’s not like we’re introducing a whole new product.”
Instead, incremental updates are introduced within existing workflows so employees can see immediate benefits while maintaining established relationships with carrier partners. “We’re implementing these tiny sound bites that ultimately change the workflows and the processes and their day-to-day, but it’s little by little,” Kessel said.
