Independent insurance brokers looking to get ahead and stay ahead of the competition– or to at least not get left behind – are racing to fully embrace digital. Whilst this is great news for customers, insurers, and brokers alike, research by Insurance Times suggests the majority of brokers are still not yet making the most of their digital investments.

The goal is not after all to just digitally replicate “business as usual” and make everything slicker, more automated and transparent. Digital adoption is about moving forward, embracing new ways of doing business and opening up new opportunities. And importantly it can enable the creation of a new present and a new future, ensuring that independent brokers can be confident in their ability to continue to deliver today and tomorrow the high-quality service that their reputations have been built on.

Untapped digital potential

According to Insurance Times’ Digital Adoption Report there is huge untapped potential from digital within the independent broking community. Whilst 31% of brokers said they were now offering customers online access to insurance information, only 26% were using digital technologies to accelerate new product and service development, and less than one in five (19%) were using intelligence tools to better understand customers.

One digital capability door that has already been pushed wide open is around remote access – enabling communication both internally with employees and externally with customers, anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Policyholders have the option to self-serve and to manage their own documents and policies, allowing brokers to spend less time dealing with simple, time-consuming tasks like sending documents, and taking bill payments. This also makes their roles more interesting, valuable, and productive, and of course more attractive – a key consideration in the war for talent (27% of brokers cited employee retention as the biggest risk facing their brokerage).

And yet mobile itself is also untapped, with only 11% of brokers surveyed using mobile apps to enable their staff to access and manage customer data on the go rather than at the office or home workstation.

A world of difference

The list of additional functionality available to brokers investing in digital is vast – and it is expanding all the time. There are for example already a host of opportunities for brokers to grasp - including the use of valuable data insights to help guide and inform business decisions, improve the customer experience and the product offerings themselves.

For digitally enabled brokers working with Applied, the future is bright, and change is something that they can feel excited not threatened by. That is because the Epic Broker Management System has been designed from the start with flexibility and the future in mind. Our open API architecture – which enables third party applications to be easily integrated – ensures for example that brokers will be able to continually evolve their businesses and take advantage of new apps and technology as it becomes available. And with the likes of Artificial Intelligence developing rapidly this ability to embrace new functionality could prove to be a real game-changer in the near future.

Unlock your Epic potential and discover how Applied can help you accelerate your digital strategy.