Discovering the Perfect Problem - New Technology Streamliners Contracting, Licensing and New Business Workflows

Discovering the Perfect Problem – New Technology Streamliners Contracting, Licensing and New Business Workflows

Geoffry Fey Sales Director.  As Sales Director for Efficient Forms, Geoffry partners with the Efficient Forms team to provide direction on sales initiatives and works actively with carriers, distributors and agencies to provide value through the implementation of two products: Efficient Contraction Solution and Efficient Application Solution. Prior to Efficient Forms, Geoffry was president and founder of Feymous Entertainment Company. Feymous Entertainment was responsible for the booking and promotion of national music tours, including U2 and the Rolling Stones, and sporting events in the Rocky Mountain region. Geoff also played a key role in setting box office records for Time Warner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Geoffry attended the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Geoffry enjoys spending time with his family. He also actively participates in playing and watching sports, camping, and playing poker. Contact Information: E-mail: gfey@efficientforms.com Phone: 303.785.8652 Efficient Forms, LLC (Littleton, Colorado) specializes in business form and data collection automation software. With over 300 customers in the Insurance, Financial Services, Human Resources, Compliance industries, Efficient Forms is experiencing explosive growth with a new approach to data collection, forms completion and process workflow. Efficient Forms Internet-based product suite provides businesses from all industries efficient, cost-effective solutions that quickly automate their data capture and forms workflow processes. For more information, please visit www.efficientforms.com.

by Geoffry D. Fey

It is not uncommon for a technology company to create a solution yet never find an organization or an industry with the right problem. Contrary to this trend, the insurance industry boasts a select group of small, innovative technology companies who have developed horizontal solutions and discovered the perfect problems in the insurance vertical. With little competition, one young technology company has rooted its solution in the workflows associated with contracting and licensing a producer as well as processing new business.

The Problem

The insurance industry faces ancestral forms-related contracting, licensing and new business processes and, consequently, high operational costs and other related roadblocks. By enhancing the scope of electronic forms functionality, an organization can improve their existing forms-related sales initiatives and drastically increase their return on investment (ROI) by decreasing drop-out rates, speeding transaction cycles, reducing operational and integration costs, and addressing legal and regulatory requirements.

The Solution

The scope of electronic forms functionality has been expanded and presented to the insurance industry through a suite of software components. The new technology is designed to address common insurance-related forms roadblocks found in the contracting, licensing and new business workflows.

Changing the Paradigm

An insurance producer can now perform an online interview in which the user is lead through a series of applicable questions, posing only those questions needed and presenting them in a logical sequence. The interview collects all needed information and populates the required forms. Once populated, the forms can then be presented for authorization (eSignature), packaged and securely stored for future reference and workflow purposes.

Selecting the Right Forms

A producer is no longer burdened with having to know which forms to select or which questions on those forms to complete during a business transaction. For example, a producer may represent 20 different insurance carriers--each of which has different form requirements and combinations. In the past, this complexity placed a large burden on the insurance producer and often resulted in new business being submitted with the wrong forms filled in and required forms missing. Now, a user may approach a business transaction that requires several different context specific forms with no prior knowledge of the forms.

Real World eSignature

eSignature in the real world can be complicated. Now, technology is available to handle these real world complexities, and it can support the identification of signature policies and business rules that are associated. Lastly, once a form is signed, it is securely stored for later retrieval.

Bundling and Delivery

One business transaction often requires many forms--some of which may need to be combined into a single PDF document and presented for signature. The new technology provides the insurance carrier and distributor with the ability to decide which forms get bundled together and in what sequence.

Furthermore, the forms produced do not have to be targeted to the same destination. For example, when a producer seeks to represent multiple insurance carriers, the producer must contract with each individual carrier, thus requiring a different carrier specific package of forms. Now, one can craft a single interview that populates all required forms packaged for each carrier. This concept is based on the industry term SEMCI (single entry multiple company interface). The business benefit is one interview resulting in many different customized forms packages for many different end destinations.

Transferring Data to Back-end or Legacy Systems

Another key characteristic of the new technology is its focus on data. The data collected via the interview can be separated from the interview itself, which makes the data available for separate transformation and transmittal (perhaps accompanying the forms produced) to back-end or legacy systems.

The Conclusion

The insurance industry now has the ability to streamline contracting, licensing and new business workflows. The new, powerful and wizard-like approach to gathering, transmitting and authorizing data provides an easy to use, personalized experience for each interview user and enhances insurance carrier, distributor and producer sales initiatives while increasing their ROI.