The selection of a solution on which the daily work of the team will be based requires a good analysis and drawing plans for further development. Providers of brokerage systems should update the tool based both on the needs resulting from market changes as well as individual customer needs. Brokers are looking for solutions that will delight them with a widely developed menu bar, personalization and ensuring cooperation in development. The Krakow-based brokerage firm Capital Brokers Insurance Group has been using VSoft SA services for four years. We talk to Mateusz Cieślik, President of the Management Board of Capital Brokers, about how the VSoft Insurance Broker solution supports the work of the law firm.
Continuous technological development is one of the most important assumptions in almost all industries and professions. How much is it needed and to what extent does it affect the daily work of a broker?
Mateusz Cieślik, President of the Management Board of Capital Brokers: Indeed, technological development is one of the most important things, regardless of the industry. However, it can be observed that it does not occur uniformly. Some industries show clear technological leaps over a relatively short period of time, and others have very slow, gradual growth. Insurance sector is a good example of an area where technology is developing more slowly, compared even to the banking sector. As insurance brokers, we see many needs related primarily to the automation of inquiries, information exchange, conducting negotiations or the policy conclusion process itself. By using a tool that allows you to automate queries and create consolidated comparisons, we save a lot of time, which translates into a more thorough analysis and drawing appropriate conclusions, which is what an insurance broker should specialize in. Some insurers recognize these needs and propose newer and newer solutions, but it happens relatively slowly. Therefore, it is worth taking advantage of the offer of system suppliers for a given industry. Knowing the needs of Capital Brokers, we started developing appropriate tools together with VSoft SA.
How does capital brokers use modern technologies to build a competitive advantage?
Mateusz Cieślik: In our company, we use a combination of two technological tools – all devices used by employees (mainly computers and telephones) are based on one intuitive environment and VSoft Insurance Broker (VIB). The VIB application, thanks to its dictionaries, templates and processes, allows us to significantly shorten the time of creating new inquiries, while maintaining all due diligence and processes related to the Insurance Distribution Act (IDD). It also allows you to supervise and take over appropriate tasks, which definitely facilitates the delegation of powers. The effect of this is that our law firm has a relatively small number of employees compared to the number of insurance contracts handled, in comparison with the market average (according to information from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF).
Capital brokers has been using the vsoft insurance broker application for nearly 4 years. What process changes took place in the organization and how did the application affect the implementation of brokerage activities?
Mateusz Cieślik: Let me start by saying that the program itself has changed a lot during these 4 years – new functionalities and solutions have been added. All this allowed us to increase efficiency and better systematize our work. Also, the very division of appropriate tasks and processes has become more transparent for all employees, and thus, as I mentioned earlier, we save a lot of time.
Which VIB functionalities do you most appreciate?
Mateusz Cieślik: One could say that we use practically all the functions available in the application, and the most appreciated are those that we are not present in the programs we used earlier, i.e.: the ability to create briefs in which we define all the elements of the inquiry (insurance items, clauses, risks, etc.), automatic sending of inquiries, sales and after-sales processes, creating comparisons, creating a report to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) and task delegation.
How did the functionality of handling broker briefs affect your daily work?
Mateusz Cieślik: First of all, the time of creating briefs has shortened significantly due to the previously defined dictionaries of risks and other objects included in the query. In addition, we can notice greater transparency in the handling of inquiries – briefs can be freely sorted and filtered according to the stage at which they are located. This, in turn, means that it is not necessary to ask individual employees to obtain information about the status of a given case at present. Handling inquiries also has a functionality in the form of archiving correspondence under a given slip. Thanks to this, in the event of a KNF inspection or a change of the operator, we have access to full e-mail correspondence regarding a given case.
Does the use of the application in the process of creating inquiries allow for measurable time savings?
Mateusz Cieślik: As I have emphasized many times – we can notice significant time savings and we hope that after introducing new functionalities, such as automatic exchange of information between the broker and insurance company, these savings will increase even more.
What should we pay attention to when talking to suppliers of brokerage systems?
Mateusz Cieślik: First of all, we should pay attention to the functionalities offered by the software and whether they comply with our requirements. Another thing is the development possibilities of a given software. Before choosing VIB, we analysed competitors’ software. Many of them offered similar functionalities, but already at the stage of talks with suppliers about a greater adjustment of the software to our needs, some limitations and the inability to introduce changes could be noticed. It is equally important to have the service and quick removal of any errors.
To sum up, when choosing the right tool to support the broker’s work, we should be guided not only by the functions it has, but also by the possibilities provided. It is important that the solution is being constantly improved based on the needs of the industry and individual customer needs. The supplier, which is VSoft, fits perfectly into this model of cooperation.
