Let a Pro do it
I recently had a 70 foot white oak tree leaning towards my house, and it needed to come down. Now, I’m handy with a chainsaw, but was I going to tackle this……uh, no. I called up a local company that knew how to do this efficiently, and in a way that wouldn’t create an even bigger problem, such as my house split in two! I called a pro.
We all face challenges. I guarantee you’re facing some right now. The insurance industry is running lean these days. For a carrier to continue to effectively run lean, all the while trying to squeeze the most out of your existing platforms, improve customer satisfaction, push new products to market and increase market share, you have to modernize.
You’re probably saying right now, no kidding Nathan, you’re a friggin genius. While I appreciate the gesture, didn’t I mention you’re already lean! So lean you probably don’t have time or resources to efficiently run your own selection. If you have a program or model office with plenty of analysts sitting around just waiting to run a selection, congrats, you’re a 1%er in this area. And even then, they probably won’t have the vendor knowledge to run it effectively or the understanding of upcoming trends and industry changes. And let’s not forget, even with the many steps and potential pitfalls that accompany making a vendor decision, even more can arise post decision. The selection process doesn’t start with a list of vendors, and it certainly doesn’t end with a decision!
The transition to a vendor partner is critical. Oh, and if you look at this as anything other than a partnership, you’re toast. Infusing them into your culture and you into theirs cannot be emphasized enough, don’t sleep on that. And we don’t have enough time to talk about your inherent desire to customize once you do sit down with the vendor, my colleague Stacey touches on that here.
Whether you’re looking to modernize your NB intake, your CS intake, your overall policy administration, your external customer touchpoints, your accounting and planning, it doesn’t matter, the important thing is you don’t mess up the selection. Getting this wrong will kill your momentum, will cost you more in the long run, can even split your house in two! You don’t want that. I’ve been pulled in after the fact too many times. It’s not pretty. Get it right the first time. Hire a pro.
