Clunky legacy systems and a historic lack of specialised insurance technologies have done very little to improve the manual underwriting processes.
In turn, this has created a common perception that commercial and specialty underwriting is an outdated process. That underwriting hasn’t kept up with technology advancement.
But this isn’t the case. We have seen a rapid rise in the use of technologies within the underwriting function, this is evident with the Underwriting Workbench, which automates processes and increases efficiency.
According to a survey conducted by Accenture in 2021:
Only 46% of underwriters found that their current tech stack had a positive impact on reducing their time spent on non-core tasks.
An underwriting workbench allows underwriters to focus on what they love doing, underwriting!
They provide insurance-focused tools to automate and streamline admin-heavy tasks, speeding up the underwriting process and crucially, giving underwriters back time and the insights required to focus on the best risks. This includes automated risk rule management, collaborative tools for underwriters, and innovative features that improve efficiency and accuracy throughout the underwriting process.
We partnered with InsTech and Sollers Consulting, to create A Beginner’s Guide to Underwriting Workbench, which identifies the following as key features of an underwriting workbench:
Ease of integration
Modern workbenches are created using microservice technology and they are securely hosted on the cloud. It allows teams to use low-code architecture to customise connections to other systems using cloud APIs, eliminating the need to build from scratch.
This ensures that you can integrate the workbench with legacy and new systems, various underwriting products, data sources or external e-trading systems to move data between systems with ease. The result? A cohesive digital ecosystem within the organisation.
Additionally, it is also useful to use integration capabilities to connect claims systems with the underwriting workbench, allowing underwriters to improve policy pricing at the point of renewal.
At Send, we specialise in insurance-focused pre-built connectors, and we offer the core insurance software functions, all in one place. This enables us to easily align to customers’ business requirements and lines of business.
Customisable interface
An Underwriting Workbench provides an integrated user experience with a single dashboard to support all underwriting workflows.
It is highly intuitive and can be customised and adapted to provide a user interface that fits with the underwriter’s needs. Fundamentally, combining low-code and cloud-based environments allow the underwriter to create a personalised view of their activities.
Send’s Underwriting Workbench has been developed with the underwriter in mind. We provide underwriters with a user-friendly interface and conversational workflows that can be customised for more than 40 lines of business.
Improved data ingestion and transformation
An underwriting workbench is accompanied by multiple technology-enabled tools. These capabilities allow submissions data to be easily transferred to the workbench.
If required, the Workbench may apply business rules to this data using robotic process automation bots which can be programmed to complete back-office tasks. This removes administrative data processing tasks such a rekeying data and interrogating scanned images.
Send’s Smart Submission component uses generative AI to extract data, auto-populate submissions and highlight any missing information. It can also configure workflows, duplication and knock-out rules, and the ability to manage submission priorities. Smart Submission provides visibility of submission status to be able to track at individual and team levels and identify bottlenecks. Lastly, it is enriched with submission data to improve the quality of data on your submission.
Enhanced data augmentation
Advanced AI-enabled analytics, business intelligence tools, a pricing solution or portfolio management tools should also feature in a good underwriting workbench.
These tools can be used to augment exposure, claims, demographics and financial data and extract relevant analyses.
These tools can be personalised to suit the underwriters’ needs and can enrich existing underwriting data with other third-party sources.
Send’s platform excels in data connectivity, providing an extensive array of data service connectors such as Dun & Bradstreet, Companies House, CAPIQ, and property-related geo-code and data enrichment services.
Improved oversight
An underwriting workbench provides managerial benefits and creates opportunities for greater oversight. For example, a senior underwriter can easily track their team’s tasks and manage performance using KPIs.
Senior underwriters can assess capacity and allocate submissions based on underwriter’s expertise, some workbenches can even automatically triage submissions. Our submission triage can be set up for teams to self-serve, or for managers to bulk assign incoming submissions as well as providing a view to better manage underwriting performance.
Managers can integrate business intelligence dashboards to produce and review portfolio insights which helps them to understand policyholders’ appetite and to make better risk decisions.
Enhanced compliance
With regulation scrutiny at an all time high, managers are also increasingly finding that they need greater oversight on adherence to regulations.
For Chief Underwriting Officers the underwriting workbench becomes vital as it offers full audit and compliance control. They can use the workbench to produce a full audit trial, integrating external third-party compliance data when necessary. Some workbenches may also provide an automated peer review of audit trials.
Send’s Clearance & Compliance component ensures regulatory compliance without slowing down your underwriting process. It streamlines your due-diligence and enables you to verify compliance throughout the underwriting process. Automation sanctions checks also happen in the background with our APIs getting to work as soon as a risk has been created.
Our Clash Checks component identifies potential clashes and overlaps in risks across your portfolio. This provides underwriters with the ability to easily identify and address any potential duplicate contracts received from different brokers or existing risks.
Fall back in love
Fundamentally, we’re here to help an underwriter fall back in love with underwriting. Our Workbench, which provides insurance-focused tools, automates and streamlines heavy-admin tasks. It makes the underwriting process far more efficient, and enables underwriters to focus on the best risks with more time to spare.
It’s time to kick the stigma around commercial and specialty underwriting being outdated and rise with technology advancement.
To find out more about our Underwriting Workbench, you can book a demo here.