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Insurance Technology - Vertafore Announces Upcoming Availability of WorkSmart Engage for the Insurance Industry

 By Mandira Srivastava , TMCnet Contributor

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To simplify communication and improve productivity in insurance, Vertafore, a provider of insurance distribution channel solutions has introduced the WorkSmart Engage module, a cloud-based collaboration tool.

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 According to a press release, it helps independent insurance agencies service complex insurance transactions requiring multi-party collaboration. It offers communication and information sharing between agency teams, their clients and their markets. WorkSmart Engage will be available in late 2011.

“WorkSmart Engage allows independent agencies to break down communication silos and replace the point-to-point methods they have traditionally used to manage complex commercial business with an innovative, cloud-based platform that enables real-time communication,” said Sharath Dorbala, senior vice president of product management at Vertafore. “As is evident through the breadth of technology solutions we offer, Vertafore is committed to providing the tools needed to connect the entire insurance distribution channel. WorkSmart Engage is just the latest innovation toward this goal.”

It offers secure workspaces to share and manage policy and client documents in real-time. It offers efficient collaboration, increased team productivity and improved client satisfaction.

So, more on cloud computing. I have to admit this is a fairly new concept to me personally. With just being introduced to this technology concept, it was easy for me to see the big picture of how it could contribute to the industry, but hard for me to come up with any examples as to how it could improve business results. I came across this article, and this seems like a good example that helped me get my head more around the cloud computing concept. 

My company works primarily through the independent agent distribution channel. Although in my current role I do not have any communication with agents, I can see how it might be difficult to interact being that we do not share business applications or anything that would make the business relationship more automated and convenient. With the cloud computing technology discussed in the article, this new platform allows for real-time communication. Policy and client documents can be managed in real time which would be really productive instead of having to wait for either party to manually produce that information at their earliest convenience. It can improve the business relationship being that this platform allows for more collaboration and more client satisfaction. 

Hopefully we adopt some form of this technology. It might be a significant investment, but we need to continue to find ways to strengthen our relationships with agents as they bring in revenues for the company. If technology makes it easier for us to do this, we should take advantage.