Vendors
日本語
search
  2. //
  3. Reports & insights
  4. //
  5. Customer Satisfaction Improves When Vendors Listen to Underwriters

Customer Satisfaction Improves When Vendors Listen to Underwriters

Create a vendor selection project
Click to express your interest in this report
Indication of coverage against your requirements
A subscription is required to activate this feature. Contact us for more info.
Celent have reviewed this profile and believe it to be accurate.
We are waiting for the vendor to publish their solution profile. Contact us or request the RFX.
Projects allow you to export Registered Vendor details and survey responses for analysis outside of Marsh CND. Please refer to the Marsh CND User Guide for detailed instructions.
Download Registered Vendor Survey responses as PDF
Contact vendor directly with specific questions (ie. pricing, capacity, etc)
6 January 2025
Karen Monks

North America Life Insurance Insurers’ Perspectives on New Business and Underwriting Systems

Abstract

Celent’s biennial North America Life Insurance New Business and Underwriting (NBUW) System research includes an online customer feedback survey. Celent received feedback on 11 solutions from 38 respondents.

The results from this year’s survey give us a wealth of insight into what customers use in their vendor-supplied life insurance NBUW system and how they feel about the vendors and their solutions across three mains areas: technology, functionality, and services. This report supplements Celent’s recently published life insurance NBUW report New Business and Underwriting Systems: North America Life Insurance Edition, published in November 2024. It provides insight into customers’ perceptions of the solutions and vendors profiled in this report.

The North American NBUW market is competitive, and vendors need to continuously improve their product and services to survive in this fast-changing environment.

Topic

Insurer Perception

Impact/Room for Improvement

1

Features and Functionality

Underwriting rules for less complex products and refer to underwriting rules are the highest-rated functions on average. The lowest-rated capabilities were related to business intelligence, management reporting, and GenAI tools.

By investing in the development of AI/GenAI tools and improved management reporting, vendors can differentiate themselves in the market and meet the demands of insurers. Celent foresees increases in GenAI underwriting use cases in the near future.

2

Overall Technology

Customers generally express satisfaction with the configurability and scalability of the NBUW products they use, indicating that the systems meet their needs in terms of customization and growth potential. While data model flexibility, upgradeability, and ease of integration ratings are slightly lower, they are not significantly so.

Vendors should prioritize enhancing the flexibility of their data models, allowing client insurers to utilize their underwriting data as a powerful asset in the ways they see fit.

3

Ease of Integration

NBUW generally performs well when integrating with e-applications, document management, and internal applications and databases. They also tend to integrate effectively with illustration systems, imaging systems, and back office policy administration systems.

Vendors should improve the integration of NBUW with billing and commissions systems. By closely integrating these systems with NBUW, vendors can support insurers in their efforts to enhance customer experience and agent satisfaction.

4

Implementation

Vendor partners demonstrated responsiveness and knowledge of the insurer’s business. The overall projects were considered a success, but vendors should improve project management and timeliness.

Vendors and insurers must align their project and time goals early in the selection process to ensure that realistic expectations are set from the beginning of the relationship. Vendors should ensure their project management team is strong and working closely with the insurer to manage time.

5

Service & Support

Satisfaction with vendors’ knowledge of the insurance business tends to increase as the relationship between carriers and vendor lengthens. Feature requests are being addressed in a timely manner.

Two-way communication seems to be missing. Today, vendors seem to respond to requests quickly, but system changes must be communicated promptly, allowing for insurers to react and adjust. Additionally, vendors must be realistic in the road map and deliver on it and not overpromise and underdeliver.

Client Access