Mastering Data Integration for Multi-Channel Insurance Customer Onboarding

Learn how centralized CRM systems and open APIs can solve data integration challenges, making multi-channel insurance customer onboarding seamless and more efficient.

Customer onboarding in insurance involves collecting customer data, verifying documents, activating policies, and entering details into systems. 

This process becomes complex with multiple sales channels like agents, brokers, bancassurance, web aggregators, and direct online sales, each collecting data differently—using paper, digital tools, or a mix.

To ensure smooth onboarding, this data must be standardized to work with the insurer’s systems like the Underwriting System, the Policy Administration System (PAS) and the Document Management System (DMS). Inconsistent data can cause delays, errors, and higher costs, slowing down underwriting and onboarding.

This article explores how a centralized CRM system and open APIs can streamline data integration, ensuring faster, more efficient onboarding.

How Insurance Sales Channels Manage Customer Onboarding

Insurance companies work with various sales channels, each handling customer onboarding differently:

• Insurance Agents: Many agents still use paper application forms. Once filled, they send these physical or scanned forms to the insurer, who must manually enter the data. This adds time and increases the chance of errors, delaying the process.
• Web Aggregators: These online platforms collect customer data digitally. However, the data often needs reformatting to fit the insurer’s systems, requiring extra effort.
• Insurers' Websites: Direct purchases from insurer websites are more streamlined as data collection is digital. Yet, the data may still need adjustments to integrate smoothly into internal systems.
• Bancassurance: Banks and NBFCs who sell insurance products on behalf of insurance companies sell using both digital and manual methods. Smaller lenders in smaller cities often rely on paper-heavy processes, making data integration more complex and time-consuming.

Each channel’s unique approach creates challenges in ensuring smooth and efficient onboarding.

Why Data Standardization Is Crucial for Insurers

During the onboarding process, insurance companies collect customer data through agents, brokers, banks, and online platforms. For smooth operations, this data must be put into a common format that works across the insurer’s systems:

• Policy Administration System (PAS): Manages policy details and other allied info.
• Document Management System (DMS): Stores documents like filled application forms, supporting documents, benefit illustration documents, among other documents.
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Tracks customer interactions and sales leads.
• Underwriting System: Assesses risk for policy terms and pricing.

Different teams rely on this standardized data:

• Underwriting Team: Needs accurate data for proper risk evaluation and pricing.
• Sales Team: Uses clean data to generate quotes, manage leads, and track sales.
• Claims Team: Requires correct data for quick and accurate claim processing.
• Customer Support Team: Relies on accurate, latest data for effective query resolution.

Without standardization, insurers face duplicate records, missing details, and errors, causing delays, claims issues, or legal risks. 

Standardized data ensures smooth operations, fewer errors, and faster onboarding and claims processing.

How Partner-Specific Data Integration Increases Costs and Effort

Establishing data flow and format compatibility with each new sales channel partner adds significant cost, time, and complexity. 

For insurers, each integration often requires customization or configuration to align the data structures from different partners. 

This means adjusting the data format from agents, brokers, and other partners to ensure it can be processed by the insurer’s internal systems like PAS and DMS.

This effort increases the insurer's operational burden, and the need to manually adjust each partner’s data increases the risk of errors. 

Additionally, the legal, regulatory, and technical requirements to handle personal or sensitive data complicate these integrations.

Impact on Channel Go-To-Market Time

The time it takes to align data from new partners with internal systems directly impacts how quickly insurers can roll out new sales channels. 

If the data isn’t standardized and ready to go, the onboarding process will also be delayed. 

This is especially important in fast-moving markets, where being quick to market can make a big difference.

Centralized CRM and Open APIs for Smooth Data Integration

For insurers, open APIs, combined with a centralized CRM, streamline data collection from all sales partners, whether it's agents, banks, or online platforms. 

Also, APIs allow partners to use their own interfaces/platforms for onboarding and send data directly to the insurer in a standardized format.

Once data is submitted, it flows into the insurer’s centralized CRM, where front-office teams can check them for accuracy. From there, the data moves seamlessly into core systems like PAS and DMS for processing, underwriting, and subsequently, policy issuance.

"Efficient data integration is key to streamlining the insurance onboarding process. By using a centralized system and open APIs, insurers can seamlessly connect with multiple sales channels, reduce manual errors, and accelerate policy issuance. This significantly improves operational efficiency and distribution." – Himanshu Gupta, COO, iorta Technology Solutions

Benefits of Using a Centralized CRM and Open APIs

1. Faster Onboarding: Automating data collection with a centralized CRM and open APIs speeds up onboarding. Customer details from agents, brokers, or online platforms flow directly into the insurer’s system, reducing delays and enabling quicker policy activation, improving customer satisfaction.
2. Improved Data Accuracy: Standardized and automated data entry reduces errors like missing or duplicate information. For example, a CRM with validation features ensures accuracy, minimizing mistakes from manual processes and enhancing customer trust.
3. Simplified Compliance: Automated systems help insurers meet regulatory requirements by properly handling and storing sensitive data. This reduces risks of non-compliance and makes audits easier with well-organized and structured data.
4. Better Data Management: A centralized CRM consolidates customer data from all sources, making it easy to access and update. This improves database cleanliness and enables efficient customer support and policy management.
5. Scalable Solution: The system can grow with the insurer, easily integrating new sales channels or partners through open APIs. This scalability ensures smooth operations even as the business expands.
6. Faster Go-to-Market: New sales channels can be integrated quickly, allowing insurers to launch products faster. This agility helps insurers stay competitive and meet customer demands without delays.
7. Cost Savings: Automating data integration with open APIs reduces the expense of manually configuring systems for each new partner. This streamlined process saves time and money while maintaining data quality.

In conclusion, customer onboarding in insurance can be challenging due to different methods used by sales channels.

Using APIs and a centralized CRM, insurers can streamline data flow, standardize formats, reduce errors, and speed up onboarding while ensuring accuracy and compliance. The insurer can also benefit from the CRM’s various customer onboarding features, if it has those.

How We Can Help

At iorta, we understand the challenges insurers face in managing multi-channel customer onboarding data. 

Our flagship CRM platform, Salesdrive, simplifies and automates the sales process with efficient data integration via its kit of open APIs.

With Salesdrive, insurers can connect seamlessly with agents, brokers, banks, and digital platforms, ensuring smooth onboarding, faster policy issuance, and improved customer satisfaction.

Moreover, they can use its other numerous AI-powered sales management features for lead management, application management, among other things.

To learn more about how Salesdrive can optimize your onboarding process, contact us at hello@iorta.in.