How TANDEM is transforming the group insurance industry?

It’s not every day that you get to create a solution that can save an entire industry – introducing it to the cloud, modernizing it and enabling its professionals to offer greater value. That’s what XRM Vision has achieved with TANDEM, a cloud-based lead-to-cash broker management solution for group insurance.

We are proud to say that TANDEM is the only fully integrated, scalable, cloud-based system dedicated to group insurance brokers in Canada. Heres how this all-in-one lead-to-cash solution transforms this industry:

An obsolete system unsuited to the industry

For many years, group insurance brokers have connected businesses seeking insurance benefits for their employees with the various insurance providers.

Brokers add value by:

• Assessing their clients’ needs
• Obtaining quotes from insurers
• Providing options and recommendations to the business

Largely a paper-based process, it was arduous and inefficient at the best of times. Brokers had been reliant on manual processes, emailing of unwieldy Excel documents or even pen and paper record-keeping. Furthermore, because brokers traditionally don’t maintain or update data related to their clients’ employees, when it came time for policy renewal, the whole process would have to be restarted.

Disruption in the insurance industry

Clearly, brokers needed a better way. But an even more urgent challenge had arisen. Recent legislation allowed insurance companies to sell directly to end users, while at the same time requiring brokers to declare the amount of their commission on each sale. For brokers, this meant that the insurance companies who had once been suppliers had now, in a single stroke, become potential competitors. Their clients suddenly had new insurance purchasing options that would make it attractive to bypass brokers completely and deal directly with an insurance company, thereby saving themselves the broker’s commission.

What did brokers need?

Group insurance brokers knew that to survive in this challenging new environment, they needed:

• a solution that would allow them to maintain relevance
• to justify their commissions
• to offer something their customers couldn’t find on their own

Nothing less than a complete reinvention would do.

The Vigilis and Nexim stories

Vigilis and Nexim were such brokers. These companies approached XRM Vision for a technology solution that could modernize their business, based on our expertise with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and customized CRM solutions. XRM Vision worked with Vigilis and Nexim to develop TANDEM, a fully cloud-based end-to-end CRM solution based on Dynamics 365.

TANDEM: new opportunities for brokers

TANDEM gave Vigilis and Nexim new powers. First, the solution automates day-to-day processes while centralizing documentation and data, reducing duplication of effort and speeding up response times. The solution moved them into a fully automated, modern, cloud-based environment. Also, in the current work-from-home pandemic climate, TANDEM has facilitated seamless, continued workflow access by remote teams.

Even better, TANDEM allows brokers to pick and choose the best prices on specific insurance coverage options from multiple insurance providers, and then offer a combined, customized insurance package to their customers. This was something an individual business would find difficult, time-consuming and, frankly, almost impossible to do on their own.

Towards a redefinition of the broker

Yet TANDEM’s true innovation is that it gives brokers the power to offer far more advanced services; specifically, to become third-party administrators (TPA), actively involved not only in arranging, but in administering and managing their customers’ insurance policies. TANDEM includes three distinct cloud-based portals which allow the broker to:

• Track their customers’ employee information
• See information at a glance
• Automate key administrative functions

This allows brokers to not merely maintain, but to strengthen their customer relationships, offer advice and insight into their customers’ needs, and remain relevant to the group benefits process. With TANDEM, group insurance brokers become trusted advisors and a valuable part of their customers’ insurance picture.

Benefits for brokers

For Vigilis and Nexim, TANDEM has generated time savings of 50% or greater on key functions including quoting, policy creation, invoicing and renewals.

At Alliance Solution Collective, company president Suzanne Fortin credits TANDEM and Dynamics 365 with a 25% gain in efficiency. This allowed the organization to better serve customers with:

• Faster sales and accounting processes
• Accelerated implementation of new policies
• Quicker renewal analysis
• Increased collaboration between employees

"Training time for new employees has shrunk from six months to one month with TANDEM."

— Jean-Simon St-Laurent

Jean-Simon St-Laurent, Alliance Director of Operations, notes that training time for new employees has shrunk from six months to one month with TANDEM.TANDEM also positions brokers for growth. Since the solution automatically maintains detailed profiles on every customer, brokers can better understand their clients’ long-term needs and spot opportunities to sell additional products or services. Additionally, TANDEM is built to scale as the broker’s own business grows. Brokers needed this level of flexibility to respond quickly to customer demands and keep up with a rapidly-changing insurance environment.

TANDEM: a tool for brokers

After a successful implementation with Vigilis and Nexim, XRM Vision realized TANDEM could be offered to other brokers as a way to provide distinct competitive advantage and longevity. As a result, another well-known company in the industry, Alliance Solution Collective, adopted the solution as soon as it went into production.

Would you like to know more about TANDEM? Our experts can answer your questions. Contact us.

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