November 2, 2022
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Columbia Insurance Case Study
CASE STUDY
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Columbia Insurance Case Study

Columbia Insurance Group Partners with Convr to Advance Digital Capabilities and Reduce Friction for Agents and Underwriters

Learn how Columbia:

  • Enabled straight-through processing for SMB policies
  • Saved underwriters more than 2500 hours in reviewing submissions
  • Advanced its vision of becoming more technologically driven

At first glance, Columbia Insurance Group seems like a pretty typical mutual company. Started in 1874 in Columbia, Missouri, the mutual operates in 14 states and its independent agency channel runs through four branch offices. It’s seen times of tremendous change, both prosperous and disruptive, and through it all has built enduring customer relationships by focusing on service and value.

You don’t survive for 140-plus years without doing things right—but to continue to thrive, Columbia recognized it needed to invest in digital capabilities.

“I’m sorry, we do not have time to quote.”

For Scott Mackey, Chief Underwriting Officer at Columbia, that statement is burned into his memory. A piece of business came in that looked extremely profitable. The problem? His underwriting team didn’t have the time to investigate.

“Our team just didn’t have the capacity. And that’s a cardinal sin. We showed that insured to the door on something that could have been really good, for them and for us.”

Manual underwriting processes didn’t just limit how much business Columbia could quote. Inefficient processes resulted in slow quotes, which made it hard for agents to do business with the carrier. Manual processes also made it challenging for underwriters to focus on high-value business and cultivate customer relationships.

Columbia also found it hard to achieve underwriting consistency. Quotes could vary in quality and accuracy depending on which underwriter looked at it—and how well rested he or she was that day. At a portfolio level, this wasn’t optimal for a strong book of business. And it didn’t make it easy for Columbia to scale its commercial business.

Meanwhile, agents, underwriters and insureds were ramping up their expectations for frictionless, quick experiences. Agents wanted an easier way to quote that didn’t involve answering endless questions. Underwriters wanted greater capacity, fewer lost opportunities and better information to make more informed decisions. And insureds wanted quotes faster—the longer they waited, the more they were likely to shop around.

Wanted: Digital transformation—without losing the human touch

Scott and his leadership team recognized that investing in digital transformation would help them become more agile, adaptable and responsive. They wanted better, more accurate information that would allow them to improve service and speed up turnaround times. They recognized that if they could develop the capabilities for straight-through processing, they could free up underwriting capacity—and that would mean being able to process more quotes without adding headcount, while simultaneously providing underwriters with more time to build relationships with agents and insureds.

But historically, Columbia hasn’t been a tech-driven operation. “Our emphasis is on relationships,” says Scott. “We wanted to modernize our technology without losing the human quality of our relationships.” He and his leadership team needed to identify the right technology to address their challenges—and importantly, they needed a clear vision that would help them drive change throughout the organization.

Offered: AI-driven decision science—and a strategic partnership

Initially, Columbia contacted Convr in search of a technology solution that could enable automation and straight-through processing. But it didn’t take long for them to realize that Convr isn’t a typical technology provider. It’s a strategic partner.

The Convr team listened to what Columbia wanted—and needed. Together, they identified the solutions that would be able to address Columbia’s challenges of productivity, efficiency, and agent and underwriter expectations. Importantly, Convr helped Columbia define a shared vision of what underwriting excellence could look like—a shared vision that could enable Columbia to inspire and lead people toward a more technology-driven future.

Columbia integrated two Convr solutions: d3 AnswersTM and d3 Risk 360TM.

d3 Answers makes it easier for agents to place business with Columbia

Challenge

Agents and insureds bear the brunt of having to answer many complex underwriting questions. It doesn’t create a great experience—and agents, meaning to make things easier for the insured, may skip questions or inadvertently enter incorrect data, neither of which contribute to underwriting excellence.

Solution

d3 Answers applies decision science to help Columbia answer complex underwriting questions, drastically reducing friction for agents to obtain a quote. Data validation means cleaner, higher-quality submissions for more effective underwriting—and, importantly, it enables Columbia to provide straight-through processing for select classes of business.

Results

Prior to launching d3 Answers in July 2020, Columbia didn’t have any straight-through processing (STP) capabilities. By the end of September 2020, 28% of their SMB policies were issued via STP. And d3 Answers is such an integral part of the Columbia submission toolkit that it’s demoed to prospective agents.

“Agents look to us to improve the efficiency of the entire quote-bind-issue process. By pre-filling underwriting risk characters, it’s far easier for agents to identify risk and reduce errors. This is a fundamental shift in the ease of use and agent experience that makes Columbia the path of least resistance for placing business.” – Scott Mackey

d3 Risk 360 supercharges underwriters to make more informed decisions and focus on stronger relationships

Challenge

Columbia’s inefficient processes meant that underwriters spent a lot of time on manual tasks. That made it hard for them to identify and focus on the best risks or invest in customer relationships.

Solution

d3 Risk 360 provides a holistic view of risk in one place, which makes it easier for underwriters to make informed underwriting decisions. It also provides enriched customer data for more robust analytics. In short: better underwriting consistency, better risk selection and a stronger book of business.

Results

Since launching in Month 2020, d3 Risk 360 continues to supercharge Columbia’s underwriting team with improved productivity and effectiveness:

  • More than 85% of target users are using d3 Answers
  • Underwriters have reviewed more than 7000 applications using d3 Answers
  • Underwriters save 20 minutes per submission—a total of more than 2500 hours in the past year
  • Company searches get a hit rate of more than 88%, which is 5% better than what a leading data and business credit bureau offered.
“d3 Risk 360 isn’t an additional tool for underwriters. It is THE tool for the underwriting workbench.” – Scott Mackey

Implementation? No problem.

  • Reliability. 100% system availability and zero unplanned downtime.
  • Effective training for an easy-to-use product. Halved the number of help desk tickets between months 1 and 2—and since July 2020, zero help desk tickets have been logged.
  • Responsive customer service. Product enhancements configured for Columbia’s needs, including UI and data set improvements, and detailed release notes to support change management.

Underwriting excellence powered by decision science

Using Convr’s AI-driven decision science solutions, Columbia has transformed its underwriting processes. The carrier can now respond to quotes faster and offer a better agent and insured experience that mitigates lost business due to customers shopping around. Its underwriters can make more informed decisions about risk, which means improved profitability and fewer claims losses.

Key point: this is much more than just automation. This is AI as augmentation—supporting people to work with tools that help them be more effective, make their day-to-day work more meaningful, and contribute to one of Columbia’s core values: to create enduring customer relationships.

The strategic partnership with Convr has enabled Columbia to advance its vision of becoming more technologically driven. It’s a partnership and an investment that will help Columbia develop underwriting excellence and reduce friction—and achieve a competitive advantage.

From skeptic to convert

“All I knew about AI was what I read in the headlines and that was a bit ominous. So I did what any good underwriter would do: I did some research.” Scott’s not alone in his skepticism about AI and what it could do for Columbia. How would it fit with the carrier’s focus on the human touch? Could it really help Columbia be more responsive, efficient and profitable?

In a word: yes.

Columbia now sees how AI-driven decision science can take underwriting to the next level. “Convr’s commitment to continually enhancing the platform is really inspiring. We want to continue to evolve with the platform and continue automating and augmenting as much as possible,” says Scott.

The future of underwriting with AI

These days, things change fast. During the pandemic, we’ve seen companies pivot on a dime, with restaurants shifting to takeout, apparel companies selling face masks, auto makers producing ventilators. That kind of agility is both inspiring and necessary in a fast-moving world—and also indicative of the constant, shifting risk exposures that commercial P&C carriers must be aware of.

Effective risk management means keeping up with these detailed changes. But done manually, it’s labor-intensive and difficult to scale. It’s messy.

And messy is bad for business.

That’s where AI comes in. Convr helps carriers streamline every step of the underwriting process with d3 Underwriting, a suite of AI products that take the friction out of the underwriting process:

  • d3 IntakeTM automatically digitizes and analyzes insurance submissions, virtually eliminating manual data entry
  • d3 Risk 360 provides a holistic view of risk in one place, enabling underwriters to make more informed decisions
  • d3 Answers applies decision science to answer complex underwriting questions, improving the agent experience and enabling straight-through processing
  • d3 Risk ScoreTM automatically optimizes and prioritizes risks for evaluation, configured to each carrier’s unique risk appetite

Products work individually and as a suite, and they’re all available via the Convr Underwriting Workbench—an intuitive, easy-to-use online portal—or API.

Our vision is to empower commercial insurers to underwrite with as little friction as possible—so that you can make better decisions, attract and develop talent, and scale your book of business.

case studies

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More articles on AI, underwriting and the future of commercial P&C.

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MSIG USA Underwriting Modernization

Summary

MSIG USA modernized their underwriting ecosystem to address fragmented legacy processes, enabling the insurer to scale specialty product offerings and improve risk evaluation through data integration and AI-driven automation. 

The insurer implemented Convr, an AI-enabled underwriting workbench, to systematize and streamline underwriting intake, clearance, and risk assessment workflows. This transformation reduced submission processing time to one hour, supported additional submission volume without increasing headcount, and enabled increases in revenue while fostering a more consistent, data-driven underwriting culture. 

MSIG USA's initiative illustrates what’s become a significant trend over the past several years, as insurers seeking to improve their underwriting processes and outcomes have shown increasing interest in modern underwriting workbench platforms. They have demonstrated how AI and automation can be leveraged not merely to digitize workflows but to fundamentally enhance underwriting quality, speed, and scalability.

XX MIN READ

Hiscox Case Study

Hiscox Partners with Convr AI to Drive Underwriting Excellence Through Data Accuracy

Serving more than 500,000 small business customers, Hiscox USA delivers insurance policies with a focus on the small business market.

Hiscox USA is part of the Hiscox Group, which has more than 3,000 employees across 14 countries worldwide.

The organization continually embraces new technologies, strategies and processes that best support the business and its customers.

Hiscox USA puts technical excellence at the heart of its strategy, helping to move the business forward and keep it competitive as the landscape changes.

Accurate data is key to that technical excellence.

Jim Cadieux, Head of Product and Portfolio Management at Hiscox, is leading the charge as he ensures that the company is growing efficiently and that all the different areas of the business are working together towards this goal.

Today, one of his primary areas of focus is ensuring that the data Hiscox uses for underwriting is as accurate as possible so that Hiscox can deliver a stellar customer experience while reducing risk.

"At Hiscox, we are constantly shaping an exceptional end-to-end experience for our customers and partners. Accurate data enables us to better understand our customers and help them to achieve their goals as well as our own."

Challenge: Accurate Data Necessary for Technical Excellence

Cadieux and the Hiscox team partnered with Convr AI to gain a better and more accurate understanding of the small businesses they insure.

By understanding more about these businesses, they can make better decisions as they assess risk and loss.

Accurate data is also essential for underwriting, as misleading data can lead to risky business decisions down the line.

The more accurate the data, the more protected the policyholder and insurer.

For small business owners across the United States, there is a pervasive lack of understanding of insurance.

According to the Hiscox Underinsurance Study, 83% of U.S. small business owners do not understand what a General Liability policy covers.

This lack of understanding can lead to policyholders not providing accurate data or updating their insurance when they need to.

In fact, 75% of small business owners in the United States are underinsured.

It is crucial for policyholders to provide accurate and up-to-date data to their insurance provider to ensure their business is fully protected.

If they do not, they could leave their business exposed and be financially and legally liable for any claims.

"We were looking to improve technical excellence when it came to digital underwriting – we wanted to know more about the risks and more efficiently rate policies."

Hiscox partnered with Convr AI to make the process of gaining accurate data more efficient.

Convr’s Risk 360 AI and Answers AI products, along with its promised return rate of 93%, helped Hiscox advance its goal of technical excellence and ensure that the policies they write are based on the best data possible.

Solution: Partnering with Convr AI

Using Convr, Hiscox is able to review tranches of renewals or new policies and understand whether self-reported data is accurate.

Having an accurate picture of individual business functions allows the company to improve rating accuracy, which is critically important when writing and renewing policies.

The Hiscox and Convr teams meet regularly to discuss data, insights and establish new goals and priorities.

Together, they have developed a set of key performance indicators to measure progress and are meeting and exceeding those goals.

Partnering with Convr has allowed Hiscox to gain a more detailed picture of the small businesses they insure.

Leveraging Risk 360 AI and Answers AI

Hiscox USA leverages two modules within Convr’s Underwriting Workbench:

  • Risk 360 AI
  • Answers AI

Risk 360 AI unleashes detailed insights from the intersection of tens of thousands of data elements.

Answers AI provides access to available information about an applicant’s business while answering underwriting questions directly through insurance-trained AI models.

"Those data sources are just going to get better and better over time."

Creating a Better Customer Experience

Hiscox strives to create a frictionless path for customers while simultaneously improving underwriting accuracy.

Rather than requiring customers to provide increasing amounts of information, Convr helps move more of the intelligence gathering process behind the scenes.

This enables a more efficient customer journey while helping underwriters make better decisions.

"Hiscox strives to be America’s leading small business insurer. To do that, we need to have a frictionless path for customers to find us and for us to address their needs. Convr plays a role in that as we’re able to do more on the back end rather than putting it all on the customer."

The Impact of Accurate Data

For Hiscox, underwriting excellence begins with data accuracy.

Better data enables better understanding of risk.

Better understanding of risk enables more accurate pricing, improved policy decisions and stronger protection for both policyholders and insurers.

By leveraging Convr’s AI-powered underwriting tools, Hiscox has strengthened its ability to evaluate risk while continuing to improve the customer experience.

The partnership has also established a framework for continuous improvement as new data sources, insights and capabilities become available.

Underwriting Excellence Through Data Accuracy

Technical excellence is not simply about improving operational efficiency.

It is about ensuring that every underwriting decision is supported by the most complete and accurate information available.

Through its partnership with Convr AI, Hiscox has enhanced its ability to understand small businesses, improve rating accuracy and support a customer-first approach to underwriting.

As data quality continues to improve, the value delivered by AI-powered underwriting solutions will continue to grow.

Convr AI Underwriting Workbench

Convr AI delivers a full suite of AI-infused commercial insurance tools that support underwriting analysis and decisions.

Intake AI

Eliminates manual submission paperwork by ingesting, preparing and analyzing submissions for a more effective digital process.

Answers AI

Applies decision science to correctly answer complex underwriting questions.

Risk 360 AI

Provides underwriters a unified view of a submission’s digital footprint to correctly classify and respond to underwriting questions.

Risk Score AI

Applies decision science to risk selection, relativity and lead scoring.

Convr is an AI underwriting and intelligent document processing workbench that drives world-class customer experiences.

It delivers premium growth, insights and efficiency for commercial P&C insurance organizations of all sizes, including many of the top 20 carriers, MGAs, brokers and reinsurers.

Convr is revolutionizing the industry through data, discovery and decisioning intelligence.

XX MIN READ

Crum & Forster Case Study

Crum & Forster Partners with Convr to Digitally Transform Submission Intake and Unleash Human Potential

You don’t get to be 200 years old without doing something right. Crum & Forster is a commercial P&C carrier with a long history of offering innovative solutions to overcome challenges. The company’s Surplus and Specialty Lines (S&S) Division provides bespoke solutions for hard-to-place risks.

As one of the country’s largest Excess and Surplus (E&S) carriers, Crum & Forster works with select wholesale brokers to provide the customized service the company is known for.

"I had a vision to streamline the submission intake process."

In 2021, the S&S Division kicked off a five-year plan to double its top-line underwriting performance. Lauren Dieterich, Senior Vice President, Head of Operations and Digital, Surplus & Specialty, recognized that to achieve that goal, her team needed to streamline a manual, labor-intensive submission intake process.

Specifically, Dieterich envisioned using intelligent document processing (IDP) to automatically pull data elements out of submission materials.

The Challenge

The S&S submission process requires more flexibility than most vendors can offer.

For example, the division deals mostly with wholesale brokers, which are typically not listed in an ACORD 125 form. Their contact information is more often buried in a long email thread featuring multiple parties.

In addition, submissions often include other documents, such as supplemental applications, driver lists or location schedules.

"I was looking for a vendor who could do more than just ACORDs."
"And I wanted a vendor who could grow with us as we could consume and leverage more and more data."

Convr Brings Crum & Forster's Vision to Life

Dieterich found exactly what she was looking for in Convr’s AI-infused commercial underwriting platform. The S&S Division selected Convr’s d3 Intake™ to enable a more efficient process for new business submission intake.

With d3 Intake, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division can:

  • Quote faster
  • Streamline its submission intake process
  • Leverage data for future insights

d3 Intake eliminates most of the data entry required to clear and prepare an underwriting file, which transforms both the underwriting and customer experience.

By using d3 Intake’s IDP capabilities, the S&S Division can automatically ingest and organize information from nearly any structured or unstructured document.

d3 Intake enables the team to collect, analyze and retain the information from the application process. These insights can inform future pricing models, underwriting decisions or claims handling.

The flexibility of Convr’s solutions is essential for Crum & Forster. Convr took time to truly understand what Crum & Forster needed, whether being able to pull specific data points from long email threads, working with a variety of structured and unstructured documents or determining source priority when presented with multiple documents.

"We achieved our vision of a more efficient submission intake process with Convr’s d3 Intake on the front end."

We Saw Results Within Weeks of Turning It On

"We saw results within weeks of turning it on."

Streamline Submission Intake Process

Before d3 Intake, a team of contractors was responsible for clearing submissions, a process that required manual data entry into multiple legacy systems.

First, a submission would have to pass a clearance call, which meant combing through emails and attachments to manually enter data into a legacy system.

Next, if the submission passed clearance, then it was assigned to an underwriter. That meant navigating business rules spread across multiple tabs in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Finally, the account was triaged in a separate Excel sheet with additional required inputs.

After d3 Intake, the S&S Division could automatically ingest submission data from structured and unstructured sources. In turn, that allowed team members to automate business rules.

Finally, those two critical capabilities made it possible for Crum & Forster to develop a new submission intake platform that virtually eliminates manual data entry.

Cut Submission Processing Time by 50%

Before d3 Intake, the inefficient and labor-intensive submission intake process resulted in a one- to two-day backlog for submissions.

After d3 Intake, the S&S Division has cut its submission processing time in half. Typically, it sees same-day turnaround on submissions.

With automatic data ingestion and a new submission intake platform, the clearance team can clear, triage and prepare underwriting files faster than before.

Redeploy Team Members to Higher-Value Roles

Before d3 Intake, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division kept extra capacity on the clearance team to manage the backlog of submissions.

After a file had cleared submission, members of the Operations team would assemble the underwriting file.

After d3 Intake, there was no submissions backlog even at peak activity, and no need for overtime or excess capacity.

Within a month of implementing d3 Intake, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division was able to more strategically allocate its most important resources: its people.

Approximately 40% of the clearance team members moved into file preparation roles. In turn, 20% of the Operations team was redeployed into revenue-generating production and underwriting positions.

"The bulk of the savings came from being able to redeploy part of my Operations team into underwriting roles. Now our human resources are aligned with what’s really going to drive growth, and I could achieve those additional goals with no extra spend."

Digital Technology That Enables True Change

Crum & Forster’s S&S Division knew what it needed: a more efficient submission intake process.

It also knew how to make it happen: by leveraging IDP to automate and streamline how it was ingesting and capturing data.

"Convr provided exactly what I was looking for."

Convr’s IDP capabilities made it possible for the S&S team to automate business rules and, in turn, to develop a proprietary submission intake platform.

That platform has enabled a more streamlined intake process that reduces submission intake time by half.

Building the Foundation for Future Growth

But true digital transformation comes from using technology not just to reduce costs, but to do things differently.

Crum & Forster did just that, by offering advancement opportunities to contractors and redeploying Operations employees into critical and revenue-generating underwriting roles.

"Now we have other questions to answer."
"How do we extend the Convr relationship to use more of the data that d3 Intake can pull out of documents?"

By leveraging Convr’s d3 Intake and its IDP capabilities, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division has the foundation it needs to achieve its goal of doubling its top line within five years.

It has also planted the seeds for the next phase of its growth strategy.

"Convr has been instrumental in enabling our five-year growth plan."

Transform Your Organization Today

  • Grow premiums
  • Avoid losses
  • Improve underwriting efficiency
  • Quote faster
  • Drive accurate pricing
  • Enhance customer experience
  • Augment underwriting productivity

Convr Product Suite

d3 Intake™

Eliminates manual submission paperwork by ingesting, preparing and analyzing submissions for a more effective, digital process.

d3 Risk 360™

Provides underwriters a unified view of a submission’s digital footprint to correctly classify and respond to underwriting questions.

d3 Answers™

Applies decision science to correctly answer complex underwriting questions.

d3 Score™

Applies decision science to risk selection, relativity and lead scoring.

Realize End-to-End Underwriting Excellence with Convr AI

Experience how commercial P&C insurance organizations benefit from submission through quote with a frictionless process enriched by AI decisioning, empowering them to make better decisions, faster.