The impact of Gore Mutual’s new operating model

Gore Mutual has gone live with technology that lets the carrier bind policies for brokers, in minutes in some cases.

The Cambridge, Ont.-based property and casualty insurer “has completely changed the operating model for personal lines,” CEO Andy Taylor said last week in an interview with Canadian Underwriter.

“In our prior model, which was a traditional model, it might be days before we finalized the file and actually returned all the information [to quote and bind a policy]. With the new model we are looking at straight through-processing and direct connectivity to our brokers.”

Gore Mutual announced July 8 its new operating model for Ontario personal lines automobile and individually rated commercial auto insurance. That model uses Amazon Connect technology.

It allows straight-through processing for 90% of personal lines auto, Taylor told Canadian Underwriter July 23.

Gore Mutual is on track to go live with personal property this fall.

The new model lets Gore deliver “fully-bound business in a matter of minutes that used to quite literally take days,” said Taylor.

In some cases Gore Mutual can return quotes in less than 10 seconds, said Taylor.

“Amazon Connect has tons of potential. It will give Gore Mutual a number of capabilities that it did not have previously,” Taylor told Canadian Underwriter earlier.

For its brokers, one of Gore Mutual’s targets is to have the capability to automate 95% or more of renewals in personal lines.

In Cambridge, Gore Mutual’s new national contact centre team is up and running. That team services brokers and their customers for personal lines automobile and individually-rated commercial auto underwriting and billing.

“We have consolidated underwriting, billing and broker teams into one national contact centre,” Gore Mutual said in a release.

Using the new technology, we now have direct connectivity to 100% of broker management systems which is one key change,” Taylor told Canadian Underwriter July 23.

Brokers are telling Gore Mutual that the speed of the technology allows them to compete with direct writers, said Taylor.

“To be fair [some] other carriers are providing a similar experience.”

The carrier has been working with outside advisors to understand customer journeys and broker journeys, and look for points on the journey where we can make it seamless and make it more efficient for the customer and for the broker.

“We are designing our work flows and our technology to support that,” said Taylor.

Feature image via iStock.com/naveebird