Home Breadcrumb caret Your Business Breadcrumb caret Tech Tech Report: Is 2018 the Year of the Broker? Canadian insurers have emphasized work on their front-end systems to provide a direct-to-consumer experience. Now that carriers are working on their legacy systems to better integrate with brokers, will a direct broker-to-consumer experience be far behind? May 7, 2018 | Last updated on October 1, 2024 1 min read To remain competitive in the current fast-paced insurance market, carriers have made significant investments to solve some of the key challenges faced by brokers. Largely known as the “age of the customer,” 2017 was the beginning of the largest wave of technological innovation in the insurance industry. Brokers are starting to feel the positive effects of change as they move into 2018. Some carriers, as early adopters, completed their initial customer-centric omnichannel digital transformation. Now their focus is on back-end technologies and processes, where the broker community can gain the greatest benefit. This begs the question: Will 2018 be the Year of the Broker? The focus on innovation has mostly affected carriers, who are looking to take advantage of the direct-to-consumer sales approach. To be effective, brokers, like their agent peers, will need digital solutions to reduce the sales cycle time and increase revenue potential. Successful brokers will need to transition to a digital-first approach, including digital workflows from carriers, thus moving away from the traditional policy of the past. Read the full article in the Digital Edition of the May 2018 Canadian Underwriter. Click here to subscribe to Canadian Underwriter, available free to qualified industry professionals. Save Stroke 1 Print Group 8 Share LI logo