November 2020 – This study of young commercial lines agents provides insights on satisfaction levels with the capabilities of their agency management systems (AMS), and the ability to integrate with their insurer partners. AMS provide agents with many capabilities that help them sell insurance, service their customers, and manage their workflows. But they vary widely in which capabilities are offered, how frequently they are used, and how effective or easy to use agents think they are.

Novarica’s study of commercial lines agents from the 400 Under 40 young agents group reveals that some capabilities, such as policyholder information downloads or document management, are table stakes for an effective AMS. Other capabilities, such as performance dashboards or lead management, show different rates of adoption or perceived need by agents. Finally, some capabilities such as uploads to insurers and compliance monitoring do not seem to be offered by AMS platforms, although agents perceive a need for them.