Date: 14-Sep-2022
A carrier client needed to provide better user experiences for advisors selling its annuity products, while also reducing costs for maintaining those products. The company had to improve the user experience to make its products more attractive to sell.
The carrier engaged Ebix Consulting to audit the way it represented annuity products and the sales process, as well as to identify opportunities to improve the user experience.
The client used two different platforms to maintain its products: Affirm and AN4. Ebix Consulting kicked off the process by designing and conducting a comprehensive annuity order entry (AOE) audit using its proprietary framework that covers nine key areas, spanning product profiles to platform functionality.
The consultants audited each key area from four viewpoints, resulting in a multi-dimensional analysis:
Advisor experience from an end user’s view. The consultants evaluated the rep's experience in each key area. Part of the experience included ensuring that, on each order, there wasn't superfluous information for reps to enter that they didn’t need for that order.
Data availability and harmonization. This audit ensured that all of the forms were in good order. The consultants defined “good order” in two ways: 1) Every form on the platform had data to fill it and 2) The form was used properly by the rep.
Change management process and standard operating procedures. The consultants audited each of the key areas for process consistency.
Platform maintenance. The consultants audited the platform to ensure that updates to products, forms and questions could be implemented without affecting existing configurations.
The primary purpose of these audits' viewpoints was to uncover opportunities to streamline data usage and processes for a more efficient rep experience.
Three different consultants pursued audit tracks according to their expertise, generating significant amounts of data. That information was pulled together into a coherent document that presented findings, recommendations, and the positive impact if each recommendation was implemented. The results were provided to the the client in an easy to understand, color-coded matrix graph.
Ebix Consulting assembled experts to analyze the data and accurately summarize the audit findings. The consultants were able to create a concise executive summary without losing any of the nuances of the raw data.
The client received the report very well and gained a lot of clarity, for both senior management and operations-level stakeholders. The Recommendations Matrix delivered value to the project teams, who were able to prioritize and implement changes according to the biggest business benefits.
The result of the audit and implemented recommendations was a resounding success.
After recommendations were implemented, the transaction process became smoother and faster, easing the rep experience. The client successfully streamlined its workflows and standardized its processes.
A smoother process lowered the risk of incorrectly representing products or making them unavailable for sale, which further improved the rep experience. Ebix Consulting’s recommendations also increased efficiency, producing faster time to market and reducing time spent finding and correcting mistakes — therefore lowering costs.
The overall result of all of these changes is that the client can now confidently build better, stronger relationships with its reps because of its ability to launch products faster and more reliably.
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