Canadian life insurance advisors need only go to one location to provide multi-carrier UL illustrations.
Toronto, Ontario September 3, 2003 — Novinsoft, Inc. and CoVirt Inc. (Canada) jointly announced today that they have formed a strategic partnership where the advisors of a Canadian managing general agent (MGA) using CoVirt�s VirtGate back office system can hyperlink straight to multi-carrier Universal Life illustrations for that client.
MGA’s require their own agency administration system to track, manage workflow, and report on the aggregation of all their business. Carriers and other service and software vendors provide innovative tools, but they are disparate and rarely talk to each other. As a result advisors and MGA staff must manually transcribe every shred of client data.
For sales illustrations, advisor researching life insurance products from 5 different carriers must retype the same information into 5 different interfaces of 5 different software systems. Many carriers feel it is not in their best interest to make it easy for an advisor to get quotes from many different companies with one mouse-click, and as a result it takes five minutes per carrier to run one illustration. For a MGA, running illustrations can consume as much as 25% of their total man hours, not counting the time their advisors spend as well.
Tim Fitzpatrick, President of CoVirt said “The dynamic new Novinsoft interface is a powerful solution that clearly delivers enormous and quantifiable benefits to CoVirt customers. Novinsoft�s new Insurance Portal is much more than just a quote engine. It now means that distributors need only go to one location to provide multi-company UL illustrations; sales concepts integrated with insurance carrier UL calculation engines; needs analyses, forms, and more. This is a much quicker, easier, up-to-date, and cost-effective way for distributors to present the various UL products of their favourite insurance providers. This key partnership further establishes CoVirt�s reputation for a back office system with the market�s most comprehensive set of essential features and functions.�
Neil Menear, President of Novinsoft said, �We are the first vendor to provide what all advisors in Canada want, and that is a common single interface for multiple carriers. CoVirt is the recognized leader in Canada for online agency management services and we went to them first.�
Both CoVirt and Novinsoft stress this is not an exclusive strategic partnership, but rather a first step towards building true connectivity within the entire industry. The door is open to integrate with anyone for the purposes of avoiding errors and lost time due to repeated entry by the mutual users of the same information already stored electronically. Generally, information is passed in an XMLife stream to initially populate the other system. Where appropriate, information is passed back as well.
Tim Fitzpatrick emphasized the open door policy at CoVirt by saying �We are looking to integrate with any tool that increase sales and / or reduce dual entry for our clients. VirtGate already accepts inbound data feeds from any source and we can produce feeds to other agencies / carriers just as easily. We integrate with online survey vendors, as well as a vendor for ordering paramedical exams online. We produce commission feeds for a variety of accounting systems and payment processing services.
“We are working with another vendor where advisors can quote and sell travel insurance, and then send back the policy and commission detail to the MGA�s VirtGate management system. Yet there is so much more we can do. We can link straight to a carrier’s online system for status checks for those carriers with no feeds, or we can send carriers an application via a XMLife stream of the data keyed by the MGA plus the scanned application.�
Neil Menear concluded by saying, �CoVirt has a unique perspective on the life insurance distribution process that drives clients to decision points very quickly and honestly. If they keep it up, and with partners such as Novinsoft, CoVirt could end up being LCC.”
About CoVirt:
CoVirt�s VirtGate Internet policy and advisor management service is a total integrated solution that MGA’s and their advisors need to succeed today, as well as the flexibility they need to respond to the complex challenges of tomorrow. VirtGate provides superior advantages that turns the agency web site into a sales pipeline portal permitting CoVirt customers to focus on the fundamental core expertise that is the key to their success. VirtGate is much faster than typical internal LAN based software and customers can tie as many offices and users together as they wish � all with no user fees. VirtGate also includes online integrated document management where documents are posted to the advisor record, policy record, or public library in seconds. VirtGate is worry free — all that is needed is a standard web browser and access to the Internet — nothing is installed on the user’s machine or customer�s server at all. For more information, see http://CoVirt.com.
About Novinsoft:
Novinsoft is a leading developer of Life Insurance Illustration Systems, Needs Analysis, Sales Concept, and Wealth Management sales modules for the Canadian Financial Services industry. Our clients can rely on us not just to design and build quality Product Illustration Systems and Sales and Marketing Tools, but to provide advice on product features, calculation options, and relevant legislation. Novinsoft resources have extensive experience in the Financial Services industry including Insurance Product development, marketing, systems analysis, and project management along with many years of software development experience. If you have any questions or would like more information about our products and services, please visit http://www.novinsoft.com
