As part of the Applied Client Network Extended Solutions Week webinar series, participants had the opportunity to hear from Applied Systems’ Sandy Oliver about the product’s latest updates, as well as from two peers using the tool: Colleen Lazanich of CalNonprofits Insurance Services and Tommy Dies of Bryan Insurance Agency. What is Applied Analytics and what can it do for your agency or brokerage? Read on to find out!

Applied Analytics, an Overview

Applied Analytics helps you turn raw business data into powerful insights that can inform the performance of your business. Built with insurance needs in mind, the tool allows you to access multiple levels of analysis on key performance indicators for your agency’s or brokerage’s book of business, employee operations and insurer relationships.

An add-on product to the digital agency suite, the key feature to remember about Analytics — and the focus of the webinar — is the access it affords to comprehensive, varied dashboards for reporting. Currently, over 18 dashboards are available in the product and Oliver noted during the webinar that the ability to turn off dashboards will be available in September.

As an insurance agency or brokerage, you have a ton of data at your fingertips. Tapping into that information can help you run your business more efficiently and successfully. Historically, insurance agencies and brokerages focused on tabular data (or, looking at data in columns and rows) but the evolution since has been staggering.

“Our team moved from [Applied] TAM to [Applied] Epic in February 2018 and onto Applied Analytics in January 2019. We use certain dashboards every day and also share monthly reports of data with our account managers,” shared Lazanich. “The biggest thing to remember is that you can get most of the information in Analytics out of running reports from Epic or TAM, but the true sticking point is speed-to-market and ease-of-use right out of the box. It has eliminated manual work as well as helped improve integrity of data by removing human error.”

Top 5 Most-used Applied Analytics Dashboards

1. Executive Summary

The Executive Summary dashboard offers a high-level overview of agency or brokerage activity. Tip: Use the info button () when you’re unsure of a term or data point.

2. Employee Book of Business

This commonly used dashboard shows a 24-month trend across all clients and allows you to see how many customers make up the largest share of your revenue (for example, how many customers are earning over $25K). This view is often used to help agencies and brokerages determine what type of business they might want to grow.

3. Employee Productivity

Thid dashboard ranks employees by both positive and negative efforts, allowing management to focus in on due dates and if/when employees have overdue activities. Per Oliver, one of the best charts in this dashboard is the “Top 10 Overdue Actitivies,” which demonstrates where you spend the most time and effort.

“This dashboard can drill down into accounts and provide an opportunity for us to check in regarding which accounts have contact information identified and which do not,” noted Dies. He went on to detail that his team finds this useful because it gets at the root of why they might not be reaching customers (for example, some accounts may not have an email address identified) and offers a chance to course-correct.

4. Insurer Summary

The Insurer Summary dashboard is a helpful tool for guiding discussions with carriers. Oliver notes that it is also helpful for operations teams, as it offers an overview of all the different carriers in-use and where the business falls. According to Dies, “If you’re looking to track why carriers might have declined business, this is a great dashboard because it offers an overview of accepted and declined claims, quotes issued and more.”

5. Retention Summary

Last but not least is the Retention Summary dashboard. This report allows users to track retention in four ways: client, policy, premium and revenue. In addition to tracking multiple ways, clicking through a specific client allows users to see the claims lost and the extent of what the dollar impact is.

In closing, Lazanich commented, “Data tells a story, and it’s really hard to see that story when you’re in Epic and pulling reports at random. With Analytics, the tool provides a great way to tell stories that agencies or brokerages need — and want — to tell.”

Interested in learning more about Applied Analytics? Keep up with the latest education as a member of Applied Client Network. For access to the full recording of “Extended Solutions Week: Applied Analytics,” visit our Webinar Replays store.