Commentary

Member Alliance Program: Providing Community-Driven Engagement and Support for ACN Members

Published: November 12, 2024

This year, ACN launched the Member Alliance Program, a platform where users with similar job functions can connect to exchange best practices, find solutions and share experiences. In this article, we’re breaking down the strategy behind the evolution of the chapters program to the Member Alliance Program as well as highlighting the Program’s wins from this year.

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Technology

A Policy Works Primer

Published: September 16, 2021

A self-proclaimed “insurance geek”, Susanna Fraser-Kuipers currently works as the product manager for Commercial Lines Canada with Applied, a position she took up following Applied’s acquisition of Policy Works in 2019. Today, we are recapping Susanna’s May 2021 webinar, “Introduction to Policy Works,” to offer an overview of Applied Policy Works basics and how this product fits into the Applied ecosystem.

What is Policy Works?

Policy Works is an Applied system that helps automate commercial lines management by enabling agencies and brokerages to computerize the commercial lines submission and management process, making it quicker and easier for underwriters to see risk to ensure submissions get immediate attention. Policy Works provides a multitude of capabilities that help companies make data-driven decisions, win business faster and simplify their workflows. The system assists with making more informed decisions using visual analytics for insurer reports, along with questions and dynamic underwriting fields that are included with all submissions and polices in the system.

Breaking Down the Basics

Fraser-Kuipers explained that Policy Works’ main goal is to capture standardized data and focus on reusing that customer data to manage clients. This is made possible by the Policy Works system, which can quickly build submissions and market out to multiple insurers by creating proposals, binder documents and certificates. “What Policy Works does well is data capture and collection,” Fraser-Kuipers stated. As the webinar progressed, Fraser-Kuipers walked through a demo of the marketing lifecycle in Policy Works and how to properly send out information to insurance companies. (See figure below.)

Screenshot of Fraser-Kuipers demo of the marketing lifecycle during her Introduction to Policy Works webinar.

Fraser-Kuipers also described Policy Works as a puzzle piece that does best with other pieces fitting in. “Integrations and connectivity is key to reducing double entry to support our commercially focused customers. Policy Works is a broker-facing platform designed to integrate with Epic and TAM,” she stated. “What it does not do is manage PL, accounting, communication or activities.”