Case Studies

Penn National Insurance Partners with Convr to Accelerate Digital Transformation in Underwriting

For more than a century, Penn National Insurance has successfully navigated change.

Founded in 1919, it now operates in 11 states through more than 1,200 independent agency operations. Though the world has changed substantially, Penn National has continued to advance in ways that fulfill its policyholders’ evolving needs.

Its keys to longevity and success are a willingness to be curious, challenge assumptions and embrace change as an opportunity for improvement.

Underwriters have always been searching for needles in haystacks—and today’s haystack is bigger than ever.

Critical information is scattered across company websites, government portals, social media platforms and many other sources.

Manual research is not only bad for underwriting productivity. It delays time to quote, introduces unnecessary friction in the agent and insured experience and increases carrier risk when important insights are missed.

"It’s always about what you don’t know."

Randy Mancini, VP of Commercial Lines at Penn National, recalls one example where assumptions about a building's age, construction type and size turned out to be incorrect after a major loss event.

Like many carriers, Penn National faced increasing pressure to drive profitable growth through more accurate pricing and risk selection.

At the same time, a growing number of competitors were leveraging predictive analytics in commercial lines, increasing the risk of adverse selection.

Penn National recognized that investing in AI for underwriting could help enable digital underwriting processes and take advantage of big data and advanced analytics.

The company simply needed the right partner.

A Strategic Partnership Is Born

Convr proved to be the ideal match for Penn National’s needs.

From a tactical perspective, Convr’s underwriting AI solutions could help modernize underwriting capabilities, provide real-time access to critical insights and help Penn National remain competitive.

From a strategic perspective, partnering with Convr enabled Penn National to invest in AI and advance its transformation goals while delivering a superior customer experience.

Penn National activated the following Convr solutions:

d3 Risk 360™

d3 Risk 360 enables underwriters to analyze the digital footprint of a business in real time.

With only a business name and address, underwriters gain instant access to critical business information such as violations, permits, licenses, social media presence and much more.

With enriched customer data available in one place, underwriters can be more productive, effective and consistent while improving overall risk selection.

d3 Answers™

d3 Answers provides automatic answers to complex underwriting questions.

This reduces the number of underwriting questions that must be asked manually, speeding time to quote and reducing friction in the agent and insured experience.

The speed and accuracy of d3 Answers also create opportunities for future pricing adjustments that better support target loss ratios.

Convr’s patented AI technology leverages machine learning models specifically trained for commercial insurance.

These models navigate structured and unstructured data from thousands of data sources and more than 4 billion data points to verify, cross-reference and deliver critical underwriting insights in real time.

Digital Underwriting Results

Using d3 Risk 360 and d3 Answers, Penn National can use minimal information to quickly identify underwriting risk characteristics and make more informed decisions.

Results Achieved

• 83% of underwriters believe Convr’s Underwriting Command Center saves them time
• More than 4,500 submissions leveraged insights from d3 Risk 360 and d3 Answers during the first seven months
• 88% of underwriters report that having all public source information in one place is valuable

These results demonstrate how AI-powered underwriting tools can improve productivity while helping underwriters make more consistent and informed decisions.

Accelerating Data-Driven Underwriting Excellence

By partnering with Convr, Penn National can now orchestrate a better underwriting experience.

With real-time access to critical insights, underwriters can be more productive and effective, enabling Penn National to drive profitable growth.

The company’s investment in AI has accelerated its digital transformation journey and laid the foundation for its vision of a data-driven insurance continuum.

"Penn National Insurance is dedicated to continued innovation and incorporating data-driven decision-making at all possible points within the insurance continuum."

"Convr has been a big part of helping us to continually innovate while remaining competitive in the market."

Four Tips to Apply AI in a Practical Way

Penn National shared several lessons learned from its digital underwriting journey:

• Avoid shiny object syndrome and focus on practical use cases that solve real problems
• Find opportunities to create quick wins and build momentum
• Invest in flexible and scalable solutions that can evolve over time
• Manage change effectively by aligning people around a shared vision

These principles helped Penn National successfully integrate AI into its underwriting operations while maintaining focus on business outcomes.

Digital Transformation Is a Moving Target

The world is changing faster than ever.

The combination of technological, customer and societal shifts makes business agility increasingly important.

However, it is difficult to remain agile while relying on manual processes and outdated technology.

To remain competitive and profitable, insurers must make consistent, well-informed underwriting decisions at scale.

Data alone is not enough.

AI makes it practical to collect, analyze and extract insights from broader data sets. It augments human capabilities and unlocks the full potential of underwriting teams.

AI also lays the foundation for future advancements, including improved agent experiences, prefill capabilities, straight-through processing and additional digital transformation initiatives.

"To be competitive and profitable, you must be able to make consistent, well-informed underwriting decisions at scale."

Transformation is not a finite process, and neither is digital transformation.

To compete today and tomorrow, insurers must cultivate a mindset of continual innovation.

Start Your Digital Transformation Today

Convr’s d3 Underwriting™ Platform

Convr’s patented AI enables insurers to remove friction from submission to quote through an Underwriting Command Center that provides underwriting teams with a single place to assess risk, price appropriately and avoid losses.

The platform includes:

d3 Intake™

Ingests, digitally transforms and analyzes structured and unstructured insurance submissions, virtually eliminating manual data entry.

d3 Risk 360™

Provides a holistic view of risk in one place, enabling underwriters to make more informed decisions.

d3 Answers™

Applies decision science to answer complex underwriting questions, improving the agent experience and enabling straight-through processing.

d3 Risk Score™

Automatically optimizes and prioritizes risks for evaluation based on each carrier’s unique risk appetite.

Convr’s products work individually and as an interoperable suite, providing an intuitive Underwriting Command Center supported by a rich set of documented API capabilities.

The vision is frictionless underwriting through data discovery and decision science, empowering commercial P&C insurers to make better risk decisions, attract and develop talent and grow premiums profitably.

Columbia Insurance Group Partners with Convr to Advance Digital Capabilities and Reduce Friction for Agents and Underwriters

Learn how Columbia:

• Enabled straight-through processing for SMB policies
• Saved underwriters more than 2500 hours in reviewing submissions
• Advanced its vision of becoming more technologically driven

At first glance, Columbia Insurance Group seems like a pretty typical mutual company. Started in 1874 in Columbia, Missouri, the mutual operates in 14 states and its independent agency channel runs through four branch offices. It’s seen times of tremendous change, both prosperous and disruptive, and through it all has built enduring customer relationships by focusing on service and value.

You don’t survive for 140-plus years without doing things right—but to continue to thrive, Columbia recognized it needed to invest in digital capabilities.

“I’m sorry, we do not have time to quote.”

For Scott Mackey, Chief Underwriting Officer at Columbia, that statement is burned into his memory. A piece of business came in that looked extremely profitable. The problem? His underwriting team didn’t have the time to investigate.

“Our team just didn’t have the capacity. And that’s a cardinal sin. We showed that insured to the door on something that could have been really good, for them and for us.”

Manual underwriting processes didn’t just limit how much business Columbia could quote. Inefficient processes resulted in slow quotes, which made it hard for agents to do business with the carrier. Manual processes also made it challenging for underwriters to focus on high-value business and cultivate customer relationships.

Columbia also found it hard to achieve underwriting consistency. Quotes could vary in quality and accuracy depending on which underwriter looked at it—and how well rested he or she was that day. At a portfolio level, this wasn’t optimal for a strong book of business. And it didn’t make it easy for Columbia to scale its commercial business.

Meanwhile, agents, underwriters and insureds were ramping up their expectations for frictionless, quick experiences. Agents wanted an easier way to quote that didn’t involve answering endless questions. Underwriters wanted greater capacity, fewer lost opportunities and better information to make more informed decisions. And insureds wanted quotes faster—the longer they waited, the more they were likely to shop around.

Wanted: Digital transformation—without losing the human touch

Scott and his leadership team recognized that investing in digital transformation would help them become more agile, adaptable and responsive. They wanted better, more accurate information that would allow them to improve service and speed up turnaround times. They recognized that if they could develop the capabilities for straight-through processing, they could free up underwriting capacity—and that would mean being able to process more quotes without adding headcount, while simultaneously providing underwriters with more time to build relationships with agents and insureds.

But historically, Columbia hasn’t been a tech-driven operation. “Our emphasis is on relationships,” says Scott. “We wanted to modernize our technology without losing the human quality of our relationships.” He and his leadership team needed to identify the right technology to address their challenges—and importantly, they needed a clear vision that would help them drive change throughout the organization.

Offered: AI-driven decision science—and a strategic partnership

Initially, Columbia contacted Convr in search of a technology solution that could enable automation and straight-through processing. But it didn’t take long for them to realize that Convr isn’t a typical technology provider. It’s a strategic partner.

The Convr team listened to what Columbia wanted—and needed. Together, they identified the solutions that would be able to address Columbia’s challenges of productivity, efficiency, and agent and underwriter expectations. Importantly, Convr helped Columbia define a shared vision of what underwriting excellence could look like—a shared vision that could enable Columbia to inspire and lead people toward a more technology-driven future.

Columbia integrated two Convr solutions: d3 Answers^TM and d3 Risk 360^TM.

d3 Answers makes it easier for agents to place business with Columbia

Challenge

Agents and insureds bear the brunt of having to answer many complex underwriting questions. It doesn’t create a great experience—and agents, meaning to make things easier for the insured, may skip questions or inadvertently enter incorrect data, neither of which contribute to underwriting excellence.

Solution

d3 Answers applies decision science to help Columbia answer complex underwriting questions, drastically reducing friction for agents to obtain a quote. Data validation means cleaner, higher-quality submissions for more effective underwriting—and, importantly, it enables Columbia to provide straight-through processing for select classes of business.

Results

Prior to launching d3 Answers in July 2020, Columbia didn’t have any straight-through processing (STP) capabilities. By the end of September 2020, 28% of their SMB policies were issued via STP. And d3 Answers is such an integral part of the Columbia submission toolkit that it’s demoed to prospective agents.

“Agents look to us to improve the efficiency of the entire quote-bind-issue process. By pre-filling underwriting risk characters, it’s far easier for agents to identify risk and reduce errors. This is a fundamental shift in the ease of use and agent experience that makes Columbia the path of least resistance for placing business.” – Scott Mackey

d3 Risk 360 supercharges underwriters to make more informed decisions and focus on stronger relationships

Challenge

Columbia’s inefficient processes meant that underwriters spent a lot of time on manual tasks. That made it hard for them to identify and focus on the best risks or invest in customer relationships.

Solution

d3 Risk 360 provides a holistic view of risk in one place, which makes it easier for underwriters to make informed underwriting decisions. It also provides enriched customer data for more robust analytics. In short: better underwriting consistency, better risk selection and a stronger book of business.

Results

Since launching in Month 2020, d3 Risk 360 continues to supercharge Columbia’s underwriting team with improved productivity and effectiveness:

• More than 85% of target users are using d3 Answers
• Underwriters have reviewed more than 7000 applications using d3 Answers
• Underwriters save 20 minutes per submission—a total of more than 2500 hours in the past year
• Company searches get a hit rate of more than 88%, which is 5% better than what a leading data and business credit bureau offered.

“d3 Risk 360 isn’t an additional tool for underwriters. It is THE tool for the underwriting workbench.” – Scott Mackey

Implementation? No problem.

• Reliability. 100% system availability and zero unplanned downtime.
• Effective training for an easy-to-use product. Halved the number of help desk tickets between months 1 and 2—and since July 2020, zero help desk tickets have been logged.
• Responsive customer service. Product enhancements configured for Columbia’s needs, including UI and data set improvements, and detailed release notes to support change management.

Underwriting excellence powered by decision science

Using Convr’s AI-driven decision science solutions, Columbia has transformed its underwriting processes. The carrier can now respond to quotes faster and offer a better agent and insured experience that mitigates lost business due to customers shopping around. Its underwriters can make more informed decisions about risk, which means improved profitability and fewer claims losses.

Key point: this is much more than just automation. This is AI as augmentation—supporting people to work with tools that help them be more effective, make their day-to-day work more meaningful, and contribute to one of Columbia’s core values: to create enduring customer relationships.

The strategic partnership with Convr has enabled Columbia to advance its vision of becoming more technologically driven. It’s a partnership and an investment that will help Columbia develop underwriting excellence and reduce friction—and achieve a competitive advantage.

From skeptic to convert

“All I knew about AI was what I read in the headlines and that was a bit ominous. So I did what any good underwriter would do: I did some research.” Scott’s not alone in his skepticism about AI and what it could do for Columbia. How would it fit with the carrier’s focus on the human touch? Could it really help Columbia be more responsive, efficient and profitable?

In a word: yes.

Columbia now sees how AI-driven decision science can take underwriting to the next level. “Convr’s commitment to continually enhancing the platform is really inspiring. We want to continue to evolve with the platform and continue automating and augmenting as much as possible,” says Scott.

The future of underwriting with AI

These days, things change fast. During the pandemic, we’ve seen companies pivot on a dime, with restaurants shifting to takeout, apparel companies selling face masks, auto makers producing ventilators. That kind of agility is both inspiring and necessary in a fast-moving world—and also indicative of the constant, shifting risk exposures that commercial P&C carriers must be aware of.

Effective risk management means keeping up with these detailed changes. But done manually, it’s labor-intensive and difficult to scale. It’s messy.

And messy is bad for business.

That’s where AI comes in. Convr helps carriers streamline every step of the underwriting process with d3 Underwriting, a suite of AI products that take the friction out of the underwriting process:

• d3 Intake^TM automatically digitizes and analyzes insurance submissions, virtually eliminating manual data entry
• d3 Risk 360 provides a holistic view of risk in one place, enabling underwriters to make more informed decisions
• d3 Answers applies decision science to answer complex underwriting questions, improving the agent experience and enabling straight-through processing
• d3 Risk Score^TM automatically optimizes and prioritizes risks for evaluation, configured to each carrier’s unique risk appetite

Products work individually and as a suite, and they’re all available via the Convr Underwriting Workbench—an intuitive, easy-to-use online portal—or API.

Our vision is to empower commercial insurers to underwrite with as little friction as possible—so that you can make better decisions, attract and develop talent, and scale your book of business.

Tangram Partners with Convr to Provide Superior Customer Service to SMB and Risk Management Markets

Tangram Insurance Services is a national insurance program manager with deep expertise and specialized capabilities across a variety of industries.

For nearly 20 years, Tangram has partnered with leading insurance carriers to deliver niche insurance solutions.

As part of its relentless pursuit to be the best program partner in the industry, Tangram continually seeks new ways to provide better service to insurance broker and carrier partners.

Status Quo and the Need for Speed

Tangram typically receives requests for quotes through email submissions.

These submissions include a variety of documents that inform the underwriting analysis required to generate a quote, including ACORD applications, loss history reports and supporting documentation.

The information contained within those documents must ultimately make its way into Tangram’s rating tools before a quote can be produced.

Like many organizations across the insurance industry, Tangram relied on manual processes to transfer submission information into underwriting systems.

This manual effort, combined with quality control requirements, created longer lead times and increased pressure on underwriting teams to maintain their standards for underwriting rigor and customer experience.

The challenge was especially apparent within Tangram’s Social Service Workers Compensation program.

"Prior to using Convr, underwriting information was taking two to three days to get entered and cleared of quality checks in our underwriting tools before one of our underwriters could even look at them."

"We were digital, but not in a seamless manner, which stretched our ability to keep our superior level of service."

Exploring an Augmented Submission Workflow Using AI

Tangram engaged Convr to explore how artificial intelligence could help overcome the limitations of manual submission intake.

Convr’s decision automation platform is built on the principles of Data, Discovery and Decision.

Its experience in commercial P&C insurance, successful implementation history and proven speed to market made it an ideal partner for Tangram.

After initial discussions, both organizations agreed to begin with d3 Intake™, Convr’s intelligent submission intake solution.

Using computer vision and machine learning, d3 Intake automatically digitizes and analyzes insurance submissions.

By digitizing submission information, d3 Intake also creates a foundation for future workflow automation and broader use of Convr’s platform.

The first implementation focused on Tangram’s Social Service Workers Compensation program, where the need for efficiency improvements was greatest.

A Partnership Is Built

Convr began the engagement with a detailed discovery process designed to understand Tangram’s business, workflows and underwriting operations.

This collaborative process revealed valuable insights into how d3 Intake could be applied most effectively.

A structured implementation plan, service-level agreements, communication cadence and exception-handling processes were established to ensure a successful deployment.

The project scope included the application forms, loss runs and supporting documents that Tangram regularly receives during the submission process.

Tangram Programs

• Allied Health Care
• Artisan Contractors
• Captives
• Cyber
• Janitors & Carpet Cleaners
• Propane & Fuel Oil Dealers
• Social Services
• Transportation Solutions
• Portable Sanitation

Realizing Results

The implementation took approximately three months to complete.

As adoption increased, Tangram quickly began seeing measurable improvements.

Improved Data Accuracy

Convr achieved 91% machine-read accuracy when processing submission documents.

Prior to implementation, manual processing achieved less than 80% accuracy before quality control reviews were completed.

Faster Submission Processing

More than 95% of submissions were completed within established SLA timeframes.

Before Convr, only approximately 50% of submissions met the same performance targets.

Same-Day Underwriting Review

"With Convr, we now start reviewing most submissions the same day we receive it."

"We can do this without the need for quality checks on our end because we know Convr has taken care of it."

Previously, underwriting information required two to three days to be entered, validated and prepared before an underwriter could begin reviewing the risk.

After implementation, most submissions could be reviewed on the same day they were received.

Increased Efficiency by More Than 130%

Tangram improved underwriting efficiency by more than 130% by replacing manual data entry and quality control activities with automated workflows powered by Convr.

Before Convr

• Quotes delivered in 2 to 3 days
• Manual data entry teams
• Separate quality control processes
• Delayed underwriting review

After Convr

• Quotes delivered in less than 1 day
• Same-day SMB quoting
• Automated data extraction
• Faster underwriting analysis

Further Expansion Using Convr

Based on the success of the initial implementation, Tangram expanded its use of Convr both horizontally and vertically.

Horizontally, Tangram extended d3 Intake across additional insurance programs and package policies.

This significantly increased the volume of ACORD forms and loss runs being processed through the platform.

Despite the increased scale, Tangram continued to achieve similar performance outcomes.

Vertically, Tangram began exploring additional Convr products to further transform underwriting workflows.

d3 Risk 360™

d3 Risk 360 enriches submissions with the digital footprint of a business, providing deeper insight into business activities and relationships.

d3 Answers™

d3 Answers presents underwriters with an initial underwriting analysis based on machine learning models trained against Tangram’s underwriting criteria.

This enables underwriters to identify exceptions and areas requiring further review more efficiently.

Changing the Game, Together

Through its partnership with Convr, Tangram has dramatically improved the level of service it provides while creating a foundation for ongoing innovation.

The organization is now positioned to focus talent where expertise creates the greatest value, develop new niche insurance programs and continue introducing new ways of thinking to the insurance industry.

"A big part of our relentless pursuit to be the best program partner in the industry is leveraging technology to provide next-level service."

"Convr has been essential in powering our business with the accurate processing and presentation of data so our underwriters can focus on the human elements of analyzing risk and interacting with our distribution channel."

Building the Future of Underwriting

The success of d3 Intake demonstrated that automation can improve both efficiency and customer experience without sacrificing underwriting rigor.

By combining artificial intelligence, machine learning and intelligent document processing, Tangram transformed a traditionally manual process into a streamlined digital workflow.

The partnership has created a strong foundation for future innovation while enabling Tangram to continue delivering the superior service that differentiates its programs in the marketplace.

Encova Insurance Partners with Convr to Accelerate Underwriting Excellence

Encova Insurance strives for excellence—not just as an insurer, but also as an organization that offers peace of mind for its agents, policyholders and the communities it serves.

After affiliating in 2017, Motorists Insurance Group and Brickstreet Insurance became Encova in 2019 while simultaneously investing in digital transformation and integration. Its dedication to continuous innovation and collaboration enables it to turn its challenges into opportunities.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Encova is represented by more than 2,000 independent agencies in 28 states and the District of Columbia.

One carrier’s challenge is another’s opportunity.

Faced with the challenges of digital transformation and post-affiliation integration, Encova’s leadership team knew it would be critical to invest in its underwriting acumen.

As part of its broader digital transformation goals, Encova had already used robotic process automation (RPA) to scale automation and augment its underwriting workload. Its leadership team sought to build on this momentum.

"AI was a missing piece for us."

Why AI? Because AI doesn’t just boost underwriter productivity; it also provides additional insights for more informed risk selection, pricing and underwriting.

It can also lay the foundation to connect disparate underwriting processes or connect underwriting capabilities with other core systems.

Encova’s leadership team recognized that to fully achieve their goal of developing underwriting acumen, they would need an end-to-end underwriting management system. However, they knew they didn’t have to go all in.

By working one step at a time, they could invest in underwriting excellence in a sustainable way, demonstrate gains to underwriters and agents, and gain valuable experience with AI.

Convr Provides the Missing Piece

Convr provided the missing piece that Encova was looking for.

Convr’s end-to-end underwriting management system augments Encova’s current underwriting capabilities and enables the carrier to support a culture of underwriting excellence.

The flexibility of Convr’s solutions was especially important for Encova, given the complexities of its post-affiliation IT environment, allowing it to progress to underwriting excellence one piece at a time.

Three Ways Convr Enables Underwriting Excellence

• Flexible AI solutions that enable better decision making, delivered via an intuitive underwriting interface or via Convr Connect APIs
• Scalable products that enable carriers to add use cases, new products and scale adoption as their needs grow and change
• Easy-to-use tools that were designed with commercial insurance in mind, with proactive training from a dedicated team

"It’s easy; it works well. Underwriters get multiple data points through d3 360 Risk™ and d3 Answers™, and that allows our team to be more timely and efficient, more productive."

Convr Helps Encova Avoid Unwanted Exposure

The value of Convr became evident early in Encova’s adoption journey.

Amy Gilmore, Vice President of Commercial Underwriting, shared an example where d3 Risk 360 uncovered a hidden trucking exposure that traditional research methods failed to identify.

The policy being reviewed covered vehicles owned by a holding company. During the underwriting process, Convr revealed that the holding company had additional entities with for-hire trucking exposures.

The agent later confirmed that these entities did not have insurance coverage.

Without this visibility, Encova would have discovered the exposure only after issuing the policy and requesting a federal motor carrier filing.

"Our typical avenues for research didn’t uncover this information, but Convr did."

The discovery allowed Encova to avoid a risk it otherwise would not have priced for or contemplated.

Solutions for New Business Submissions

Encova selected two Convr solutions for new business submissions in its commercial P&C lines.

d3 Risk 360

Manual research is time-consuming and error-prone.

With d3 Risk 360, Encova’s underwriters get instant access to the full digital footprint of a business based on a single search of name and business address.

Convr’s solution enables Encova to:

• Drive underwriting excellence
• Enrich its book of business
• Enable dynamic underwriting

d3 Risk 360 eliminates the need for time-consuming manual searches and enables underwriters to select and quote desired risks faster and more efficiently.

Encova can also tap into enriched data to enhance book rolls, develop new products and analyze its portfolio.

Underwriters can stay informed with alerts that help reassess a customer’s risk profile before renewal.

"Using d3 Risk 360, Encova’s underwriters save time. In just 10 months, they have cut in half the time they spend researching submissions."

d3 Answers

Submission applications include many underwriting questions, many of them complex.

With d3 Answers, Encova’s underwriting team gets automatic answers to chosen underwriting questions, reducing friction in the submission process while improving accuracy.

Convr’s solution enables Encova to:

• Unlock the power of pre-fill
• Automatically classify submission applications

With d3 Answers, submission applications are pre-filled in sub-seconds, boosting agent productivity, positioning Encova as a carrier of choice and enabling straight-through processing.

d3 Answers also helps underwriters select and rate risks more efficiently by classifying submissions based on business activity and risk exposure.

Innovating to Realize Underwriting Excellence

Using d3 Risk 360 and d3 Answers, Encova has continued to demonstrate its commitment to innovation.

By implementing a portion of Convr’s end-to-end underwriting management system, Encova has advanced its goal of realizing underwriting excellence.

In particular, Encova can now:

• Increase underwriting acumen and efficiency
• Support a culture of underwriting excellence that retains talent
• Work more effectively with agents
• Drive profitable growth

Underwriters can quickly identify underwriting risk characteristics and generate quotes using minimal input.

Agents benefit from a streamlined submission experience that allows them to focus on value-added activities.

The carrier also benefits from improved underwriting efficiency, faster speed-to-quote and stronger agent relationships.

Addressing Workers’ Compensation Priorities

Convr is helping Encova address its priorities for workers’ compensation.

The company is using pre-fill to streamline and speed up the submission process, leveraging third-party data sources to augment risk understanding and achieving transformation at scale across its 28-state geography.

"We’re constantly looking for enhanced intelligence to support better pricing in workers’ compensation. d3 Risk 360 and d3 Answers will help us achieve that."

Talent Can No Longer Be an Afterthought for Insurers

When it comes to underwriting, manual processes and repetitive work aren’t just frustrating.

They get in the way of underwriters doing what matters: writing and pricing risks appropriately, improving outcomes for agents and policyholders and driving profitability for the business.

Carriers that invest in a modern underwriting experience are demonstrating their workforce matters.

An intuitive interface that allows underwriters to get the entire digital footprint of a business from just name and address is more than a productivity tool.

It sends a message that underwriters matter, their time matters and their success matters.

This partnership enables Encova to remove friction from its underwriting experience, improve agent relationships and retain and nurture underwriting talent.

Importantly, the relationship lays the foundation for Encova to expand its applications into other lines of business and grow the gains made in commercial lines.

"Talent can no longer be an afterthought for insurers."

Underwriting Excellence Drives Business Excellence

Underwriting is a core competency of insurance, and investments in underwriting excellence are investments in business excellence.

Leveraging AI as part of a core underwriting management system can help carriers take critical steps on their journey of innovation and digital transformation.

In particular, AI can unlock new and more expansive ways of understanding risk.

In the short term, it can improve efficiency, operational excellence and risk selection capabilities while enhancing the underwriter, agent and policyholder experience.

In the medium term, carriers can bring expanded data insights downstream to augment policy rating, renewal and other lines of business.

In the long term, it enables carriers to gain competency with technology that is fundamentally changing the way the world works, lives and plays.

"In particular, AI can unlock new and more expansive ways of understanding risk."

For Encova, a partnership with Convr was a natural fit—a fruitful relationship that is expanding, continuing to offer value and supporting Encova in its pursuit of underwriting excellence.

Start Your Digital Transformation Today

Convr: End-to-End Underwriting Excellence for Commercial P&C

Convr empowers carriers to meet four core needs:

• d3 Intake™ uses Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) such as ACORD applications to reduce manual data entry
• d3 Risk 360™ provides additional insights on risks from thousands of third-party data sources
• d3 Answers™ uses artificial intelligence (AI) to classify a business and respond to underwriting questions
• d3 Risk Score™ enables risk selection and prioritization to better focus downstream underwriting resources

Convr empowers P&C carriers with digital end-to-end underwriting management powered with a patented-AI decisioning engine that transforms the underwriting experience.

Carriers of all sizes trust Convr to help them transform their underwriting experience with straight-through processing and more complete data to make better decisions.

Hiscox Partners with Convr AI to Drive Underwriting Excellence Through Data Accuracy

Serving more than 500,000 small business customers, Hiscox USA delivers insurance policies with a focus on the small business market.

Hiscox USA is part of the Hiscox Group, which has more than 3,000 employees across 14 countries worldwide.

The organization continually embraces new technologies, strategies and processes that best support the business and its customers.

Hiscox USA puts technical excellence at the heart of its strategy, helping to move the business forward and keep it competitive as the landscape changes.

Accurate data is key to that technical excellence.

Jim Cadieux, Head of Product and Portfolio Management at Hiscox, is leading the charge as he ensures that the company is growing efficiently and that all the different areas of the business are working together towards this goal.

Today, one of his primary areas of focus is ensuring that the data Hiscox uses for underwriting is as accurate as possible so that Hiscox can deliver a stellar customer experience while reducing risk.

"At Hiscox, we are constantly shaping an exceptional end-to-end experience for our customers and partners. Accurate data enables us to better understand our customers and help them to achieve their goals as well as our own."

Challenge: Accurate Data Necessary for Technical Excellence

Cadieux and the Hiscox team partnered with Convr AI to gain a better and more accurate understanding of the small businesses they insure.

By understanding more about these businesses, they can make better decisions as they assess risk and loss.

Accurate data is also essential for underwriting, as misleading data can lead to risky business decisions down the line.

The more accurate the data, the more protected the policyholder and insurer.

For small business owners across the United States, there is a pervasive lack of understanding of insurance.

According to the Hiscox Underinsurance Study, 83% of U.S. small business owners do not understand what a General Liability policy covers.

This lack of understanding can lead to policyholders not providing accurate data or updating their insurance when they need to.

In fact, 75% of small business owners in the United States are underinsured.

It is crucial for policyholders to provide accurate and up-to-date data to their insurance provider to ensure their business is fully protected.

If they do not, they could leave their business exposed and be financially and legally liable for any claims.

"We were looking to improve technical excellence when it came to digital underwriting – we wanted to know more about the risks and more efficiently rate policies."

Hiscox partnered with Convr AI to make the process of gaining accurate data more efficient.

Convr’s Risk 360 AI and Answers AI products, along with its promised return rate of 93%, helped Hiscox advance its goal of technical excellence and ensure that the policies they write are based on the best data possible.

Solution: Partnering with Convr AI

Using Convr, Hiscox is able to review tranches of renewals or new policies and understand whether self-reported data is accurate.

Having an accurate picture of individual business functions allows the company to improve rating accuracy, which is critically important when writing and renewing policies.

The Hiscox and Convr teams meet regularly to discuss data, insights and establish new goals and priorities.

Together, they have developed a set of key performance indicators to measure progress and are meeting and exceeding those goals.

Partnering with Convr has allowed Hiscox to gain a more detailed picture of the small businesses they insure.

Leveraging Risk 360 AI and Answers AI

Hiscox USA leverages two modules within Convr’s Underwriting Workbench:

• Risk 360 AI
• Answers AI

Risk 360 AI unleashes detailed insights from the intersection of tens of thousands of data elements.

Answers AI provides access to available information about an applicant’s business while answering underwriting questions directly through insurance-trained AI models.

"Those data sources are just going to get better and better over time."

Creating a Better Customer Experience

Hiscox strives to create a frictionless path for customers while simultaneously improving underwriting accuracy.

Rather than requiring customers to provide increasing amounts of information, Convr helps move more of the intelligence gathering process behind the scenes.

This enables a more efficient customer journey while helping underwriters make better decisions.

"Hiscox strives to be America’s leading small business insurer. To do that, we need to have a frictionless path for customers to find us and for us to address their needs. Convr plays a role in that as we’re able to do more on the back end rather than putting it all on the customer."

The Impact of Accurate Data

For Hiscox, underwriting excellence begins with data accuracy.

Better data enables better understanding of risk.

Better understanding of risk enables more accurate pricing, improved policy decisions and stronger protection for both policyholders and insurers.

By leveraging Convr’s AI-powered underwriting tools, Hiscox has strengthened its ability to evaluate risk while continuing to improve the customer experience.

The partnership has also established a framework for continuous improvement as new data sources, insights and capabilities become available.

Underwriting Excellence Through Data Accuracy

Technical excellence is not simply about improving operational efficiency.

It is about ensuring that every underwriting decision is supported by the most complete and accurate information available.

Through its partnership with Convr AI, Hiscox has enhanced its ability to understand small businesses, improve rating accuracy and support a customer-first approach to underwriting.

As data quality continues to improve, the value delivered by AI-powered underwriting solutions will continue to grow.

Convr AI Underwriting Workbench

Convr AI delivers a full suite of AI-infused commercial insurance tools that support underwriting analysis and decisions.

Intake AI

Eliminates manual submission paperwork by ingesting, preparing and analyzing submissions for a more effective digital process.

Answers AI

Applies decision science to correctly answer complex underwriting questions.

Risk 360 AI

Provides underwriters a unified view of a submission’s digital footprint to correctly classify and respond to underwriting questions.

Risk Score AI

Applies decision science to risk selection, relativity and lead scoring.

Convr is an AI underwriting and intelligent document processing workbench that drives world-class customer experiences.

It delivers premium growth, insights and efficiency for commercial P&C insurance organizations of all sizes, including many of the top 20 carriers, MGAs, brokers and reinsurers.

Convr is revolutionizing the industry through data, discovery and decisioning intelligence.

Crum & Forster Partners with Convr to Digitally Transform Submission Intake and Unleash Human Potential

You don’t get to be 200 years old without doing something right. Crum & Forster is a commercial P&C carrier with a long history of offering innovative solutions to overcome challenges. The company’s Surplus and Specialty Lines (S&S) Division provides bespoke solutions for hard-to-place risks.

As one of the country’s largest Excess and Surplus (E&S) carriers, Crum & Forster works with select wholesale brokers to provide the customized service the company is known for.

"I had a vision to streamline the submission intake process."

In 2021, the S&S Division kicked off a five-year plan to double its top-line underwriting performance. Lauren Dieterich, Senior Vice President, Head of Operations and Digital, Surplus & Specialty, recognized that to achieve that goal, her team needed to streamline a manual, labor-intensive submission intake process.

Specifically, Dieterich envisioned using intelligent document processing (IDP) to automatically pull data elements out of submission materials.

The Challenge

The S&S submission process requires more flexibility than most vendors can offer.

For example, the division deals mostly with wholesale brokers, which are typically not listed in an ACORD 125 form. Their contact information is more often buried in a long email thread featuring multiple parties.

In addition, submissions often include other documents, such as supplemental applications, driver lists or location schedules.

"I was looking for a vendor who could do more than just ACORDs."

"And I wanted a vendor who could grow with us as we could consume and leverage more and more data."

Convr Brings Crum & Forster's Vision to Life

Dieterich found exactly what she was looking for in Convr’s AI-infused commercial underwriting platform. The S&S Division selected Convr’s d3 Intake™ to enable a more efficient process for new business submission intake.

With d3 Intake, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division can:

• Quote faster
• Streamline its submission intake process
• Leverage data for future insights

d3 Intake eliminates most of the data entry required to clear and prepare an underwriting file, which transforms both the underwriting and customer experience.

By using d3 Intake’s IDP capabilities, the S&S Division can automatically ingest and organize information from nearly any structured or unstructured document.

d3 Intake enables the team to collect, analyze and retain the information from the application process. These insights can inform future pricing models, underwriting decisions or claims handling.

The flexibility of Convr’s solutions is essential for Crum & Forster. Convr took time to truly understand what Crum & Forster needed, whether being able to pull specific data points from long email threads, working with a variety of structured and unstructured documents or determining source priority when presented with multiple documents.

"We achieved our vision of a more efficient submission intake process with Convr’s d3 Intake on the front end."

We Saw Results Within Weeks of Turning It On

"We saw results within weeks of turning it on."

Streamline Submission Intake Process

Before d3 Intake, a team of contractors was responsible for clearing submissions, a process that required manual data entry into multiple legacy systems.

First, a submission would have to pass a clearance call, which meant combing through emails and attachments to manually enter data into a legacy system.

Next, if the submission passed clearance, then it was assigned to an underwriter. That meant navigating business rules spread across multiple tabs in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Finally, the account was triaged in a separate Excel sheet with additional required inputs.

After d3 Intake, the S&S Division could automatically ingest submission data from structured and unstructured sources. In turn, that allowed team members to automate business rules.

Finally, those two critical capabilities made it possible for Crum & Forster to develop a new submission intake platform that virtually eliminates manual data entry.

Cut Submission Processing Time by 50%

Before d3 Intake, the inefficient and labor-intensive submission intake process resulted in a one- to two-day backlog for submissions.

After d3 Intake, the S&S Division has cut its submission processing time in half. Typically, it sees same-day turnaround on submissions.

With automatic data ingestion and a new submission intake platform, the clearance team can clear, triage and prepare underwriting files faster than before.

Redeploy Team Members to Higher-Value Roles

Before d3 Intake, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division kept extra capacity on the clearance team to manage the backlog of submissions.

After a file had cleared submission, members of the Operations team would assemble the underwriting file.

After d3 Intake, there was no submissions backlog even at peak activity, and no need for overtime or excess capacity.

Within a month of implementing d3 Intake, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division was able to more strategically allocate its most important resources: its people.

Approximately 40% of the clearance team members moved into file preparation roles. In turn, 20% of the Operations team was redeployed into revenue-generating production and underwriting positions.

"The bulk of the savings came from being able to redeploy part of my Operations team into underwriting roles. Now our human resources are aligned with what’s really going to drive growth, and I could achieve those additional goals with no extra spend."

Digital Technology That Enables True Change

Crum & Forster’s S&S Division knew what it needed: a more efficient submission intake process.

It also knew how to make it happen: by leveraging IDP to automate and streamline how it was ingesting and capturing data.

"Convr provided exactly what I was looking for."

Convr’s IDP capabilities made it possible for the S&S team to automate business rules and, in turn, to develop a proprietary submission intake platform.

That platform has enabled a more streamlined intake process that reduces submission intake time by half.

Building the Foundation for Future Growth

But true digital transformation comes from using technology not just to reduce costs, but to do things differently.

Crum & Forster did just that, by offering advancement opportunities to contractors and redeploying Operations employees into critical and revenue-generating underwriting roles.

"Now we have other questions to answer."

"How do we extend the Convr relationship to use more of the data that d3 Intake can pull out of documents?"

By leveraging Convr’s d3 Intake and its IDP capabilities, Crum & Forster’s S&S Division has the foundation it needs to achieve its goal of doubling its top line within five years.

It has also planted the seeds for the next phase of its growth strategy.

"Convr has been instrumental in enabling our five-year growth plan."

Transform Your Organization Today

• Grow premiums
• Avoid losses
• Improve underwriting efficiency
• Quote faster
• Drive accurate pricing
• Enhance customer experience
• Augment underwriting productivity

Convr Product Suite

d3 Intake™

Eliminates manual submission paperwork by ingesting, preparing and analyzing submissions for a more effective, digital process.

d3 Risk 360™

Provides underwriters a unified view of a submission’s digital footprint to correctly classify and respond to underwriting questions.

d3 Answers™

Applies decision science to correctly answer complex underwriting questions.

d3 Score™

Applies decision science to risk selection, relativity and lead scoring.