In-house vs. Local Outsourcing for Online Insurance Marketing Development
February 3, 2006 - The Internet, and making good business use of it in the insurance industry, was a major topic at the recent Inter-Company Marketing Group (ICMG) Annual meeting in Phoenix. The conference serves as a networking forum for insurance executives. As an exhibitor, Web development company IdeaStar Inc. was on hand to answer any questions.
IdeaStar Project Manager Jane Hudeck & Vice President of Insurance Technologies Mike Wise at the ICMG Conference.
The most exciting talk this year seems to be the reduced use of insurance carrier IT Departments to develop the Web sites necessary for online insurance marketing, IdeaStar Vice of Insurance Technologies President Mike Wise said. “In the past, there was more of a requirement to use in-house staff to get an insurance company online,” Mike said. “But more and more, insurance executives are realizing IT is not marketing. The IT department may have the technical ability to get products and processes online, but they generally do not know the best-practices associated with integrating the technology with the many marketing considerations.”
Judging by several in-house Web-marketing projects the industry has seen fail in the last three to four years (not to say there haven't been some resounding successes), executives seem to be more willing to use specialists, Mike said.
That’s where IdeaStar steps in. “We’ve got the experience and know how to get insurance product online in a marketable fashion. And we have numerous tools which can dramatically reduce costs and development timelines for carriers and their agents,” Mike said. Customizable tools include:
- Administrative Tools
- Agent-Assisted Quotes
- Agent Web Sites
- Agent Recruiting Systems
- Application Processing with Electronic Signature
- Customer-Driven Quote
- Online Agent Resource Center
- Quote Engines
- E-mail Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing
- Web Site Design and Development
- Lead Generation
- Payment Processing
“It’s critical for the appropriate people to know that we can use our experience and best-practices to get an insurance product online and ready for sale better, faster, and more cost-effectively than in-house IT departments,” Mike said. IdeaStar has launched successful insurance sites to market health and life insurance products, senior products including Med Supp and Medicare Part D, property and casualty insurance, and more.
Examples of IdeaStar’s work include a PIMA Gold Award Winner unionsecure.com, and A.M. Best E-Fusion award winners Ameri-Choice.com and QQLink.com.
IdeaStar President Jim Fisher and Project Manager Jane Hudeck were also on hand to disucss insurance technologies. "We came away this year with the idea that insurance executives now understand the importance of Web-enabling their products and agent services," Mike said. "The question is no longer if, but how and when."
|