Insurance Bartender - Single Entry Multi-Carrier Interface (SEMCI): An Essential Instrument for Agents

For decades independent agents have heard the term, “SEMCI”, which promised to connect them and their clients to their insurance companies faster and more efficient through a single system. Agents were told they would be able to obtain multiple quotes from one application/entry allowing them to easily compare carriers to their customers. The idea of single-entry multi-carrier interface seemed so simple yet proved to be an enormous challenge for the technology juggernauts that power the insurance industry for decades. But WHY?

As insurance carriers and independent insurance agents alike have upgraded their technology stacks over the years, these advancements were built on antiquated equipment and tech. It became more and more challenging over the years to leverage technology that burst onto the scene with the advancement of the internet and upload and download. Yet, the industry never truly reached SEMCI-status across all lines of business. Rising technology costs for insurers, the inability to upgrade existing technology, low adoption and demand by agents, etc. were all blamed for the startling, lethargic rise (*cough) of SEMCI over the decades. Granted gains were certainly made in the personal lines arena where commoditization demanded it.

Over the last several years, new insurtech startups such as the Internet of Insurance, Tarmika, SEMSEE, Bold Penguin and more have burst onto the scene challenging the status quo and pushing the industry to new heights.

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Insurance carriers such as ACUITY, EMC, CNA, Liberty Mutual, West Bend Mutual and more are aligning with technology companies to develop or enhance their Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to deliver SEMCI to their independent agency force, while some are finding it more challenging.

“The promise of SEMCI is fantastic: single-entry, multi-carrier. It has the potential to be a huge time saver for agents and an easier way for carriers to grow, but it turns out that it’s really, really hard to do it right - in practice”, stated Jason Kolb Founder and CEO of the Internet of Insurance.

Jason continued, “Most often what happens is “single-entry, some carriers” because most carriers just aren’t equipped to quote programmatically via Application Programming Interface (API).

And even then, some of the carriers that do have API’s may be constrained by the lines and classes they can support, which leads to a frustrating experience for agents, lower growth than expected for carriers, and an underwhelming experience for policyholders.”

In May of 2019 at the IIAW’s 120th annual convention, Ansay and Associates using DAIS’ Internet of Insurance (IOI) submitted a commercial business package virtually (without APIs) to EMC and Western National underwriters live on a stage in front of 500+ attendees. Using the IOI and its Single-Entry Multi-Carrier Interface, business was submitted, underwritten, quoted and bound. It was a revolutionary moment for an industry that had been promised full SEMCI for decades but never truly got to experience it.

The Internet of Insurance uniquely offers 5 (soon-to-be 6) distinct ways for carriers to connect, as opposed to just the typical rating API connection. “This all represents some extremely heavy technical lifting, but we decided to do it to support all carriers and all lines, regardless of the carrier’s technical sophistication,” stated Kolb. “Single-entry, all carriers. Then we paired that with a suite of powerful tools to help agencies grow and be more efficient: an agency storefront for policyholders, a cloud environment for handling mid-market submissions and underwriter referrals, real-time collaboration and notifications, and so much more, concluded Kolb.”

The Internet of Insurance is a unique product of the Internet age, providing full SEMCI to the insurance ecosystem regardless of how advanced or behind an agency’s or carrier’s technology stack is. Technology companies offering SEMCI are racing to provide the independent-agency-system with powerful, modern tools that are built on an industrial-strength cloud-native platform that makes data easy for agents and carriers to collect and act on.

Agents must leverage SEMCI to succeed in this new digital age. As ACUITY likes to say,

CEO of IIAW

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