Johnson & Johnson, Inc.

An opportunity in an inefficient E&S market

As retail agents struggle with time-consuming manual tasks, MGA Johnson & Johnson faced the challenge that agents were not taking the time to actively seek new wholesale brokers. However, the recent double-digit growth of excess and surplus (E&S) lines over many of the past few years meant it was becoming a growing portion of their book of business. This growth exacerbated an existing inefficiency: a larger volume of E&S policies requiring manually entered data into agency management systems.

Johnson & Johnson saw the opportunity to automate the exchange of policy information and documents to agents, making their operations more efficient when it came to E&S policies and strengthening J&J's value proposition to their agents.

Leveraging Ivans Download to create new business

Johnson & Johnson strategically opted to offer Ivans Download™ to their retail agents, recognizing that "anything we can do to take something off their plate is always going to be a huge bonus,” said Rob Pienta, VP of Sales & Marketing Data at Johnson & Johnson. The implementation of Ivans Download began with exploration in 2015, followed by a full rollout to agents throughout 2016, initially focusing on personal lines download before expanding to include commercial lines download within that first year.

Johnson & Johnson wins when its partner agents win

Ivans Download became a crucial tool for Johnson & Johnson’s sales and marketing teams. “We look at Ivans in policy download and the technologies that they offer as a huge win for our partner agents. And one of those facets that is going to help us in the long run, because it helps our customers,” said Pienta.

Johnson & Johnson tested download with a few big partners when it first adopted the technology, bringing immediate results. Pienta explained, "One of our first few test agents told us that it saved them 30% on their overhead on their E&S business." And this success has been seen across Johnson & Johnson’s agent distribution channel. In fact, the agents that download with Johnson & Johnson "...grew three times as much as those that didn’t use Ivans Download.”

Providing this growth lever to its agent partners has, in turn, impacted Johnson & Johnson’s growth. “It goes back to those efficiencies that we offer our partner agents. Because they are spending less time on manual work, we noticed a lot more people were open to hearing us out,” Pienta continued. “When we offered Ivans Download, that would open up the door to set a meeting. And then it allows us to deliver the rest of the story of what we have to offer: to be a true partner and offer you something that is going to make handling your E&S lines of business a lot more efficient, a lot more cost effective, and make you overall a lot happier as an agency.”

Ivans Download continues to be a valuable differentiator in the growing E&S market. As the E&S industry expands, there is a higher need for automated information and document exchange. The success of Ivans Download among Johnson & Johnson and its partner agents underscores the critical need for MGAs to adopt the efficiencies that are standard practice in the admitted markets to the E&S industry.