The inefficiencies with a proprietary system

Mercury Insurance previously used their own proprietary system to support its network of more than 9,400 agencies. IT troubleshooting and maintenance issues caused employees to focus more on IT, necessitating more hires. “Any calls that came in related to download issues had to go through our help desk, and then over the years, as we increased our agency force, that just meant more calls which meant more staff,” said Luis Rendon, director of National Sales and Marketing Administration, Mercury Insurance. The carrier spent too much time and money on their own proprietary system.

Additionally, ease of doing business with agencies declined when Mercury’s customers’ staff had to spend more time managing download from their system. “Our competitors would paint this picture that our clients would need special training and dedicated staff because we [Mercury] had our own system,” said Rendon. “Over time it actually became very difficult to continue to defend that position.” Staff needed technology that was better known by agencies and easily managed by both their own staff and their customers’ staff.

Advanced technology to seamlessly connect Mercury to agency partners

Ivans Download enables the staff at Mercury Insurance to easily connect and communicate with agencies. Ivans Download is a cloud-based data exchange solution that connects carriers to the broadest distribution network of independent insurance agencies. Ivans Download enables the staff at Mercury to automate the delivery of insurance information, such as eDocs and Messages download, with agency partners directly into their management systems, creating timely service and ease of doing business for both Mercury and its agency partners.

An estimated 4,000 hours to give to servicing and selling to clients

The staff at Mercury now see a significant amount of cost and time saved after implementing Ivans Download. “We’re estimating that we’re going to free up, on an annual basis, about 4,000 hours of our staffs’ times collectively, so we can turn those hours back into helping agents grow their books of business,” said Rendon. The carrier has also been able to save costs by reducing IT staff that focused on the proprietary system. “We’re going to see significant cost savings by reducing help desk hours and IT staff,” said Rendon. Ivans enables the staff to spend less time on IT and more time on the business of selling insurance.

Ivans also increases Mercury’s competitive value. “Moving to Ivans has positioned Mercury as an automation leader by demonstrating to our agency force that we understand agency-customer management,” said Reardon. Ivans offers the staff at Mercury many benefits including time and cost savings, as well as adding to the carrier’s competitive value. The advantages from Ivans enable Mercury to be seen as an industry leader.