The insurance industry has historically been slow to adopt new technology, but that’s starting to change. Automation, telematics, cloud computing, and a bevy of technologies are making insurance more fast-paced, customer-centric, and competitive. Insurers that effectively use technology to increase their accuracy and reduce friction in their processes will gain an edge.

The challenge is accessing best-in-class tools and integrating them into your processes without increasing the burden on your staff. Application program interfaces (APIs), which allow software applications to interact with one another using a common language, are key to solving this challenge. Here’s how APIs can help insurers empower their employees with advanced analytics and insights.

It’s All About Integration and Ease of Use

With so many interactions occurring digitally, insurance professionals need access to technology to keep up. For example, 44% of agents say insurers should prioritize digital tools to support them right now. But investing in technology for technology’s sake isn’t the solution:

• Roughly 65% of commercial lines underwriters say technology investments have either increased or had no change to their workload, mostly due to system inefficiencies and poor data integration.
• Only 32% of commercial underwriters say that they have above-average underwriting tools that are accessible and intuitive for them to use.
• Whereas other industries have increased productivity through digitization, productivity in the insurance sector has been mostly flat over the last ten years.

These reports all highlight the need to prioritize ease of use and integration in technology acquisitions.

Why APIs Are the Answer

APIs make it possible to quickly gather and use data from multiple sources. For example, with an  API, you can connect your policy administration system to a database with vehicle values and specs necessary to underwrite. There’s no need for the underwriter to open another application or search online for the information they need. And there’s no need to manually enter data about the vehicle ,  which saves time and reduces errors.

APIs allow you to integrate a wide range of data to perform critical research and validations. Price Digests APIs, for instance, allow you to access the following, right from within your own system:

• Taxonomy data
• Truck, passenger vehicle and motorcycle VINs
• Boats, RVs, etc.
• Risk mitigation data
• Vehicle specifications
• Market values and pricing
• Error identification

Increase Speed and Reduce Risk

With APIs, you can leverage Price Digests’ vast data sets and analytics while streamlining processes for your employees. APIs also grant you access to the latest features, such as bulk entry. Instead of manually entering inputs one-by-one, you can upload them in bulk and perform lookups and validations all at once.

With the time saved, you can do more to mitigate risk.  “APIs put the information you need at your fingertips so you can easily check all vehicles. With a manual, disconnected approach, you’re more likely to spot  check some of the vehicles, which increases risk”, says  , Price Digests’ Manager of Strategic Accounts. .

APIs are key to addressing the integration challenges and inefficiencies that hamper technology adoption and productivity. And they help employees take a more proactive approach to reducing risk. To learn more about APIs and what you can achieve with API-enabled databases, download APIs: The New Game Changer for Commercial Auto Carriers.

About Price Digests

Since 1911 Price Digests has served the vehicle data needs of the insurance, finance, government, and dealer markets through its portfolio of VIN decoding, specifications, and market value data solutions for the commercial truck, passenger vehicle, marine, powersport, and recreational vehicle asset classes. Our data + intelligence solutions pave roads to faster and better decisions with perfect-fit data delivery, whether it’s seamlessly integrated APIs, online subscriptions or custom data delivery.