BOSTON, Jan. 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ask Kodiak, an API platform providing real-time appetite and eligibility for commercial lines insurance companies, managing general agencies (MGAs), wholesalers, and agents, is pleased to announce a partnership with InsurTech leader Vertafore to embed carrier-managed appetite and eligibility information within Vertafore’s insurance software solutions.
Available immediately, Ask Kodiak’s integration with Vertafore’s ReferenceConnect® makes carrier-managed appetite, eligibility, and marketing information available to the ReferenceConnect user community in real time. ReferenceConnect helps agents and brokers grow new and existing business by providing information from over 40 trusted insurance sources, and now, that list of sources includes Ask Kodiak for commercial appetite.
This new offering for ReferenceConnect uses Ask Kodiak’s new industry standard for high-definition classification of commercial insurance risks based on the latest edition of the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS HD). The partnership gives carriers the ability to precision target content to agents and brokers based on all levels of the NAICS hierarchy, including governing class, geography, business characteristics, coverage amounts, or any combination thereof for a prospective insured.
“We’re excited to launch this integration for commercial appetite with Ask Kodiak,” said James Thom, chief product officer at Vertafore. “Utilizing Ask Kodiak’s APIs, we can easily display their real-time appetite and eligibility for numerous carriers and MGAs in ReferenceConnect. This functionality is easily extensible to other widely-used Vertafore solutions as well – something we’re excited to do more of with the Ask Kodiak team.”
Ask Kodiak delivers a new level of transparency into commercial lines appetite and eligibility which translates into expanded opportunities for collaborating agents, brokers, and carriers. Before Ask Kodiak, most carriers lacked a viable digital mechanism for sharing appetite, and lack of real-time insight into carrier appetite often results in no quote situations and lost business for distribution partners.
As competition in the commercial lines market continues to tighten, insight into which carriers have the appetite and the best prices for needed coverages mean speed-to-market and a better overall customer experience. With Ask Kodiak’s unique, customized user interface in ReferenceConnect, Vertafore’s carrier customers can now store, update, and share appetite and eligibility information with any distribution partner via APIs for maximum efficiency, underwriting accuracy, quote-to-bind speed, and conversion rates.
“For our customers making their appetite and eligibility available to the Vertafore user community is now as simple as checking a box,” said Michael Albert, co-founder of Ask Kodiak. “The same information they’re already using to improve user experience on their own websites and portals, share with their traditional independent agents on Ask Kodiak, and integrate with their digital partners via the Ask Kodiak API snaps right into Vertafore with a single click.”
About Ask Kodiak
Ask Kodiak helps insurance carriers organize commercial insurance. The API-based technology platform that helps agents make product selections based on appetite and eligibility provided by insurance carriers wherever it’s needed. For more details, visit www.askkodiak.com.
About Vertafore
As North America’s InsurTech leader for more than 50 years, Vertafore is modernizing and simplifying insurance distribution so that our customers can focus on what matters most: people. Vertafore’s solutions provide end-to-end connectivity, improve the client and agent experience, unlock the power of data, and streamline essential workflows to drive efficiency, productivity, and profitability for independent agencies and carriers. For more information about Vertafore, visit www.vertafore.com.
Media Contact:
Jennifer Overhulse
St. Nick Media Services
(859) 803-6597
jen@stnickmedia.com