By Alvito Vaz
Having just returned from the Applied Net 2024 conference it is clear to me that by working together we are stronger. This is true for driving a competitive advantage like Applied Systems’ acquisition of Planck to expand and accelerate delivery of AI capabilities across their product portfolio. It is also true of cooperative activities that help the entire independent agent channel.
ACORD was formed by competing insurance companies to minimize confusion and unify their approach to policy forms. Over time ACORD standards have grown to include electronic sharing, which is the foundation for connectivity between carriers and agencies today. Imagine a world where each carrier sent their policy information to agent systems in a different way. Luckily, leaders in the industry worked together so that did not happen.
Today we face a similar industry challenge with authentication. Cyber exposure is growing, and each carrier is implementing their own method of solving the problem — often with use of multi-factor authentication (MFA). A recent agent survey by ID Federation found that on average each agency had three different MFA methods, and each CSR is using an MFA process more than six times per day.
While at the conference I received input from an agent saying, “MFA is killing me, how do we get SOO [SignOn Once] to happen on a mass scale?” He shared that four more carriers have mandated MFA this week. And together with six other websites that he uses almost daily, it is crippling their agency processes. I didn’t have an answer for him when he asked me “Why doesn’t the industry see SignOn Once as a solution?”
The good news is the industry has been working together and formed ID Federation, a non-profit association, to allow agencies to authenticate one time in their management system and then share that credential with other partners eliminating the need for multiple sign-on processes. Both leading management system vendors — Applied Systems and Vertafore — support ID Federation. We need leadership from carriers to implement SignOn Once so agencies can operate with security and operational efficiency.
If you are an agent and would like to improve the current situation with multiple IDs, passwords and MFA processes ask your carrier to support ID Federation.
Alvito Vaz is executive director of ID Federation. He is a long-time participant in AUGIE and has held business and technology leadership roles at Progressive and Travelers. He can be reached at alvito@idfederation.com.
