Carriers, you need to face this reality: SignOn Once by ID Federation is the most effective, most efficient, most secure solution to the credential management crisis now facing the independent channel. Without it, agencies soon will see their costs to manage passwords skyrocketing to as much as $1,000 to $3,000 per user per year.
You can choose to participate in SignOn Once — becoming a carrier of choice — or you can risk being adversely selected against. Your agency customers soon will say to you: Carriers A, B and C are on board. Why aren’t you?
Return on Investment?
The industry understands, but ultimately will not accept, your hesitation. Coming from the carrier environment myself, I strongly feel that your commitment to SignOn Once by ID Federation will result in a more secure environment all around, reducing credential management issues for the entire channel. As a relying party in the ID Federation trust framework, your participation requires only a one-time, nominal investment. And it requires minimal effort to set up and test the process with SignOn Once identity providers (IdPs) before rolling it out to agents.
Only IdPs must go through a certification process in order to build the security tokens at the heart of SignOn Once. Vertafore and Applied are both certified; Vertafore is already working with carriers, and Applied will soon follow.
As carriers, you have so much to gain by joining this singular, united response to credential management.
- Position yourself as a trusted carrier that is at the forefront of technology, providing a way to comply with the emerging cybersecurity regulatory environment, particularly multi-factor authentication (MFA).
- Drive down help-desk calls. The leading help desk call topic across all carriers is password-related — whether it’s the initial setup of an ID and password, the password has been lost or corrupted, or the password and ID need to be deprovisioned. Your ROI on this point alone will be worth your investment in ID Federation. The carriers already offering SignOn Once report that upon implementation, their password-related help desk calls plummeted to nearly zero. You can expect at least a 70% reduction in help desk calls immediately after setting up SignOn Once.
The Bigger Picture
I spent 20 years on the carrier side of the business, but in my position with the IIABA Agents Council for Technology (ACT), my focus is on coming to solutions for the entire distribution channel. Solutions that are in our common best interest — as carriers, vendors, agents, user groups and associations — are what ACT is all about.
And we at ACT are throwing our full weight behind SignOn Once by ID Federation as a trusted, singular response to credential management. You may remember when real-time comparative rating for personal lines came out. It struggled initially although everyone was on board with the idea. But once five to seven key carriers were participating, it was table stakes.
Agencies need this seamless, safe and cost-efficient solution to credential management. SignOn Once is at the tipping point and will soon go over the top.
Will you be with us, or will you be left behind?
Ron Berg is executive director of the IIABA Agents Council for Technology (ACT). He is active in AUGIE and spent nearly 20 years on the carrier side of the insurance business, most recently as senior technology research specialist for MetLife Auto & Home.
