Omaha National Group + AgentSync AutoPilot

Omaha National Group is made up of several companies, including two insurance carriers. One of those, Omaha National Insurance Co. is a six-year-old workers’ compensation insurance carrier that’s growing rapidly and is already licensed to do business in 36 states. As a self-described “startup,” Omaha National Insurance Company strives to be tech-forward and tech-enabled. But, as recently as three years ago, they were still managing producer and adjuster licenses and compliance in a paper binder.

With a small compliance team whose time was being eaten by the arduous task of ongoing compliance management, Omaha National Insurance Company was looking for a better way. That’s when Stephanie Davis, a paralegal on the compliance team, heard about AgentSync.

Implementing AgentSync and using the Autopilot service has:

• Given Davis and the rest of the compliance team hours of their days back by ending the hunt for producer and adjuster information.
• Provided Davis 100 percent confidence that each producer’s and adjuster’s information is as accurate as it possibly can be.
• Taken license compliance management from a painstaking process with information in multiple places to a streamlined and automated process with one single source of truth.

On top of these benefits, Davis can’t speak more highly about her implementation experience with AgentSync and the Autopilot team.

“Onboarding with AgentSync was seamless. They gave me a whole team, including a project manager who handled everything. I felt like a top priority!”

Stephanie Davis, Paralegal, Omaha National Insurance Company

A tech-forward insurer still working on paper

Omaha National Insurance Company is a rising star in the workers compensation insurance landscape, according to Stephanie Davis, one of the company’s compliance managers. At only six years old, the company is licensed to write business in 36 states and is on track to go national in the near future. With this type of growth comes an essential need to recruit, onboard, and manage a strong team of insurance salespeople and insurance adjusters. And that means a lot of licenses!

But as recently as three years ago, when Davis joined the company, licenses were still being managed by hand, which soon proved unmanageable.

“Three years ago we were using a binder to organize all of our agents’ licenses. We did everything manually and that proved very difficult even with just 30 agents at the time.” 

Stephanie Davis, Paralegal, Omaha National Insurance Company

As the company continued its growth trajectory to over 200 employees and counting, current methods just weren’t going to work. The search for a solution began, but that was easier said than done.  

The “solution” that wasn’t 

“The first time we tried to automate our producer and adjuster compliance management, we went with a company that we thought would be a total solution but the service proved to be less than optimal. The product still required a lot of manual effort.”

Stephanie Davis, Paralegal, Omaha National Insurance Company

Davis was excited to modernize Omaha National Insurance Company’s compliance management and was thrilled to have a new system that promised ease and automation. Unfortunately, the intended solution didn’t deliver. 

To start with, Davis had to enter each producer and adjuster’s information manually and then cross-reference a large internally maintained spreadsheet to verify accuracy. Not only was this a heavy lift at the start, Davis had to keep up with newly onboarded producers and adjusters on top of maintaining the accuracy of each existing record throughout the year – and across multiple states!

Simply put, this solution just wasn’t a solution at all. 

“That system required us to manually key in each producer’s information. We used our spreadsheet to double check that we’d uploaded everything correctly. The magic of AgentSync is that I just need someone’s NPN and social security number, and it pulls everything else from NIPR, so it’s effortless and accurate at the same time.” 

Stephanie Davis, Paralegal, Omaha National Insurance Company

Build vs. buy

Many insurance companies go through the thought experiment of building their own software for internal use. It sounds appealing before you get into the weeds of what’s required, but most quickly realize the true cost and change course. Of those that start down that path, many fail, and only after sinking large amounts of money into the project.

Omaha National Insurance Company is a true outlier in this respect. The company’s tech-forward DNA shines through with its investment in software developers. And, unlike many who try, the company’s investment paid off with the development of a proprietary claims management system.

“We have this unique approach to administering claims that proves optimal to our customers but we couldn’t find software on the market that would integrate with our philosophy and methods, so we developed our own. When we went live it immediately proved to be wildly successful.” 

Stephanie Davis, Paralegal, Omaha National Insurance Company

Given their prior success with building in-house, along with the less-than-optimal results from their first compliance management system, it seemed logical that Omaha National Insurance Company would pursue building its own solution. In fact, they started doing just that. 

Work had begun on software to track adjuster’s continuing education around the same time Davis was exploring AgentSync for producer compliance management. Soon, the results were in and it was obvious Omaha National Insurance Company could save time and money by using AgentSync to its fullest potential. 

“We were going to build our own compliance software too,” Davis said. “But when we started using AgentSync and saw what it could do, we halted that project. We realized we didn’t need to spend money building something that AgentSync already was doing a great job providing.”

Five-star implementation

After making the decision to go with AgentSync, Davis and her team prepared for everyone’s least favorite part of any tech project: implementation. To her surprise, getting AgentSync live was quicker and easier than Davis, or anyone else at Omaha National Insurance Company, anticipated. 

The hardest part, according to Davis, was having to collect each person’s national producer number and Social Security number because the former system didn’t capture them. “I had to collect that information by hand,” Davis said, “but once I had it, and entered it into AgentSync, I was like ‘My God, that’s magical!’”

“Onboarding was just a really good experience and, even though we’re up and running, the team’s still there to provide assistance needed, which is so nice.”

Stephanie Davis, Paralegal, Omaha National Insurance Company

Immediate benefits

“What I like most about AgentSync right off the bat is the sync with NIPR,” Davis said. “It gives me 100 percent confidence that my data is accurate.” 

Even though Omaha National Insurance Company is still relatively new to using AgentSync, the immediate benefits speak for themselves. For one thing, Davis’ job has changed dramatically. 

“One of the big differences in my job is that I don’t get panicked phone calls from sales folks,” Davis said. “They used to call me whenever they had an issue with their licenses or got notices from a state. I only get the occasional call now.”

Other quick wins Davis reported span from self-service capabilities, transparent and accessible information, reliable accuracy, and having a single source of truth.

“I’m looking forward to our first audit, as funny as it sounds. I can say that because we’re in such a good place with licensing compliance and have such confidence in the accuracy of our data now. When the auditors come calling for records, I can just say ‘Hey, we’ve got it all in this tool, so here you go.’ ”

Stephanie Davis, Paralegal, Omaha National Insurance Company

How AgentSync helps Omaha National Insurance Company

• Provides a newfound confidence that the producer and adjuster information in their system is accurate, complete, and up to date in real-time. 
• Allows self-service capabilities for producers and adjusters through Omaha National Insurance Company’s portal, eliminating Davis’ past information-chasing activities. 
• Gives full transparency to producers, adjusters, and compliance staff for each person’s license status across all states.
• Fulfills the promise of automated and streamlined compliance and, with the help of AgentSync’s Autopilot team, makes compliance truly “set it and forget it.”