Tag: Rating

What’s New in EZLynx 22.1

Posted on by EZLynx

The EZLynx April 2022 release is now available! Here are some of the highlights:

Automation Center Adds Support for EZLynx Submission Center

The power of automation has arrived for EZLynx Submission Center! Users of Automation Center will find that a new Submission Center category has been added to the list of over 20 available workflows. There are two new triggers under this category, Commercial Submission Added and Commercial Submission Updates. Each provides the ability to automate regular agency activities at these specific milestones along the commercial submission process. Automated workflows make for faster, more efficient submissions and help your staff remain focused on the next steps to winning.

Policy Audit and Reinstatement Workflows Added to Automation Center

Triggers for Policy Audit and Policy Reinstatement have been added to EZLynx Automation Center. These new workflows, found under the Management System category, empower your agency to automate activities around these milestones in the life of your clients’ policies.

These workflows work for both downloaded and manual policies, and they can be set up to automatically take the following actions when triggered:

  • Create Note/Task
  • Send Email
  • Create Folders
  • Send Text Message
  • Generate Agency Documents
  • Generate Client Documents

Improvements to Application and Policy Data Entry

We’ve made enhancements to several policy and application screens.

  • Small Farm and Ranch screens have been updated for a more intuitive flow as you enter data and navigate between the different tabs.
  • Personal Lines Package Policy and Bundled Application screens have been improved to provide single policy entry of insured information, underwriting, and additional interests. (Essentially, we’ve taken the common framework that already existed for commercial lines of business and extended them to personal lines, as well.) This not only reduces the amount of time it takes to create a Personal Package, but it also reduces the duplicate data your agency needs to enter and manage.
  • For Bonds Miscellaneous, we’ve created an entry screen for a line of business that didn’t previously feature entry screen support. This enhancement makes it easier to work with this line of business in bundled policy applications, and it also facilitates more robust policy information when servicing the client. Whether adding a policy or creating an application, you will now be able to enter relevant insurable interests information, including sections for: Liability, Property, Item/Schedule, and General Remarks/Notes.

Rating Broker Fee

In EZLynx Rating Engine, we’ve added support for the management of broker fees. Broker fees can be set up by carrier, state and line of business, and you may enter a flat dollar amount or a percentage up to two decimal places. Once set up, these broker fees will display as a separate line item during the quoting process.

This new feature is key in several states, including agencies writing business in California.

To set up broker fees for your agency, admins can enable from the new Broker Fee tab under any Rating carrier’s Settings.
NOTE: This feature is currently available for Retail agencies, only.

Rating Engine Updates

We’ve made some state-specific updates to Rating Engine, including:

  • Massachusetts agents now have the ability to access the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) database to look up driver incidents (violations, accidents, and comp losses) and import them into EZLynx at no additional cost!
  • In certain cases, new Virginia state laws will require double the new state minimums for Auto applicants with alcohol-related offenses. We’ve added $60,000/$120,000 options for Bodily Injury and Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverages, as well as $40,000 for Property Damage and Uninsured Property Damage on the Coverage screen.

Client Center Expands Commercial Schedule Change Requests

Last year, we introduced the ability for your commercial auto insureds to request changes to their driver schedules through EZLynx Client Center. This gave clients an easy, online way to submit these change requests at their own convenience. It was a real game-changer, because it meant no additional data entry on the agency’s part! With this release, we’re expanding commercial policy change request capabilities with the addition of several more schedules and LOBs:

  • Vehicle – Commercial Auto
  • Lien Holder – Commercial Auto, BOP, General Liability
  • Additional Insured – Commercial Auto, Garage and Dealers, General Liability, BOP, Commercial Umbrella
  • Mortgagee – BOP, Commercial Property

 

For more information on any of these exciting new features, please visit the EZLynx Solution Center.

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What’s New in EZLynx 21.3

Posted on by EZLynx

The EZLynx December 2021 release is now available! Here are some of the highlights:

Automation Center Enhancements for IVANS eDocs and Messages

In EZLynx Automation Center, the Carrier Notification Received trigger has been expanded to include tailored workflows for the full range of carrier message types. Each carrier message contains handling information that can automatically drive activities within your agency. Where policies are at risk, you can immediately intercede and work with the customer to resolve outstanding issues.

For the Carrier Notification Received workflow, Message Type has been added as a filtering parameter. These message types include:

  • Notice of Final Cancellation
  • Payment Overdue
  • Rescission Notice
  • Non-Payment Pending Cancellation
  • Electronic Memo
  • Non-Renewal Notice
  • Policy Change (Travelers only)

Automation Center Adds Policy Renewal Workflow

A new Policy Renewal workflow has been added to EZLynx Automation Center. When a policy is renewed, your agency can now automate actions like:

  • Email or text the client
  • Generate and share important documents
  • Create notes or tasks for your agency to follow up
  • Create folders within EZLynx Management System

As you would expect, you can filter this workflow based on various parameters within the context of the policy or applicant/insured.

This new trigger can be found under the Management System section in the Workflow Editor screen.

Additional Lines Added for Edit Downloads Feature

EZLynx means smarter downloads, because our process goes out of its way not to override existing manually entered data. You can also supplement information in policy downloads sent from the carrier. In a Commercial Auto policy, for example, users can fill in missing information for vehicles, drivers, coverages, additional interests, and more. This feature allows agencies to take complete control of their policy data.

Previously, the Edit Downloads feature was only available for commercial downloads. Now, we’ve extended this feature to personal lines, as well!

The following LOBs have  been added for Edit Downloads:

  • Personal Auto
  • Homeowners
  • Dwelling Fire
  • Personal Umbrella
  • Personal Inland Marine
  • Flood
  • Watercraft (small boat)

Rating Engine Updates

Several carrier-specific questions have now become part of the default EZLynx Rating Engine questions for the Home LOB. These moves improve accuracy and reduce the overall number of company-specific questions. Questions include:

  • Number of Full Baths (added into MSB Lookup)
  • Number of Half Baths (added into MSB Lookup)
  • Occupancy Type
  • Dwelling Usage field updated (Unoccupied and Vacant moved to new Occupancy Type field)
  • Sinkhole Collapse (moved to regular Endorsements section)

We also have some state-specific updates with this release, to reflect changes to state law.

  • Virginia — Bodily Injury, Uninsured Motorist, Underinsured Motorist Minimum Limits increased to 30/60
  • Nevada — Dog Breed question removed
  • New Jersey — Additional “Not Specified” Gender option added

Option to Cancel Pending Bulk Re-Assignment Jobs

Previously, if your agency needed to cancel a pending Bulk Re-Assignment Job, you needed to contact EZLynx Support. You now have the in-product option to cancel those queued requests yourself.

NOTE: You are only able to cancel jobs that have not yet started processing. In general, Bulk Re-Assignment jobs start processing by 5PM CT.

Additional LOBs for Commercial Package Policies

When creating a Commercial Package Policy, you now have two additional LOBs to choose from:

  • Excess Liability
  • Professional Liability

Retention Center – Change Reasons for Additional LOBs

A key feature of EZLynx Retention Center is the way it summarizes premium-bearing changes between the insured’s current policy and the carrier’s renewal offer. These Change Reasons save hours of time previously spent by agency staff manually comparing dec pages.

In this release, we added Change Reasons for the following LOBs:

  • Business Owner’s Policy
  • Commercial Inland Marine
  • Crime
  • Commercial Umbrella
  • Excess Liability

In total, we added the Change Reasons feature for 20 new LOBs in 2021!

 

For more information on any of these exciting new features, please visit the EZLynx Solution Center.

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What’s New in EZLynx 21.1

Posted on by EZLynx

The EZLynx July 2021 release is now available! Here are some of the highlights:

Automatic Change Request Confirmation

Automatic Change Request Confirmation automatically compares downloaded policy changes against the change requests, as entered, to confirm their accuracy. If everything matches, it automatically confirms the change request for you and closes it out.

If the system detects discrepancies between the policy change processed by the carrier and the original request, the feature automatically generates a task in EZLynx, alerting you that the policy needs a closer review.

Either way, your staff spends less time reviewing and completing endorsement requests!

Automatic Change Request Confirmation is priceless for commercial policies, where even the tiniest mistake can be costly. It also holds particular value for fast-growing agencies looking to scale their operation accordingly.

Payment Requests Added to Clearent Payment Processing

Our partnership with Clearent makes secure online payment processing available in EZLynx Client Center. With this release, we’ve added the ability for agents to generate Payment Requests.

This new feature provides a simple way for agents to request electronic payments from their clients. You have the option to text or email the payment request, along with a link to make the payment.

As electronic payments continue to rise in popularity, solutions like this one become an essential component of your agency’s offerings. Online payment by credit card or eCheck eliminates the need for clients to visit your office or provide their credit card information over the phone. Electronic payment is also a safer, more efficient alternative to paper checks.

Need to sign up for Clearent online payment processing? Customers can click here to get started from the EZLynx Connect Marketplace.

Automation Center Workflow Templates

If you’ve ever found yourself thinking, I know EZLynx Automation Center would be a game-changer for my agency, but I just don’t know where to begin, then this latest enhancement is for you!

We’ve created eight recommended workflow templates to help your agency realize the benefits of Automation Center immediately.

These templates were built with the most common agency use cases in mind. They come loaded with predefined filters, checklists, and appropriate actions—so you can easily enable your first workflows with just a few clicks.

These eight recommended workflow templates are:

  • Welcome Your New Customers
  • Organize Personal Account Information
  • Organize Commercial Account Information
  • Send Customer Birthday Wishes
  • Share Declaration Pages Online
  • Proactively Review Notice of Cancellation
  • Review Lost Policies
  • Additional Policy

Vonage Integration Adds Call Recording

We’ve added Call Recording to the Vonage integration with EZLynx Management System. Once recorded, calls are automatically archived to the proper customer account and can be accessed from three locations in EZLynx:

  • Applicant → Activity Tab
  • Applicant → Documents Tab
  • Communication Center → Calls and Messages

You can set up rules to automatically record calls, or record calls on demand. Some of the benefits of this exciting new feature include reducing E&O exposure, documenting compliance, maintaining audit readiness, and staff training.

Contact your Vonage sales representative to add Call Recording to your subscription. If you are not yet a Vonage customer, click here to get started.

EZLynx Rating – Vehicle Premium Breakdown

When quoting Auto, you now have the option to view a Coverage and Premium Breakdown for each vehicle. This new feature can be used to drive more informed discussions with clients about their coverage limit options and how each contributes to the overall premium. Find this additional information by clicking VIEW DETAILS in your carrier quote results.

 

Also with this release, EZLynx now displays the applied coverage limits during the quoting process for the individual carrier. Previously, users had to go to the carrier (or check Quote proposal for the individual carrier, if returned) to identify this information.

Retention Center – Change Reasons for Six Additional LOBs

A key feature of EZLynx Retention Center is the way it summarizes premium-bearing changes between the insured’s current policy and the carrier’s renewal offer. These Change Reasons save hours of time previously spent by agency staff manually comparing dec pages.

We’ve now added these Change Reasons for six new LOBs:

  • Commercial Auto
  • Dwelling Fire
  • Personal Inland Marine
  • Boat
  • Motorcycle
  • Recreational Vehicle

 

For more information on any of these exciting new features, please visit the EZLynx Solution Center.

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What’s New in EZLynx 21.0

Posted on by EZLynx

The EZLynx April 2021 release is now available! Here are some of the highlights:

New Rating Workflow for Automation Center

We’ve added a new Successful Quote Submission workflow to EZLynx Automation Center.

This brand-new trigger automates sending emails to the applicants when a comparative rating quote is completed. The email includes carrier and premium options from the quote results, as well as details for your choice of Full Pay, Monthly or EFT payments (using Email Personalization Tags). You can also customize the overall message of the email template, to best suit the situation.

Use cases for this automated communication include:

  • Proactively reaching out to clients at renewal time
  • Instant follow-up when running quotes over the phone

Agencies can refine the Trigger by applying Filters like Channel, Resubmission, Package, or Premium. This gives agents the flexibility to automate these quote results emails only for specific scenarios.

Side-By-Side View of Drivers and Vehicles in Rating Engine

For users who prefer the classic vertical view for drivers and vehicles in EZLynx Auto Rating, you now have that option in your user settings.

Access your user Account Settings under your user initials (in a circle) in the top-right corner of the screen. Under Preferences, find the Rating – Drivers/Vehicles section and select the Side by Side option.

Tablet users will likely prefer to continue using the Stacked (horizontal) view.

EZLynx Connect Marketplace Has a New Look and Feel

With the continued growth of EZLynx Connect, it was time to revisit the way agents discover and enable these integrations.

With this redesign, we have updated the Marketplace home page, improved navigation, and made the integration detail pages easier to read.

Here’s how:

  1. We’ve made Integration Cards more front-and-center in the marketplace. The newest and most widely used integrations are now immediately visible. You can always expand any of the categories to see the complete list.
  2. Added search functionality makes it easier to discover new integrations. You can search for integrations by name or description. We have also added Tags. Tags are short, searchable descriptions relating to an integration’s functionality or status. Find Tag buttons located to the right of the search bar.
  3. On the Integration Detail Pages, we’ve improved the layout to highlight the benefit of each integration for your agency.

We’ve also added the most commonly used menu items to the EZLynx Connect Marketplace icon on the Main left-hand menu bar. So, navigating the marketplace is more straightforward from the start.

Exciting developments all around!

Client Center Adds New Cross-Selling Opportunities

We continue to expand the value of EZLynx Client Center. With this release, we’ve added even more cross-selling opportunities.

There’s a new “Products and services chosen for you!” button on the home screen. From there, these cross-sell products are displayed to your customers on the Policies page.

New additions from the EZLynx Connect Marketplace include:

  • ADT Home Alarm Systems (Secure24 Alarms)
  • Flood Insurance (Flood Risk Solutions)

To enable either of these or the Life Insurance (BackNine) integration that was already available, search for them using the new Self Service Tag in the EZLynx Connect Marketplace. From there, activate the vendor, and these cross-selling opportunities will begin appearing for your customers in the Client Center portal.

Email Personalization Tag for Your Agency Logo

We’ve added a new section in the Email Campaigns settings page, called Agency Logo. With this implementation, agents can now include their branding in the Email Templates and Email Designs via super-efficient Tags.

Found under Email Campaigns >> Settings >> General Preferences, this section gives the Main Org Admin the ability to:

  • Add your Agency Logo
  • Share your Agency Logo with other users and branches

Branch Admins will have the ability to change the Agency Logo shared by the Main Org, but this capability will not be available at the user level.

Updates to EZLynx Zapier App

Zapier connects your agency management system to thousands of apps and programs, making integrations and automations hassle-free with platform partners. With this release, we have some exciting updates to announce.

First, we’ve added support for Documents—both inbound and outbound.

Inbound, the Create Document action can be used to load supported document types from external systems into EZLynx. The following document types are supported:

  • Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
  • Microsoft Excel (.xls, .xlsx)
  • Text (.txt)
  • Standard image files (.png, .jpg, .jpeg)
  • PDF (.pdf)

Outbound, we’ve added triggers for when a document is created or edited in EZLynx. (For security, the document itself is not included in the outbound data.)

Next, we’ve added some additional fields. To the Create Personal Applicant Action, we’ve added Lead Source, Co-Applicant and Opportunity. To the Create Commercial Applicant Action, we’ve added Lead Source and Opportunity.

We’ve also added some highly-requested fields to outbound triggers:

  • Assigned Agent Full Name has been added to the New and Modified Personal Applicant and New and Modified Commercial Applicant triggers.
  • Producer has been added to the New and Modified Opportunity triggers.

 

For more information on any of these exciting new features, please visit the EZLynx Solution Center.

 

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What’s New in EZLynx 20.4

Posted on by EZLynx

The EZLynx December 2020 release is now available! Here are some of the highlights:

Vonage Integration

Experience seamless integration between your agency management software and your phone system.

In September, we announced our partnership with Vonage to integrate unified communications and programmable voice capabilities into EZLynx Management System. This integration is now generally available to all new and existing Vonage customers.

With Vonage, EZLynx customers have the ability to collaborate more efficiently, stay connected and create richer customer experiences through live interactive voice and video sessions—from anywhere, on a single platform.

This integration provides :

  • Customer Profiles — A window automatically opens to an Account Overview when an incoming phone number matches an applicant in EZLynx.
  • Click to Dial — Make calls easily from EZLynx. Areas include the Account Overview page, the Carrier Directory, Sales Center, Communication Center, and many more. Phone numbers appear as hyperlinks.
  • Call Logging — When an incoming or outgoing call is completed, EZLynx will automatically create a note on the Activities page. You can add additional notes to the discussion, documenting the contents of the call.
  • Sent and Received — The Sent and Received page in Communication Center is expanded to include voice calls. Incoming and outgoing voice calls will display, along with current text messages.

Vonage is the latest addition to the EZLynx Connect platform.

Visit our Vonage partner page to get started.

Commercial Edit Downloads

EZLynx already had smarter Commercial Downloads, because our process goes out of its way to not override existing manually entered data. Now, we’ve added the option to edit your agency’s Commercial Downloads, as well.

With Commercial Edit Downloads, your agency can supplement information in policy downloads sent from the carrier. In a Commercial Auto policy, for example, users can fill in missing information for vehicles, drivers, coverages, additional interests, and more. This new feature allows agencies to take complete control of their policy data and make information complete.

Please note: Users cannot change the information downloaded by the carrier, but are instead able to add to it (unpopulated fields) through the entry screens.

For subsequent downloaded transactions, EZLynx will:

  • Automatically sync this user-added information
  • Maintain each version of the edited policy as a history
  • Provide the option to restore a version at any point in time

This feature is available for the following lines of business: Commercial Auto, Commercial Property, General Liability, Business Owners Policy, Commercial Umbrella, Homeowners, Dwelling Fire, Personal Auto, Inland Marine, Workers Comp and Crime. When Edit is selected under Actions for a supported line of business, just like a manual policy, a new option to “Save & Continue Edit” appears.

This feature is now available for all EZLynx Management System (Level 3) customers.

Cross-Selling Personal Lines in Client Center

EZLynx Client Center has been evolving to become not just a robust self-servicing tool for insureds, but also a platform for exciting cross-sell opportunities.

The latest… Client Center now offers complementary personal lines products to insureds—automatically!

Insureds will be presented with the option to “Save By Bundling Your Policies Together” on their Policies page. When selected, users will be taken to a form to answer questions pertaining to the additional line of business. EZLynx will prefill the form with as much of the applicant’s existing data as possible. Once submitted, a task notification will be created for the agent in EZLynx, as will an application under the Applications section for the insured.

Insureds with an active Auto policy will see cross-sell options for Home, Renters, and Condo. Those with an active Home policy will see an Auto cross-sell option.

If the applicant has any difficultly completing the application, there is an option to click “Need Help?”.  Similarly, a task notification will appear for the assigned agent, along with an incomplete application in the insured’s Applications list.

Streamlined User Account Settings

Account Settings are new and improved!

For starters, users can access Account Settings under their username (user initials/circle in the top-right corner of the screen).

Once there, users will find their settings available under five categories: Account, Preferences, ACORD Forms, Email Signature and Security.

The “Security” tab is where users can set up their Two Step Verification for login.

By placing the most common Account Settings all in one place, we’ve made it fast and easy for users to manage their account profiles and preferences.

Consolidated Rating Questions

How would a 25% reduction in the number of questions required to get a quote sound? For most agents, that’s exactly what we’ve done.

We’ve added several new fields to our ratings screen, along with updating a few existing fields with new options. The result is that they no longer appear as additional carrier questions for each individual carrier. When you spend less time filling out information… you receive quotes faster.

Some examples include:

  • Foundation Type
  • Roof Design
  • Wind and Hurricane Deductibles for additional states
  • Vehicle Purchase Date
  • Number of Occupants

We’ve also improved the MSB Residential Pre-Fill and Reconstruction Cost tool. With this release, we’ve added/updated rating fields (and refined the way they map) to improve the accuracy of quotes.

Automation Center adds Expiring Policies Trigger

Agencies can now automate the workflow for expiring policies in Retention Center.

EZLynx Retention Center users have a new trigger available for Policy Added to the Expiration List. As the name suggests, this workflow will be triggered whenever a policy is added to the Expiration List in Retention Center.

Automation Center and Retention Center now work together to help agents manage the client retention process on auto-pilot mode.

Automation Center adds Client Center Link

Automation Center can help your agency increase adoption of EZLynx Client Center. We’ve added triggers for Applicant Created, New Customer and Additional Policy. You can now establish workflows so that when one of these events occurs, clients will be emailed automatically with a link to pertinent information within your agency’s customer portal.

An Applicant Created trigger will lead insureds to the Client Center homepage. New Customer and Additional Policy triggers will lead insureds to the appropriate Policy Summary page.

Improved Application and Policy Entry Workflows

The following LOBs have been updated with a new look, feel and usability:

  • Dwelling Fire
  • Inland Marine
  • Recreational Vehicle (RV)
  • Motorcycle

Entry screens have been updated to provide a more logical flow for how you enter data and navigate between different tabs in the screens. Users will find the improved user experience faster and more intuitive. Here are just a few examples:

For Dwelling Fire, you can now see all Locations in a single view.

The Inland Marine section has been reorganized to make it simpler to find the relevant underwriting section. Simply click on the expander and view the questions/information for that section.

We’ve reordered the Motorcycle & RV tabs to be the same as those in the Rating screens. This brings uniformity to the way data is entered both for the Rating and the Policy Entry Screens.

These updates will help agents enter data more quickly and accurately.

 

For more information on any of these exciting new features, please visit the EZLynx Solution Center.

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