Key survey findings include:

Digital strategies: Results showed 51% of agency and brokerage respondents have a digital strategy, with larger agencies more likely to have one.
Foundational management system: Ninety-five percent of agencies and brokerages leverage a management system, confirming that it is the foundation of business operations and indispensable for day-to-day operations.
Mobile: Thirty-three percent of agencies and brokerages use client self-service portals, which represents a 50% increase year-over-year. Similarly, adoption of client mobile apps also increased 50% year-over-year to 27% versus 18% in 2019. For all regions combined, 52% of agencies and brokerages have extended mobile technology to their employees.
Insurer connectivity: Personal lines remains the most widely adopted at 84%. Claims download experienced the greatest growth at 60% versus 57% in 2019. The continued growth in insurer connectivity reinforces the increasing importance agencies and brokerages place on digital connectivity with insurer partners.
Analytics: Although global adoption of analytics software is lower compared to other tools, 29% of agencies and brokerages reported using data analytics applications, which is a 26% increase year-over-year.
Cloud: Up 9% year-over-year, 71% of agencies and brokerages choose to host their software in the cloud, and it continues to be the top choice among agencies and brokerages for software hosting.

"When we began our annual digital agency and brokerage technology adoption survey, we couldn't have predicted the scale of operational impacts the pandemic would create for all our businesses," Taylor Rhodes, CEO at Applied Systems, said in a statement. "And while the survey results show positive progress toward technology adoption, I expect the current environment will further accelerate adoption of technology, enabling agencies and brokerages to operate remotely and create connected customer experiences as they build their digital path forward."

Special Reports /

Digital technology adoption steady among independent agencies, brokerages

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