New IVANS CEO Reid Holzworth talks insurance innovation
This insurance-technology executive aims to update the many manual, inefficient processes that he says still plague the industry.
Applied Systems, the provider of cloud-based business software for the insurance industry, recently announced the selection of longtime InsurTech player Reid Holzworth as CEO of its IVANS division, which automates the distribution and servicing of insurance products and provides regular data analysis around insurance market performance.
PropertyCasualty360.com capitalized on the announcement to pose some questions to Holzworth, who previously founded TechCanary after a management stint with Brightway Insurance, about his vision for the insurance industry of the future.
PC360: What can you share about your vision for the future of the insurance industry?
Holzworth: We can make the entire insurance industry so much more connected by streamlining workflows so that all parties, tech providers, agents, MGAs and insurers are working more efficiently. We know that for insurers and agencies, adopting new technology and implementing digital solutions can be overwhelming at times. But we at IVANS know that getting tech solutions in place can enable everyone in the business to work more efficiently and be successful in the digital future — together.
In processes like commercial lines submissions, for instance, we can take data directly from an agency management system or data capture solution and push it to an insurer’s quoting system, so they instantly have all of the information needed to begin a quote — no email, no mail, no phone. All that is needed is that connection between the agency and insurer. This process and so many more can become simple.
PC360: What career steps brought you to IVANS, and how will that experience impact your work there?
Holzworth: I’d call myself a serial entrepreneur. I started my first business as a kid at 19 years old and ran my own companies until I fell into insurance. In 2007, I had some friends who bought an insurance agency, and they were still doing really well even when the recession hit.
I was fascinated and decided to come on board, get my insurance license and was able to watch as they grew the business from a very small agency to about a thousand employees. Through this growth, I saw how important technology was to the business and everything else there was to know about the business.
Being an entrepreneur, I eventually decided to start my own agency, and I built the technology that worked for my business on the Salesforce platform. The technology worked really well so Salesforce reached out to bring the software to market. TechCanary became the No. One insurance solution on the Salesforce platform and was acquired by Applied in 2019.
PC360: What types of initiatives do you plan to launch at IVANS?
Holzworth: I’ve always thought that IVANS was such a big opportunity for the industry. There’s so much that can be done to streamline the overall insurance workflow. Over three decades, IVANS has built the connections that connect the industry. With those connections, there are so many opportunities for us to modernize many of the manual, inefficient processes that still plague the industry.
Think of IVANS as the superhighway of insurance. Each exit is a different insurer. Independent agencies can hop on the highway through their management systems to access markets, exchange policy and client information, and download documents from insurers. This infrastructure already exists between more than 430 insurers, 40 MGAs and 40 different management systems. Our focus now is to modernize this highway and continue to build upon those connections.
PC360: What else would you like our readers to know?
Holzworth: I’ll just quickly end with the fact that it is truly an honor to join a team that can so greatly impact the industry in a positive way. Many people don’t know that IVANS actually stands for Insurance Value Added Network Services. It was built more than 35 years ago to digitally connect the industry, and we will continue working so that the industry only becomes more and more connected. It’s really time to utilize the connections that have been built and provide innovative solutions that continue to streamline all the processes throughout the insurance lifecycle.
Keep reading…