“It’s a bit of an over-simplification,” Albert continued, “but you can almost think of Ask Kodiak as a content management system for this class of information. And then carriers are putting it on their own websites, wrapping their own analytics around it. So, there’s much more value than a standard agent portal.

“Different customers have different pain points. For some of them it is marketing ROI [return on investment]…being able to cast a broader net and target their information about appetite, eligibility, and the marketing collateral materials associated with their offerings to the right agents or a new group of agents. For other customers, there’s an underwriting and technology workflow challenge. So, the technology models on Ask Kodiak can really put a ‘catcher’s mitt’ out there, that can really gather all the key information and direct it to the right place, so the carrier can better capture premium in those business classes, states, revenue and payroll thresholds they are most focused on.”

To get to the sweet spot of user-friendly, accessible, up-to-date risk appetite information, Ask Kodiak prioritized clarity and consistency.

“There’s a lot of different folks sending business their way in many different formats,” Albert said. “The technology challenge is really about making things more uniform. Different divisions in a company may have different processes or use different formats, so the user experience for the agent or broker can be a little clunky. ‘I’m used to seeing it this way,’ or ‘These guys send this information in a PDF’ or ‘These guys send a bunch of class codes and a spreadsheet.’ That’s a lot to weed through. It’s a big user experience benefit to be able to say, ‘Here’s what we need’ in a consistent way.”

To provide that consistency and also help ensure ease of use for a broad and diverse range of clients, Ask Kodiak puts the power of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to work. For those unfamiliar with APIs, Albert makes a comparison anyone can understand: LEGO blocks.

“APIs let your team stick different pieces of software technology — whether your own or from outsider providers — together in a way that makes sense for what you’re trying to do strategically. With APIs, you can break things down and snap things together in ways that are precisely what the business needs.”

The high-tech “building blocks” let carriers embed the Ask Kodiak platform into their own digital presences and processes.

“The real value of this platform is carriers using this model and the APIs around everything we do to support their own distribution strategies. Put it on your own website and/or mobile apps…some customers have even built things like Alexa skills to answer questions in spoken word with natural language processing. All that becomes possible when you get out of those spreadsheets and PDFs and into using the science of this.”

That science goes beyond making changes in risk appetite info quick and easy. Ask Kodiak also offers real-time insights into what agents and brokers are searching for — even if they have never sent a submission to the insurer. That can open the door to new agencies to work with. The platform also offers a view of product performance that can trigger decisions to help optimize and market insurance products.

Ask Kodiak serves customers across property and casualty insurance lines, but it can be especially beneficial in the programs insurance space, as the many unique risks and niche markets specialty insurance serves can make “old school” updates of appetite collateral a challenge.

For Zurich, Ask Kodiak allows the company to devote less time and energy on such content refreshes and more time working with Program Administrators to grow their programs and find opportunities in new markets.

“ZProgramsMatch has been a very successful program for generating leads to our Program Administrator partners for over ten years. Over that time, we have generated over 75,000 leads for our PAs, but we are always looking for ways to generate more leads,” said Mike Maher, Vice President, Marketing for U.S. Middle Markets at Zurich North America.

“I met Mike Albert at the very first InsureTech Connect conference and thought the Ask Kodiak platform would be a great way to distribute the programs appetite to agents on the platform and internally with Zurich underwriters,” Maher continued. “The ability to search appetite quickly and easily using a Google-like search box makes it easy for agents, brokers and underwriters to easily find our program appetites and quickly get them to the right platform or person.”