The insurance market is a diverse and rapidly changing industry. In order to stay up to date with the goals and requirements of clients, innovative tools and fresh ideas are essential. One agency management system that specializes in helping insurance businesses increase their success is EZ Lynx. In this article, Brenna Johnson, Vice President of Product Management at EZ Lynx, discusses the key benefits of the software.

What Is EZ Lynx and Who Do They Serve?

“EZ Lynx is a single technology platform with all the tools an agency needs to manage their clients through the complete insurance customer lifecycle,” says Johnson. “On a more detailed level, we're a browser native, all in one system that accelerates growth, prioritizes retention, and streamlines an agency's workflow. The goal of EZ Lynx, as a platform is to create the most productive employees and to help agencies be more scalable, more service centric, and more profitable.”

EZ Lynx serves a wide range of customers, and they usually all have similar mindsets. According to Johnson, “Agencies who choose to partner with EZ Lynx typically have a very growth-minded focus and are ready to embrace the advantages of innovation. We really value this type partnership because we want to build tools that agencies need to remain competitive in today's insurance marketplace.”

EZ Lynx and Applied Systems

Applied Systems acquired EZ Lynx in March 2021, with the goal of expanding Applied’s portfolio of agency management. Johnson notes, “Applied Systems recognized the value and fresh perspective that we were bringing to personal and simple commercial-focused agencies, as well as the powerful solutions that we have for real-time personal lines rating.”

Overall, EZ Lynx and Applied System’s partnership has broadened their impact in the industry. “We recognized that, as partners, we could create a greater reach and influence in the industry,” says Johnson. “We also saw the forces of change shaping the insurance ecosystem right now. With Applied Systems, we are much better positioned to truly service the entire independent agency distribution channel. EZ Lynx previously focused on one set of the market and Applied Epic focused on another. Now, as a combined unit, we're able to address the needs across the board.”

Benefits and Advantages

For all of their clients, Johnson says there are two benefits that EZ Lynx focuses on: “Striving to see the bigger picture for clients, and creating powerful solutions that help them become more profitable.”

With their strong suites of fast data conversion and automation, EZ Lynx provides agencies with many efficient tools that produce results while saving time, energy, and resources. Johnson says, for example, “EZ links has an event-based automation tool that, in the first six months of 2022, saved the customers that were using it over 200,000 hours of manual work. That is the equivalent of one additional full time employee working 170 hours each month that they received without hiring any additional resources.”

Along with saving its clients large amounts of time, EZ Lynx also offers many other technological advantages, like Client Center, a 24/7 service portal for prospects and insurance. “These technologies help agencies multiply the impact of their staff, so that they can spend time really focused on developing meaningful customer relationships, instead of doing basic tasks,” says Johnson.

EZ Lynx also recognizes the importance of customer service and satisfaction and the pivotal role they play in building customer loyalty. With that in mind, retention is a priority they have built into their system. “A key part of our platform is a product called Retention Center. It is a patented tool that is a complete agency retention solution that provides a single-focused user interface with everything that an agency needs to investigate, proactively communicate and manage renewals,” says Johnson. “Year over year, this tool is proven to increase agency and carrier retention through analytics and automation. We've done several different studies, and on average, agencies who are using Retention Center have an additional eight points of policy retention over their counterparts who aren't using it. That represents a significant revenue amount to an agency. Anecdotally, they also report higher customer satisfaction rates because they're proactively communicating with their customers.”

Potential Challenges

As with all changes, there are a few challenges that come with switching to EZ Lynx. “While the transition to using EZ Lynx is relatively seamless, I would say one of the biggest challenges with EZ Lynx is that we approach problem solving a little bit different than a lot of other management systems,” says Johnson. “So agencies need to be open to embracing some changes initially in their workflow to really get the most out of EZ Lynx.”

The good news is that the time spent on learning these new tactics is almost always recovered in the long run. Johnson says, “Over time, the feedback we get is that the time saved in their day to day workflows completely makes up for some of the initial learning curve. But we do things a little bit differently than some of the traditional management systems.”

Additionally, there are a few limitations with agencies seeking highly customized services. “If an agency needs a really highly customized configuration for their organization, then Applied Epic would be a much better fit for that organization. All of EZ Lynx is designed and focused around helping agencies follow best practices and improve efficiency, and some of those high degrees of customization could be better accomplished by Epic.”

Discover Recent Updates

Johnson encourages Applied users, as well as all audiences, to familiarize themselves with EZ Lynx and learn more about it. “I would say there are many Applied users who are not aware of EZ Lynx at all,” says Johnson. “We have over 6,000 agencies who we partner with and who trust us as their management system. We do over 18 million votes per month, on the personalized reading side, so we're a lot more prevalent in people's workflows than they often realize.”

If Applied users are familiar with EZ Lynx, Johnson also encourages them to take a look at its recent updates. “We have changed significantly over the past few years. We are constantly working on behalf of our agency partners to help them stay ahead of technology, changes and trends, so that means we evolve and move forward pretty rapidly. So for people who haven't looked at EZ Lynx lately, there's probably quite a bit that we do that they didn't realize and quite a few new updates.”

A Versatile Platform for Most Agencies

Whatever type of insurance agency you are, EZ Lynx’s scalability means that it could be a good fit for you. Johnson says, “If you look at the entire independent insurance agency market and split it, EZ Lynx operates on people who are not yet into heavy commercial lines. Such as those that are just starting to get really good distribution in their books and that are focused on a simple but highly automated, commercial processes, and simplified servicing. So a lot of accommodation, business, and things like that, which is a great stepping stone.”

With EZ Lynx’s partnership with Applied Systems, they are able to offer their clients more choice. For example, even if companies scale up, they can potentially become better suited for Applied Epic. “As companies grow and expand their book into different areas, then they might outgrow EZ Lynx and become a great fit for Epic,” says Johnson. “That’s one of the ways on the management system side that we really partner together to give them options between the two systems and offer them a lot of choice. Independent agents love choice. That's what they offer to their customer base. And we're always excited to get to offer that to them.

Tags: Technology , Insurance , EZ Lynx