(Image source: Insurance Technologies Corporation website.)
Insurance technology provider, Zywave (Milwaukee, Wisc.) has announced its acquisition of Insurance Technologies Corporation (ITC; Carrollton, Texas.), a provider of marketing, rating, and management software and services to the insurance industry. Zywave characterizes the acquisition as solidifying its position as the leading provider of solutions for carriers and independent insurance agencies to help them drive business efficiency and accelerate growth. Zywave declined to disclose the terms of the acquisition.
“Zywave and ITC share the same goal—to provide the absolute best tech solutions to help insurance professionals succeed in the modern marketplace,” comments Jason Liu, chief executive officer of Zywave. “With the combined offerings of our two companies, we are beyond excited to bring the most expansive and innovative tools to any agency selling any type of coverage – benefits, commercial or personal lines.”
Jason Liu, CEO, Zywave.
Founded in 1983, ITC serves more than 250 insurance companies and more than 9,000 agencies. The company’s products, all of which Zywave says enable agency growth through greater efficiency and automation, include the following as described by ITC:
Agency Marketing Services & Solutions: A comprehensive digital agency marketing offering that includes website design, marketing communication automation, SEO and SEM, custom content services and social media services.
Personal Lines Comparative Rater: A highly accurate, web-based personal lines rater that automates the quoting process and enables users to automatically receive multiple quotes instantly, currently powering more than 30 million unique quotes per year.
Agency Management System: The browser-based Agency Matrix agency management system (AMS) provides the foundation for P&C agency operations, increasing operational efficiency and simplifying day-to-day activities.
Zywave reports that it plans to align and integrate ITC’s products with its Sales Cloud offering, which includes multiple front-of-office solutions that streamline mission-critical workflows to strengthen organic growth. Within the Sales Cloud, ITC’s personal lines rating solution will be a natural complement to Zywave’s exclusive suite of existing market-leading CPQ offerings that enable more efficient and accurate quoting and proposals for employee benefits and commercial lines quoting, the vendor says.
ITC’s AMS will supplement Zywave’s current AMS offering for employee benefits agencies with new options for the management of operations at insurance agencies offering personal and commercial insurance. Additionally, integrations with Zywave’s Content Cloud will provide further differentiation and value to all areas of ITC’s existing product portfolio, according to the vendor.
“ITC’s insurance solutions definitively round out our Sales Cloud with the most robust offering on the market,” adds Liu. “We are excited to expand our services to provide solutions that meaningfully change how independent agencies operate, regardless of their specialty.”
Laird Rixford, CEO, ITC.
“Our partnership with Zywave marks a truly monumental moment for our joint businesses,” comments Laird Rixford, CEO, ITC. “Combined, our solutions have the potential to not only help insurance providers compete in the digital marketplace, but thrive in all aspects of selling and servicing the insurance consumer. ITC takes pride in the high level of support we offer our clients and remain committed to that support as we enter the next chapter.”
Investment in Strategic Growth through M&A
Zywave says that, with the addition of ITC’s business to its existing client base, the joint entity will serve more than 15,000 insurance organizations globally. This acquisition marks Zywave’s largest to date and fifth in just over two years. Earlier this month, Zywave announced the acquisition of Advisen, a provider of data, media and technology solutions for the commercial property and casualty insurance market. The Advisen acquisition coincided with the announcement of Zywave’s acquisition by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (Santa Monica, Calif.) which the company says shares Zywave’s vision to invest in the long-term strategic growth of the company, both organically and through M&A.
“Zywave is committed to bringing industry’s best tech to our partners, empowering them with the tools they need to grow their business,” says Liu. “We will continue to both invest in our existing products, while also enhancing our product portfolio with new acquisitions. At the same time, we are committed to providing extensive technical support and consultative services to our partners to help them succeed.”