Insurance Merger Specialists
Insurance Merger Specialists brings together buyers and sellers of insurance companies and assists in mergers and acquisitions. The website and portal help educate, gather information, and smoothly flows through the M&A process.
What Problems Was
Insurance Mergers Specialists Facing?
Insurance Merger Specialists had previously been working personally with buyers and sellers to gather required transaction documents, and this was a tedious process.
Twelve to fourteen advanced documents are required per transaction, and there may be multiple files that serve as a single document (e.g., 12 individual bank statements to fulfil the requirement for the last 12 months of bank statements).
Buyers and sellers often required reminders to provide documents, and this was also handled by staff without automation. Further, the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software that the company was using had limitations, such that they were interested in migrating to an improved solution.
Project Outcome: A New, More Intuitive Buyer/Seller Portal
This new portal allows users to:
- View available agencies for sale and indicate interest in them
- View additional, confidential data about an agency of interest as the sale progresses
- Upload documents required for agencies the user is selling
- Upload documents required to purchase an agency
- Manage their contact information.
Buyers and sellers will also receive reminder emails for documents that are due, as well as notifications when review of their uploaded documentation reveals a problem that requires them to upload a corrected version.
Insurance Merger Specialists staff will be able to manage the portal users via Zoho CRM, where data for all the buyers, sellers, and listings is stored.
System Build
The Buyer/Seller portal allows buyers and sellers to interact with the listing marketplace and provide the required documentation for their transactions.
Tech Stack
PHP
Javascript
Typescript
Laravel
Angular
WordPress for front-end
Zoho API
Project Management Systems
BrainLeaf – System initial planning
JIRA – Systems development teams management
Bitbucket – Code Repositories
Confluence – System documentation
Asana – UX and marketing teams management
Harvest – Time tracking
New System Features
Simple Onboarding
Easy Dashboard For Education & Gathering Data
Online Secure Marketplace
Legally Binding Digital Signatures
Advanced Account Management
Multiple Dashboards
File Management & Gathering Systems
User Messaging
Full Stylesheet
Integrated Systems Management
As is the case for many portal systems, a number of third party systems have been integrated with the Buyer/Seller portal.
Zoho CRM
Storage of all buyer/seller and listing data. All transactional emails are sent using Zoho CRM’s workflow triggers.
Google Drive
Storage of all uploaded buyer documents and listing documents.
Dropbox
Storage of all NDA’s signed by buyers and sellers on the frontend website.
Zapier
Pushes updated buyer/seller information into Zoho CRM when they signed an NDA.
System Feature Details
Onboarding Process
Buyers and sellers can register for the portal on the frontend website. First, they indicate if they are a buyer or a seller. As buyers greatly outnumber sellers, more attention is placed on sellers; Zoho CRM has been configured to send Insurance Merger Specialists an email notifying them anytime a new seller registers for the portal.
Dashboard
The dashboard serves to orient the buyer or seller to the steps they need to take. As the same user can sometimes be both a buyer and a seller, both dashboards are available.
Buyers Dashboard: When buyers first login to the system, they are provided with clear instructions.
Seller’s Dashboard: When a seller first logs in to the portal, they are informed that a consultant will be in-touch. If they wish, they can get started uploading the required listing files.
Listings Systems With Permissions Levels
When the buyer clicks on a listing, they can view anonymized information about the agency, and click an “I am interested in purchasing this business” button. Once the buyer has been given access to the listing they will have access to different levels of information based on where they are in the buying process.
Customized Transactional Emails
Insurance Merger Specialists’ system automatically sends customized transactional emails based on a number of different actions, steps, and manual processes within the system, including but not limited to:
- Signup
- Interest in new purchase
- New Listing added
- Contact and messages
Marketplace
Buyers are directed to view the Marketplace, which lists all the agencies available for sale.
Advanced User Management
Users can manage aspects of their accounts including personal information, & password.
Marketing Website
In addition to the buyer/seller portal, we built and rebranded the public-facing marketing website for this project, with the goal of this website being to bring in both buyers and sellers.
Homepage
- Value proposition
- Benefits of working with IMS explanation
- Important statistics
- How we help
- Team
- FAQ
Buyers & Sellers
- System has a separate buyer and seller sections
- Buying an agency
- Facilitating Deals
- Valuations
- Acquisition Financing
- Due diligence
- Marketplace
Complex Systems Made Simple
Buying & selling businesses is a complex process. We helped IMS make the process easy to understand.
- Blog
- Processes
Graphs, Charts, Processes Flows
- Each step explained in simple, but powerful, language
- Overview first, then deep dives into each area.
Marketplace
- Easy to search
- Integrated listing that pulls data from Zoho
- Listings that make sense to both parties
Advanced Navigation
Any sale in this business is a big sale, so ensuring that users understand how to use the system and feel comfortable with IMS is critical; navigation systems assist in this process.