We are all creatures of habit. We embrace routine and make habits out of daily tasks. So when it comes to making large-scale personal or professional changes, even if for the better, it can be difficult to accept and adapt.

Today’s independent insurance agent faces a number of changes: increasing industry consolidation, the evolving workforce and changing consumer demands. As the lines between the physical and digital worlds blur, agents must respond to demands for higher levels of integration, connectivity and enhanced digital interaction among key insurance industry stakeholders.

In order to ensure their systems are advanced and flexible enough to respond quickly to new market opportunities, leading agencies are reviewing their internal technology strategies, making moves that range from adopting new self-service softwares to switching agency management systems. When evaluating if it’s the right time to make a technology change, it’s important to clearly define the business goals and closely manage and monitor the project’s progress to ensure a successful and positive implementation.

Provide compelling evidence.

As you continue to evaluate your organic and acquisitive growth strategy, you must also assess your internal infrastructure to ensure it can support expansion. To continue to attract and retain new clients and employees, agencies need integrated software that delivers consistent workflows, standardized data and a modern architecture that is scalable for growth.

Consistent workflows provide universal procedures across locations and office branches and simplify employee on-boarding and training. Standardized data provides a single view into an agency’s book of business, enabling you to better service your clients and identify opportunities to cross/upsell. Finally, as technology continues to become even more embedded across all enterprise functions, you’ll need to leverage the software best built to integrate additional technologies that will further drive business efficiencies and support superior client servicing.

Get everyone on board.

In any organization, change management requires well-defined business benefits, objectives and structured steps to be successful. Adopting new software is no different. Strong executive leadership, along with clearly communicating the benefits of implementing new software across an agency to all stakeholders in the transition helps build buy-in from the start.

Teams need to foster a partnership approach, examining strategic areas of your agency’s business to make operational, process and training improvements based on insurance technology best practices. Throughout the implementation process, you and your staff will discover insights that increase ROI by optimizing business operations and service practices. Change is never easy, but by setting expectations, preparing your staff thoroughly and collaborating with an experienced technology partner, your agency can quickly derive benefits from their investment.

Clean house.

Key focal points in an agency technology transition center on data, workflows, staff education and business continuity in order to ensure maintenance of  daily business operations that continue supporting clients and prospects. When beginning any software conversion, consider what data you need to transition.

Evaluating switching agency management systems? Think of the process as similar to moving to a new home: Instead of simply moving everything from your existing home to your new one, you take the time to consider what to move into your new home and what you no longer need. When making the transition to a new agency management system, data quality is critical to your success. Focusing on workflow development can be critical in driving overall efficiency and reducing time spent onboarding employees to a new system.

Implementation of a new agency management system can take up to several months, which makes it critical to involve employees consistently throughout the process. In doing so, you’ll obtain critical insight into how your staff has utilized your agency’s technology to date and identify opportunities to better leverage your technology investment. And it’s a win-win: Employees feel more involved in the decision-making process and are motivated to support adoption of the new agency management system within the organization. Identify “champions” early in the transition process and involve them every step along the way.

Remember: the means are worth the end.

Many agencies have been using the same systems for well over a decade, and their users are comfortable with the status quo. But the benefits of a modern, scalable platforms outweigh the challenges of change. Flexible, advanced, integrated technology enables agencies to customize and automate operations, further improving staff productivity and freeing up more time for everyone at the agency to focus more on selling and servicing customers. The key to success is going in with realistic expectations, strong executive sponsorship and a dedicated technology partner.

Kris Hackney is executive vice president of customer experience at Applied Systems.