Why Brokers Need a System of Work

The next big platform shift in broking won’t be another ledger

I’ve spent the last 18 months sitting with commercial insurance brokers – listening, watching, and asking dumb questions. And I keep seeing the same thing: Outlook inboxes overflowing. Excel tabs multiplying. PDFs ricocheting between clients, markets, and internal teams. And then, after all that, the same information being keyed in again - slowly, painfully - into the back-office ledger.

That ledger, usually provided by one of the large incumbent software houses, is the broker’s System of Record. It isn’t optional. Regulators demand it, Finance teams depend on it. But here’s the problem: it was never designed for the work itself.

And the work of a broker is not compliance. It’s not ticking boxes after the fact. It’s:

• Taking a messy new lead and shaping it into a submission that markets will actually respond to

• Negotiating intelligently across markets and making sense of the responses

• Turning those responses into recommendations a client can act on with confidence

• Binding cover, then keeping the client safe as their business and their needs evolve

• Coming back at renewal with the full story of what’s been done, what’s changed, and what needs to happen next

And today, none of that really happens in the “system” at all. It happens in inboxes, spreadsheets, insurer extranets, and improvised internal processes, which means wasted effort, repeated questions to clients, and little real visibility for placement leaders.

System of Record vs System of Work

The System of Record clearly has its place. It’s the ledger and the compliance archive. But it’s the wrong tool for the job brokers actually wake up to do. Asking brokers to “work” inside a PAS is like asking them to run the shop floor from the stockroom.

What’s missing is the System of Work – the front line. The first tab a broker opens each morning, the place where leads become submissions, quotes become recommendations and renewals start with truth rather than detective work.

A proper System of Work doesn’t just store information. It captures risk data once and reuses it everywhere. It strips out the legwork of quoting, whether that’s straight-through to market via API or automating manual quoting. It turns raw quotes into client-ready recommendations. It pulls every interaction (portals, emails, e-signatures) into a single joined-up thread. And it gives placement leaders a live view of what’s happening across their teams. The ledger still matters, but it’s the mirror of what happened, not the place where the work gets done.

Why this matters now

Three forces are colliding in commercial broking right now.

First, AI is getting better every month. We’re already using it to strip out manual legwork for brokers on things like risk capture and policy wording comparison, and it’s only going to become more capable. But here’s the catch: it’s much harder to benefit from advances in AI if your work is scattered across inboxes, spreadsheets, extranets and ad hoc processes. A System of Work makes those improvements automatic, so as the models get stronger, the platform quietly gets smarter, without brokers having to change their behaviour.

Second, client expectations are rising fast. For larger brokers, a slick portal is only as good as the work that sits behind it. Real client experience starts with visibility into the activity itself -  the conversations with markets, the turnaround times, the points where friction is creeping in.

And third, the battle for talent is heating up. The next generation of brokers won’t put up with clunky systems and endless rekeying. They expect the same kind of digital experience in their work tools that they already have everywhere else in their lives. Firms that keep relying on Outlook, Excel and PDFs won’t just frustrate clients, they’ll struggle to hire and retain the people who can actually win and grow those clients.

That’s why this moment matters. The old patchwork isn’t just inefficient anymore – it’s actively blocking brokers from riding the three biggest waves in front of them: AI-driven automation, client experience as a differentiator, and talent as a competitive advantage. A modern System of Work unlocks all three.

Placement Intelligence: turning work into foresight

One thing I’ve learned is that when the work is scattered, the bigger picture disappears. A submission sits in one inbox, a decline in another, a quote in an extranet – and no one can join the dots. But when it all happens in one place, you can finally see the story.

Every bit of risk information, every quote, every referral, every bind becomes structured history. Suddenly you can ask questions that were impossible before: which markets are most likely to respond for this type of business? How long do they usually take? What’s a realistic target premium?

That’s what we mean by Placement Intelligence. It’s brokers walking into a client meeting already armed with a realistic picture of what coverage and pricing is likely to look like. It’s placement heads finally seeing, clearly and in black and white, how their panels are really performing. And it’s insurers receiving cleaner, more consistent submissions that actually help them underwrite faster.

Incumbent systems can tell you what happened yesterday. A System of Work can help you predict what’s going to happen tomorrow – and act on it. That’s the shift.

Software that helps you do the work, not just track it

The System of Record isn’t going away. It will always have its place as the ledger and the archive. But after spending the last year and a half with brokers, I’m convinced the real gap is the System of Work – the place where the job actually gets done.

That’s what we’re trying to build at Recorder. Not yet another PAS with a fresh coat of paint. Not another compliance tool. A front line for brokers: the first tab they open each morning, the one that makes quoting, placement and renewal less painful and more productive.

AI, client expectations, the battle for talent – these aren’t abstract trends. They’re already shaping the way brokers work. And the firms that take them seriously will need a System of Work if they want to keep up.