20 minutes back on every policy.
An insurance broker running on spreadsheets and personal inboxes. Now its policy system and CRM stay in step.
- Industry
- Insurance brokerage
- Platform
- HubSpot, and the Insight policy system
- Scope
- Onboarding, pipelines, automation, API
- Project lead
Harry Spicer-Short- Location
- Australia
01 The briefOnboard the team onto HubSpot, rebuild the sales and renewal processes with automation, and build an API so Insight and HubSpot share the same client and policy data.
Client history in personal inboxes.
Outback Insurance Brokers is a small insurance brokerage. Its policies and renewals are tracked in a system called Insight, and until this project, almost everything else was tracked by hand.
With no CRM, the team tracked clients and policies in Excel and managed communication from their own email inboxes. If someone was on leave or left the business, their work went with them: management could not see it, or reach the client information inside it.
Insight sat apart from all of it, so every change had to be entered twice, which cost time and invited errors. Renewals and client updates were slow and inconsistent.
It had stayed that way because there was nowhere to put it all. A small team can run on spreadsheets for a long time, and each workaround made sense on its own. Fixing it meant a CRM, the training to use it, and a connection to Insight, all at once.
What it was costing
- No shared view. Management could not see team activity or client communication.
- Double handling. Insight updated by hand, alongside everything else.
- Slow renewals. Policy renewals and client updates done by hand, and never quite the same way twice.
One entry, both systems.
A custom API joins Insight to HubSpot. A new policy creates the contact, company and policy in HubSpot, and changes sync in both directions, so nobody types the same thing twice.
The dashed line is Outback's phone system, which is also linked into the CRM, as Dan Thomas says in his review further down this page.
A first CRM, built around the broker.
Discovery first: the manual workflows, the sales and renewal processes, and the gaps between Insight and everything else. Then the system, in phases, with the team trained at each step.
The Insight integration, A custom API between the policy system and HubSpot
- Records created automatically. Contacts, companies and policies made in HubSpot from Insight.
- Two-way sync between Insight and HubSpot, so the data matches in both.
- Renewals tracked in HubSpot, with reminders 45 days before key dates.
- No double handling. A policy is entered once.
Sales and CRM, Pipelines for sales, renewals and claims
- Processes re-mapped. Sales, renewals and claims, to find the repetitive steps.
- New pipelines with automated follow-ups and deal tracking.
- Branded email templates for automated client communication.
Automation and reporting, The admin the team no longer does by hand
- Workflows for renewal reminders, quote follow-ups and new lead notifications.
- Service updates sent to clients automatically at key milestones.
- Custom dashboards on how fast deals move, deal values and team activity.
Onboarding and training, How the team learned to run it
- Ten onboarding workshops for Dan and his team, across CRM, sales and marketing tools.
- Rolled out in phases, starting with the workshops.
- Recorded training sessions once the pipelines and automation were live, so the team can work on its own.
Every policy entered once, and in both systems.
Typing the same data into two systems?
Four goals. Here is what came of them.
What Outback asked for before the project started, and where it stood once it was live.
| The job | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Client and policy data | Excel sheets and personal inboxes | All of it in HubSpot |
| When someone is away | Their work could not be seen | Every communication on the client record |
| Insight | Updated by hand, a second time | Synced both ways through the API |
| Renewals | Slow and inconsistent | Reminders 45 days before key dates |
| Seeing the pipeline | No reporting | Dashboards on deals and team activity |
Goal 01
A CRM with every client and policy in it
We onboarded the team onto HubSpot through ten workshops, and brought the spreadsheets and personal inboxes into it.
100%
of client and policy data in HubSpot. When someone is on leave, their client communication is on the record for the rest of the team.
Goal 02
An API between Insight and HubSpot, so nothing is entered twice
We built a custom API that creates contacts, companies and policies in HubSpot from Insight, and syncs changes both ways.
20 min
saved on every policy. A policy is entered once and reaches both systems, so nobody types the same thing twice.
Goal 03
Automation to take out the manual admin
We built workflows for renewal reminders, quote follow-ups, new lead notifications and client service updates.
45 days
before key dates, renewal reminders go out on their own. Follow-ups and client updates go out on time too, without anyone having to remember them, so clients hear from Outback when they should.
Goal 04
A view of team activity and sales opportunities
We built custom dashboards on how fast deals move, deal values and team activity.
30 days
of calls, emails and meetings, by rep, on one dashboard. Management can see deals won and lost by rep as well, where before it could not see team activity at all.
Put together, Outback went from spreadsheets and personal inboxes to a CRM the whole team works from, joined to the policy system it already used. Every policy is entered once, and a person’s work no longer goes with them when they are away.
The 20 minutes each policy used to lose to double handling and manual reminders now goes back to the team.
“Number 1 Rated for a Reason !! The team at Neighbourhood (Especially HARRY) have absolutely nailed it. We approached them for some guidance on HubSpot and to conduct the onboarding process. What we have is a fully functioning CRM platform that has integrated into our invoicing software via API, phone system linked into the CRM and automations making the work load so much lighter. If you're looking for a CRM you need HubSpot. If you need HubSpot then you NEED Neighbourhood. Professional, Patient, Experienced. These guys know their stuff! Every little request to improve our efficiencies they have had an answer for. Harry is a wizard, a master of his craft. My only complaint is that i didn't find them and HubSpot years ago. Thank you Neighbourhood!”
Dan Thomas
Managing Director, Outback Insurance Brokers
Who ran it
Harry Spicer-ShortAI & Digital Strategist
Led the workflow discovery, ten onboarding workshops, pipelines, automation and the Insight integration.
HubSpot Impact Award winner, Neighbourhood since 2023
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