Customer Communications Management (CCM) Market size is estimated to register a CAGR of over 11% between 2024 and 2032. CCM systems will be a vital tool for enterprises looking to streamline and automate their communications.
When insurers look for a Customer Communications Management (CCM) system, one question always stands out—what matters more: simple ease of use or rock-solid integration with core systems?
It’s not an easy call. Both attributes are absolutely critical when it comes to CCM implementation priorities 2025. However, they clearly tackle two very different needs. Ease of use is all about speed and accuracy; it dictates just how fast your teams can create documents that are compliant and correct. Integration, on the flip side, determines how well the new system works with the company’s current platforms—the policy, the billing, or even the claims software.
Just think about the sheer volume some companies handle. Some insurers produce thousands of renewal notices, statements, or hefty policy documents every single business day. For them, seamless integration capability takes up the top spot. Other firms rely heavily on their agents or field staff to send personalized letters, notifications, and emails. In those cases, having a user-friendly system is clearly the most valuable asset.
The truth is that there’s no right answer to the question. Some enterprises work with the latest, modern, cloud-based setups, while others are still grappling with older, legacy applications that make integration a complex task. The best approach for CCM implementation priorities in 2025 is to truly understand how both elements will tangibly impact your day-to-day operations.
A thoughtful evaluation can help you find the best way possible, a system that suits your teams and operations well, streamlines your processes, and delivers a better experience for your customers.
Q: When looking for a new CCM application, should we prioritize usability (ease of use) or integration with core applications?
This is a difficult question, since both dimensions of customer communications management solutions are very important. The CCM implementation priority might be different for each individual company, depending on their current environment and their intended use of CCM.
Given that, here are some considerations and guidelines that might be useful as you go through the process of evaluating a new CCM application. These apply whether you are selecting a new CCM system to bring into the company or looking to extend your existing CCM solution into new areas.
Future-Proof Your Customer Communications with this Guide to Choosing the Right CCM Solution in 2025.
Key CCM Application Evaluation Considerations
The first set of considerations is related to your planned usage, especially the balance between high volume batch output and interactive, personalized correspondence.
One common use might be to generate a high volume of policies, statements, renewal letters, and other basic customer documents via variable data merge with a standard template. If this is the primary usage, then the integration capabilities might trump ease of use.
You can always train a small number of tech-savvy individuals to set up the templates and manage the merger process. On the other end of the spectrum, companies might put the CCM application in the hands of hundreds or thousands of agents, adjusters, or others who will be interactively creating correspondence tailored to one policyholder or a small group of prospects or customers.
If the usage is oriented towards this type of application, then ease of usage is vital, since users are likely to have a varying range of technical expertise.
The second set of considerations is related to the scope and difficulty of integration with other systems and data. We all know that integration is often the most challenging part of any technology project.
The difficulty of integration depends on a number of factors. Which core systems/data need to be accessed by the CCM system for business purposes? One policy administration system? Multiple policy systems? Are billing or claim systems involved? Are there handoffs required from other CCM or ECM systems? The number of systems that require integration is important, but just as important is the technological architecture of those systems.
If the CCM system needs data from legacy systems with less sophisticated architectures, then integrating CCM with legacy systems may consist of many point-to-point integrations – which can be costly and time consuming. If the other systems are modern and SOA-based, then integration will be easier.
When core systems are implemented as a suite with a common data model, that also improve integration. Finally, if any pre-integration has been done by the CCM vendor and the core systems vendor(s), then implementation can proceed more quickly.
What are CCM Application Evaluation Guidelines?
Insurers looking to implement a new CCM application should assess the requirements for ease of use for their particular situation and realistically plan for the level of integration that will be required. A few useful guidelines for the evaluation process are:
- Make sure representatives of the user community are heavily involved in the evaluation.
- Map out the integrations and be realistic about the IT resource and the time needed to accomplish the implementation.
- Talk to others in your organization that are using the CCM solution with modern CCM architecture or discuss the solution with other insurers that have installed it.
- Conduct a pilot or test period before making any final commitment.
- Plan a phased implementation approach, going after the business use cases that require fewer integrations and lower volume, yet still provide good business value (the proverbial low hanging fruit).
See How Cincom Delivered Scalable Document Solution to Support Molina Healthcare’s Managed Care Growth
In an ideal world, everyone wants a solution with superior ease of use that is also easy to integrate. Rarely is that an option due to the complexity of most insurance environments, but these considerations and guidelines should help you straighten your CCM implementation priorities in 2025. These should assist in the evaluation and selection of a CCM solution that provides the right balance for your organization.
FAQs
1. What is the difference between interactive CCM vs batch document generation?
Interactive CCM focuses on creating personalized communications and documents, making each message more relevant and engaging. Batch document generation, on the other hand, produces large volumes of standardized documents which may lack personalization.
2. Why should insurance companies care about CCM?
Insurers deal with a massive, constantly growing pile of customer information and documents. CCM software helps insurers solve these growing challenges, make operations run smoother, and keeps customers much happier.
3. What’s the best way for an insurer to evaluate a new CCM system?
Conduct small pilot projects while following a phased rollout plan. Insurers can begin with a low-complexity task and gain quick wins before expanding the system into larger, more interconnected deployments.
4. Is it possible for a CCM solution to be both truly easy to use and deeply integrated?
Insurers usually have to compromise and find a suitable middle ground. Solutions like Cincom Eloquence can be a system that’s user-friendly enough while still securely connecting to the absolutely critical apps like your claims, billing, and policy administration systems.
5. What is the smartest way to approach the actual implementation?
Use a phased approach. Kick off with the departments or processes that require the fewest system integrations but promise to deliver the clearest, most immediate business benefit. Once you have a stable foundation, you can then safely move on to those much more complicated, highly integrated environments.
