A few key takeaways:
- Unmanageable Volume: Consider outsourcing when the number of vendors, subcontractors, or tenants grows to a point where manual COI tracking becomes time-consuming and error-prone, potentially exposing your business to significant risks.
- Increased Compliance Risks: Outsource to COI tracking experts when you face frequent compliance issues, gaps in coverage, or when your projects/properties become larger and more complex, increasing the risks of non-compliance.
- Strained Internal Resources: When your staff is struggling to balance COI tracking with other responsibilities, outsourcing can free up valuable internal resources to focus on core business activities and revenue-generating tasks.
- Outdated Technology: If you're relying on manual processes or outdated software for COI tracking, it's time to leverage automated solutions offered by outsourcing partners, which provide features like customizable requirements, quick document scanning, and secure cloud storage.
- Lack of Expertise or Multi-Jurisdictional Challenges: Outsource when your team lacks specialized insurance knowledge or when projects span multiple jurisdictions with varying regulations, as this ensures access to up-to-date expertise and compliance across all areas of operation.
Your difficulties in tracking certificates of insurance (COI) multiply as your number of vendors, tenants, or subcontractors increase, which quickly becomes overwhelming without automated certificate of insurance tracking software.
There’s a certain point at which you need to consider making a major operational shift.
As a general contractor or property manager, you should consider outsourcing COI tracking when your volume becomes unmanageable, compliance risks increase, internal resources are strained, technology needs upgrading, expertise is lacking, projects span multiple jurisdictions, or renewal management simply turns too burdensome.
Let’s consider each of these factors.
Subcontractor & Vendor Volume Becomes Unmanageable
Plain and simple: As the number of subcontractors, projects, or tenants grows, manually tracking COIs becomes increasingly time-consuming and error-prone. One incorrectly entered figure in a single spreadsheet cell can expose you to unimagined risk.
Plus, a growing caseload means you have to pull more team members into managing COIs, which sacrifices efficiencies in other operational areas.
When you or your team is spending excessive hours chasing down certificates and verifying compliance, it's time to explore outsourcing options. What qualifies as too much employee time is a judgment call you’ll have to make; COI tracking really should consume a marginal amount of your company’s resources—if you’re doing it properly.
After all, you work in construction or property management. Not the insurance industry.
Your Compliance Risks Have Increased
Outsourcing to COI tracking experts can help improve compliance rates and reduce risk. It's especially beneficial when:
- You face frequent compliance issues or gaps in coverage
- Staff lack specialized insurance knowledge to properly verify COIs
- Your company wants to ensure consistent, accurate compliance reviews (which should be everybody, otherwise you’re in the wrong industry)
You expose yourself to significant liability if subcontractors or tenants have inadequate or lapsed coverage. As your projects or properties become larger and more complex, the risks of non-compliance grow exponentially.
Enlisting dependable COI tracking experts, on the other hand, ensures all COIs meet requirements and remain up-to-date—leaving you more time and money to tackle other priorities.
Internal Resources Become Too Strained
COI tracking requires vigilant attention to detail. A small data error or lapsed renewal could cost you millions in litigation. So, if your staff is struggling to balance COI tracking with other responsibilities, outsourcing to a COI tracking company will free up valuable internal resources to focus on core business activities.
Outsourcing is vital if your company wants to focus more on revenue-generating tasks. As a rule, hiring and training new staff dedicated to COI monitoring is typically not cost-effective.
Technology Needs Upgrading
Many contractors and property managers rely on outdated spreadsheets or filing systems to track COIs. When these manual processes become inefficient, it's time to leverage automated COI tracking software and solutions offered by outsourcing partners.
Now, if you have automated COI tracking software, but it’s a bit dated, it may also be time to investigate more updated systems. The most up-to-date solutions will have:
- Customizable requirement architecture that accommodates numerous projects and monitors client-specific exigencies
- Lightening-quick COI feedback and review features, enabling you to scan and examine COI documents within seconds, identifying all information deficiencies
- Cutting-edge compliance protocols that guarantee all subcontractor, vendor, or tenant data are securely stored in the cloud
Your Team Lacks the Right Expertise
Insurance requirements can be complex and ever-changing; it feels like you need an insurance expert to stay on top of it all. If your team lacks the expertise to properly review COIs and identify compliance issues instantly, outsourcing to insurance professionals provides peace of mind.
It's worth outsourcing to COI tracking company to gain access to:
- Insurance professionals with certifications like certified insurance counselor (CIC), Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), etc.
- Up-to-date knowledge of insurance regulations and requirements, across city, county, and state boundaries
- Advanced tools like optical character recognition (OCR) technology for faster processing
Projects Span Multiple Jurisdictions
Working across different states or countries and keeping up with varied insurance regulations becomes challenging, to say the least. It’s all the thornier if done manually: how confident are you in your team’s ability to manually recall which insurance regulations go with which geographic area for every project?
Alternatively, outsourcing COI tracking to reputable partners with deep knowledge of the insurance industry ensures compliance across all jurisdictions.
If overseeing COIs across several jurisdictions keeps you up at night, then it’s probably a good time to outsource it.
Renewal Management Has Become Just Too Burdensome
Tracking expiration dates and obtaining renewed certificates from numerous subcontractors is an ongoing, and for many contractors and property managers, torturous task. It’s tedious and irritating when things going well. And aggravating when something goes awry.
Do you need a better reason to simplify your COI tracking process?
You know your team best, so when you see signs of undue fatigue, specifically around COI tracking, outsourcing may be overdue. Your employees are your greatest asset. If you don’t take care of them, losing and having to replace them (and their institutional knowledge) can be quite expensive.
In turn, outsourcing COI tracking to another firm is also a cost-effective way to boost employee morale while farewelling several other operational problems.
Outsourcing Your COI Tracking to bcs
If you’ve determined that your number of tenants and vendors has grown unruly, resources are tightening, or you lack the internal expertise to effectively track COIs, industry leader bcs offers multiple ways to support you.
Backed by our top-rated, automated COI tracking software, we can create a compliance management solution tailored specifically to your needs as a general contractor or property manager (and beyond).
With bcs you can be confident you’re outsourcing your COI tracking to a dependable and secure solutions firm–protecting you from costly risks and streamlining your operations.
Contact bcs today to schedule a demo or to learn more about why bcs is the best COI tracking software and vendor management services provider for your construction or real estate business.
