Broker Management System (BMS)
A broker management system (BMS) is the central software of an insurance brokerage for clients, policies, documents, claims and commission. It holds the client file, and depending on the system it can take in policy data from insurers.
What is a broker management system?
A broker management system, or BMS, is the central software of an insurance brokerage. The office keeps its clients, their policies and all related documents in it. Think of it as the client file and the book of business in one, built for insurance broking.
What does a broker management system do?
The scope differs by provider. Typical tasks:
- Clients and policies: client details, households, policies by class of business and their renewal dates.
- Documents: policy documents, applications, correspondence and the demands and needs statement in the client file.
- Claims: claim notifications and their status.
- Commission: accounting for commission and checking it.
- Tasks: diary dates, deadlines and appointments such as the annual review.
How does data get into a BMS?
A large part comes from insurers. Depending on the system and the insurer, new policies and changes can arrive as data feeds, so nobody has to retype them.
What clients send themselves arrives by many routes instead: email, a client portal, the phone or a chat. That is where gaps appear when part of the communication stays on a personal phone.
How is a BMS different from a CRM?
A CRM manages client relationships in general, often with a focus on sales and opportunities. A BMS is built around the insurance book: policies, classes of business, commission and data exchange with insurers. Many brokerages use the BMS as their leading system and need no separate CRM next to it.
How do WhatsApp chats get into a BMS?
Through an interface, but not at the press of a button. SendSeven has no ready-made connection to a particular BMS. These routes exist:
- By hand: download the conversation transcript as a PDF and file it in the client record. For a small office that is often enough.
- Passed on automatically: a webhook reports each finished transcript. With n8n, Make or Zapier the file moves on to a document archive, a cloud folder or an email.
- Straight into the BMS: with the REST API and some development work, if your BMS offers an interface for documents.
The other way round, you can import contacts from the BMS into SendSeven. An import only records a consent that already exists, though. It is not proof of an opt-in.
What role does SendSeven play next to a BMS?
The BMS stays the client file. SendSeven is the team inbox in front of it: WhatsApp, email, live chat and the other channels come together there, and the whole team sees every conversation. Opt-ins and chat histories are documented with date and time, and every transcript can go into the file as a PDF. How that looks day to day is covered in our article on WhatsApp records for insurance brokers. For the overview of all channels in a brokerage, see our guide to customer communication for insurance brokers.
Practical example
A brokerage with three staff uses its BMS for the book and the client files and SendSeven for WhatsApp. When a colleague closes a conversation, SendSeven creates the PDF transcript automatically. A webhook starts a workflow in n8n that places the file in a folder, from which the office moves it into the right client file once a day.
So the BMS stays the leading system, and no chat is lost just because it took place on a phone.
This is general information, not legal advice. Check the details with your compliance consultant or data protection lead.