Engineering Blog · Post #2

Monitored Shared Mailboxes with FIFO Round-Robin Assignment: Eliminating the Inbox Black Hole

How InsightUW ensures every email submission is tracked, assigned, and actioned — with fair distribution across Underwriting Assistant teams.

The Problem

The shared inbox is the most dangerous place in an insurance company. Every day, hundreds of broker emails arrive at submissions@company.com. A Underwriting Assistant opens the inbox, scans subject lines, and decides what to work on. The problems:

Cherry-picking — easy GL renewals get grabbed first, complex MedMal submissions age
No tracking — if the assigned analyst goes on PTO, the submission sits
No accountability — "I thought you were handling that one"
No SLA visibility — managers don't know what's overdue until the broker calls to complain
Lost submissions — emails get buried, marked as read accidentally, or land in spam

The data: Industry surveys show that 23% of email submissions are never processed when managed through manual shared inbox workflows.

The Solution: Monitored Mailboxes + FIFO Engine

graph TD subgraph Mailboxes["Monitored Shared Mailboxes"] M1["uw-property@company.com LOB: Property → CML Team"] M2["uw-cyber@company.com LOB: Cyber → CYB Team"] M3["submissions@company.com LOB: Auto-detect → CML Team"] M4["marine@company.com LOB: Marine → SER Team"] end subgraph Webhook["Outlook Webhook Listener"] W["New Email Detected Fetch details + attachments"] end subgraph Fifo["Fifo Assignment Engine"] F1["Get team rotation list"] F2["Find member with oldest last assigned at (or Null)"] F3["Assign submission Update rotation timestamp"] end subgraph Team["Underwriting Assistant Team: Commercial Lines"] T1["Rachel Torres Last: 9:00 AM · Count: 12"] T2["Kevin Patel Last: 8:55 AM · Count: 11"] T3["Maria Santos Last: 8:50 AM · Count: 11"] T4["David Kim Last: 8:45 AM · Count: 10 ✅ Next"] end M1 --> W M2 --> W M3 --> W M4 --> W W --> F1 F1 --> F2 F2 --> F3 F3 --> T4

The Scenario

At 9:15 AM, a broker from Marsh sends a large commercial property submission to uw-property@company.com:

From: emily.chen@marsh.com
Subject: Property Renewal — Pacific Coast Properties LLC
Body: Attached is the renewal submission for Pacific Coast Properties. 22 commercial properties across CA and OR. Total TIV $2.1B. Mix of office and retail. CAT earthquake exposure. Current carrier non-renewed due to CA wildfire concentration. Effective October 1, 2026.
Attachments: ACORD_140_Pacific_Coast.pdf, SOV_22_Properties.xlsx, Loss_Runs_5yr.pdf, COPE_Reports.zip

FIFO Assignment in Action

The CML (Commercial Lines) team has 4 Underwriting Assistants in rotation:

Analyst	Position	Last Assigned	Count	Status
Rachel Torres	1	9:12 AM	14	Just assigned
Kevin Patel	2	9:08 AM	13	Active
Maria Santos	3	9:01 AM	12	Active
David Kim	4	8:45 AM	11	NEXT ← oldest timestamp

David Kim has the oldest last assigned at — he gets the Pacific Coast submission.

sequenceDiagram participant Broker as Broker (Marsh) participant Mailbox as uw-property@ participant Webhook as Outlook Webhook participant Parser as Email Parser participant Fifo as Fifo Engine participant David as David Kim (UA) participant Manager as Manager Dashboard Broker->>Mailbox: Email with 4 attachments Mailbox->>Webhook: New email notification Webhook->>Parser: Fetch email details Parser->>Parser: Parse: insured=Pacific Coast, LOB=Property, TIV=$2.1B Parser->>Fifo: Create submission, request assignment Fifo->>Fifo: CML rotation: David Kim has oldest timestamp Fifo->>David: 📋 Assigned: Pacific Coast Properties — Property Fifo->>Manager: Dashboard updated: David now has 12 active David->>David: Opens work queue, sees Pacific Coast at top

After Assignment

David opens his work queue. Pacific Coast Properties appears with:
- Type: NEW (blue badge)
- Source: 📧 Email
- Priority: HIGH (Marsh account, $2.1B TIV)
- SLA: 5 days (high priority target: 3 days)
- Documents: 4 files uploaded, completeness 75% (missing flood zone determination)

The Manager's View

Mike Rodriguez (Commercial Lines manager) opens the Team Dashboard and sees:

Analyst	New	In Review	Quoted	Total	Capacity
Rachel Torres	3	8	3	14	High
Kevin Patel	2	7	4	13	Normal
Maria Santos	1	8	3	12	Normal
David Kim	2	6	4	12	Normal

No one is overloaded. The FIFO algorithm self-balances — faster analysts complete submissions sooner, freeing their slot for the next assignment.

How FIFO Differs from Other Assignment Modes

Mode	How It Works	Best For
FIFO	Strict rotation by last-assigned timestamp	Fair distribution, general intake
Round-Robin	Sequential by position number	Similar to FIFO but position-locked
Least-Loaded	Assign to person with fewest active items	Balancing when complexity varies
LOB-Specialist	Route to expert for that LOB	Complex specialty submissions
Manual	Manager assigns individually	High-value or unusual submissions

InsightUW supports all modes — configurable per mailbox.

Configuration: Adding a New Mailbox

An admin adds a new mailbox through the Platform Features page:

Immediately:
- Outlook webhook registered for uw-construction@company.com
- All emails route to Specialty & Emerging Risks team
- FIFO rotation uses SER team members: Tom Bradley → Mike Rodriguez → David Kim

SLA Tracking Per Assignment

Every FIFO-assigned submission gets an SLA based on priority:

Priority	SLA Target	Breach Alert
High	3 days	Manager + analyst notified
Medium	5 days	Analyst notified
Low	7 days	Analyst notified
Rush	4 hours	Analyst + manager + team notified

The unified work queue highlights:
- 🔴 Red row = SLA BREACH
- 🟡 Amber row = AT RISK (within 1 day of breach)
- ⬜ White row = ON TRACK

Key Metrics

Metric	Manual Inbox	FIFO Monitored
Avg assignment time	2-4 hours	8 seconds
Submissions lost/month	5-10	0
Workload imbalance (max-min)	3:1 ratio	1.1:1 ratio
SLA breach rate	35%	8%
Manager visibility	Email search	Real-time dashboard

InsightUW's FIFO assignment engine ensures every submission is tracked, assigned, and actioned — fairly and fast. See it in action.