Basically, the agency of 35 employees, which offers property-casualty, employee benefits, life and health group plans, and individual investment services, has taken the initiative technologically to keep on top of its most important customers.

Concentrating on the top 20 percent of accounts in terms of premiums, explained Mr. Riley, the agency makes sure that producers are scheduled and prepared to meet with leading clients for quarterly and annual updates.

The week before the end of each month, the agencys business center, using the CRM system, pulls up a list of clients for the producer to meet. Producer update calls are scheduled, and a portfolio of the accounts loss runs is produced in advance. With all the backroom work already finished, the producer can walk into the meeting fully prepared to service the client.

The system is still too manually intensive, admits Mr. Riley, who noted that the agency is working with a software vendor to further customize it, to allow for direct communication and inputting through internal e-mail. Eventually, the aim is to build a system so the agent can meet more regularly with more clients.

That same idea of developing a support system to allow agents to sell more effectively is on display at Gateway Insurance Agency in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Debra M. Zambrana, chief operations officer, said the agency is “very advanced” when it comes to supporting its sales staff with technology. The 46-employee agency supports its producers by keeping on top of the technology curve and finding the best process available. Here, too, the aim is to have a producer in the field who is concerned only with optimizing selling.

Instead of a briefcase of papers and files, agents carry laptops and soon will be equipped with pocket computers. Agents “have the information at their fingertips,” Ms. Zambrana observed.

At the end of the day, whatever the transaction, the agent, she explained, returns to the office and downloads changes to the clients account, quickly updating the data.

Despite taking advantage of other pieces of technology that include a fax server, printer and scanning of documents, the agency, she admits is “not paperless,” but makes do with far less paper.

Adding to the agencys efficiency, Gateway has its own server tied into a 24/7 customer account service center. By not using an outside source, Ms. Zambrana explained, any transaction conducted while the agency is closed can be completed in real time. With an outside vendor, she noted, over a weekend a cancellation could go unrecorded for three days, but this lag time is avoided with the new system.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, June 10, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.