Some of these company Web sites have a slick front end, but the agency quickly finds itself dealing with the companys back-office processing screens, which all operate differently.

Keep in mind that many agents might only visit these screens for a particular company once a week or so, making it very difficult for the agent to use them efficiently. The excellent advice from the agents is that these Internet processing systems must be designed to be entirely intuitive from start to finish, without the requirement of agency training, just like consumer Web sites.

In addition, it would be very helpful for companies to post on their agent Web sites that they plan to make continuing improvements, and that they would appreciate their agents electronic feedback as to areas of the site that the company should improve.

Another great suggestion is that companies provide the opportunity for agents on these Web-based processing sites to get a quick indication as to whether the company is a market for a particular type of risk, as well as to get a quick quote, before the agent has to load all of the detailed information to write the risk. Right now, some companies only give the agent the option to go through a detailed process, which can take as much as an hour in some cases.

Agents also told us that it is important for these small-business processing systems to have the capability to generate a proposal document that is suitable to present to the customer.

One of the great benefits of many real-time systems is that agents can process endorsements electronically–once and done. This is a huge step forward, since changes can constitute as much as 80 percent of an agencys work.

It is important for these changes to be made in real-time, however, in those situations where the agent must present a document to a third party, such as when a car dealer is doing a financing transaction with an insured and needs proof of insurance immediately.

Commercial lines agents tell us that it would be a significant step forward if the company had the capability to permit the agent to process endorsements for larger commercial lines business online.

A second major improvement would occur for these agents if companies could download, and agency management systems could accept, the standard ACORD commercial lines forms.

We are also finding that technologically-savvy agents, who try to use electronic downloads from the companies wherever possible, are not using the small-commercial lines downloads in many cases. This suggests that more attention needs to be put to this area so that these downloads do not disturb needed agency data.

Agents are excited about the ability today to access company manuals on-line. They suggest, however, that it would be very helpful to include a section that describes the changes that have been made by the company in the manual so that the agents can periodically review these changes.

The different company approaches on IDs and passwords are a nightmare for agents. The agents do understand, however, the seriousness of the security risks. Hopefully, new technologies will become available soon that will greatly ameliorate the current situation. The Agents Council for Technology has a working group considering this issue.

It would be a great step forward if there could be enough standardization on company password requirements to permit an agent to determine their own password and to use it consistently, just as they are able to do today on their own financial Web sites.

In many areas of commercial lines, a lot of agency time is spent preparing paper applications for submission to company markets. Many of these company forms are unique.

It would be a great step forward if insurers would provide electronic forms to agents. The agent could then complete their sections electronically, and then e-mail the application to the client to complete their sections, as well as attach any required governance documents electronically. All of this would be e-mailed back to the agent and then sent electronically to the company underwriter.

Unless Im missing something, this change in processing could be done fairly easily with some of the electronic form generators in the market today.

We have received additional agent recommendations that well discuss in future columns. We would love to include your input as well regarding incremental improvements in technology and business process that the independent agency system should consider. Please e-mail me at [email protected] with your recommendations.

Jeff Yates is executive director of the Agents Council for Technology, a group of agents, companies, vendors and associations assembled by the Alexandria, Va.-based Independent Insurance Agents of America.

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.