Arthur C. Clarke published 2001: A Space Odyssey in 1968. Stanley Kubricks landmark film adaptation of that story was released the same year, the year in which Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assasinated. Neil Armstrong was just one year away from taking the first lunar stroll. In hindsight, its amazing how much weve learned in 34 years.
At the 1968 Joint Computer Conference, held in San Francisco, Douglas C. Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute demonstrated a communication system comprised of a keyboard, keypad, mouse, and windows. He used a word processor and a hypertext system to perform remote, collaborative work with colleagues. In hindsightand given the extent to which the insurance industry continues to struggle with the same kinds of communication systemsits amazing how little weve learned in 34 years.
To illustrate the extent to which Engelbarts method for performing the remote, collaborative work of streamlining processes and automating transactions still give us fits, consider this: For close to 20 years, insurance agents have sought the development and adoption of single-entry, multiple company interface (SEMCI) for the transmittal of information. Theyve been encouraged by the rhetorical commitments of some carriers, although the business interests of those carriers may not be served by SEMCI. In any case, SEMCI has been neither accepted nor implemented industry-wide.
This problem is compounded by the Internet, which promises to give agents real-time links to the processing systems of multiple carriers. But the fulfillment of that promise depends on the willingness and ability of carriers to alter their e-commerce strategies to support open agency interface. While many carriers have Internet applications for agency interface, many of them are proprietary. Even with mounting pressure on the carriers to provide non-proprietary access, the likelihood of this happening would make a Vegas oddsmaker queasy.
Theres another problem: Providing an insurance product does not guarantee appropriate coverage. Neither does it guarantee the best rates, service, or policy terms. For that, someone or something must perform a detailed comparison of products and services. While most insurance policies contain specific coverages and exclusions, most Internet-based quoting systems provide little more than comparative rates. Rating engines simply dont possess the facility to explain whats being bought, to compare whats being bought to comparable products or coverages from other carriers, to evaluate the insurers services and claims-paying attitudes, to provide ongoing service after the sale, or to provide basic consumer protection.
Before computers made life so simple, an agent could sell, price, underwrite, and issue a policy in one sitting with a prospect. Policy changes, billing questions, and claims were handled with similar alacrity. But as technology became more prevalent, writing, issuing, and servicing insurance became more troublesome for two significant reason.
First, data had to be synchronized between computers with different platforms, programming languages, data models, editing rules, protocols, priorities, etc. Second, carriers and agents werent connected by an infrastructure that broadly facilitated distribution.
Speaking of irony, insurance, lest we forget, is not a technology business. It remainsas alwaysa people business. The customers needs must be fulfilled and complemented by trust in the seller. Computer technology can abet brains and hands. It cannot approximate heart and soul.
With all this in mind, its amazing how much of the fantasy written in 1968 involved computers. Martin Caidin wrote The God Machine. Philip K. Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Michael Frayn wrote A Very Private Life, and John Sladek wrote The Reproductive System.
But despite literatures preoccupation with computers, the science demonstrated by Engelbart in 1968 is not fiction. Its reality. We simply need the will to make it work for insurance. After 34 years, we still seek the magic. MARK OBRIEN
Mark OBrien is vice president, client services, at Martino & Binzer, a full-service marketing communications firm in Avon, Conn., with a number of clients in the insurance industry.
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