The agency management system is the heart and soul of any agency. Many of the automation advancements that weve implemented emerged through the technology of our vendor to include marketing, download, upload, rating integration, MVR integration, fax servers, imaging, e-mail integration, iPAQ integration and more.

But now the biggest, most sought-after capability, the most elusive, is finally herereal-time interface. Real-time interface via Transformation Station provides a direct link between your agency management system and a companys proprietary Web siteone of the keys to the efficiency of an agency.

The company Web sites are a necessary component to real-time interface, and they do provide certain informational sections, such as company forms, manuals, sales and product information, etc. But from a day-to-day workflow standpoint within an independent agents office, what do we do the most? We provide the best customer service of any of the insurance distribution centers.

This customer service revolves around data thats stored or immediately accessible from our computers, such as billing inquiries, claims inquiry, reviewing a policy with a customer via policy inquiry, and first notice of loss so that we can provide answers to our customer while theyre on the phone.

Secondly, its providing a choice for the prospect who needs a new policy and doesnt want just one rate that the direct writer will provide. They want a range of options to choose from, assisted by their knowledgeable independent agent via real-time interface. Its what the independent agency system is all about! And its why its always been the best distribution system for the insurance carrier.

Its hard for me to understand how a company can take the proprietary stance and think thats the most efficient way to do business with their independent agent partners. To try and lean us towards one of our company partners or the other by providing the “best” proprietary Web site is not the correct thought process. And in some cases we are being mandated to use it. Is this the best way to provide a growth-oriented business partnership?

The successful independent agent isnt going to pick one or two of the perceived best Web sites and only write with those two companies. Its only a little better than a direct writers option. The bottom line is that we are going to provide our customers with choice, and were going to do it with the companies that make it the easiest to do business with them.

Real-time transactions, SEMCI and Transformation Station are solutions that agents have been waiting a long time to see. Their components are XML inquiry and rating. Inquiry is available now, in a big way, which in the past we had to do manually (phone calls, proprietary Web site access via passwords, running to a file, etc.).

Rating is important, too, and cant be taken off the radar screen. One of our major carriers has taken the lead in our office by providing real-time rating via Transformation Station for commercial lines and personal auto. Our office staff has commented on how easy it is to obtain billing, claim and policy information directly from our agency management system. The overall question I keep getting is “Why is real-time rating or inquiry only available with one of our carriers?”

I agree. Why are many companies sitting back, seemingly waiting for real-time transactions to fail? Why is the impetus of educating the entire independent agent base on real-time transactions being avoided by most companies? Why cant this be a team effort between independent agents, vendors, associations and all insurance carriers? Is it hard to envision that this camaraderie would have the potential of taking market share away from direct writers?

Some carriers say the agents arent interested because theyre not using it. The agents who arent using it arent aware of it! As hard as this small group of real-time proponents is working to get the message out, reaching 40,000 agents is an uphill battle. We need company assistance. We need educated marketing representatives.

We need companies to talk about real-time transactions and Transformation Station at their marketing meetings, at the producer and CSR councils, and at their annual getaways for top agents. We need a partnership.

There is enough business to go around. If we can provide the customer choice, via real-time rating, and then provide superior service via real-time transactions, isnt that customer going to stick around longer, benefiting both agent and company?

Our office of nine employees, plus two remote offices, knows the benefit of real-time transactions. I get positive comments daily. To obtain billing information on a customer in seconds versus minutes may not sound like a lot for one inquiry. But if we do 15 a day, that becomes a huge savings over the course of a year. And theres a similar savings with the policy inquiry, claims inquiry and rating. Just imagine the savings potential as an agency grows.

Real-time processing means we provide better service to our customers. Theyre happy and stay with us longer, and we have more time to grow our business. Sounds like a win-win for the agent and company. So its time for companies to stop sitting back and waiting for the agent. Its time for agents to take the time to understand the benefit of this technology and do what it takes to move forward quickly. And its time for all of us to work together to make real time processing a reality to all agents.

Stuart Durland ([email protected]) is co-owner of Warwick, N.Y.-based The Durland Agencies and is vice president of ASCnet, the national user group of Applied Systems agency management technology.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, April 14, 2003. Copyright 2003 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.