Plymouth Rock Auto Insurance has been in the world of mobile computing since 1990, but when claims manager Bill Kelleher describes the New England auto insurers initial efforts in the field, you can almost imagine life in colonial times. Initially, we had a van set up with a desktop PC hard mounted directly into the van, he says. We experimented with radios and cellular phones, but it was a fairly manual process. At that point, the technology allowed us to reach someone on a cell phone, and that person would key the information in at the appraisal location and hand write a check.

It was a very rudimentary process to begin with, adds Frank Arment, vice president of claims for Plymouth Rock. As the technology improved, we leveraged the new technology, and it has brought us to the point where we are today. Where Plymouth Rock and other insurers are is what Kelleher calls a standalone mobile office for his claims staff. They may still be riding around in vans, but the technology has allowed them to do more than just gather information in the field. Today that information is processed, examined, and distributed while the claims adjuster is on his way to the next wrecked vehicle instead of driving back to the office either to key in the information or turn his report over to someone else to re-key it.

Technology-analysis firm IDC recently looked at adoption rates of mobile and wireless technology, and Lucie Draper, program manager for enterprise technology trends, found that roughly half of the insurance industry is using some form of mobile or wireless technology. The types of applications they are deploying in this environment are really e-mail access office suites and a number of sales force automation applications, she says. What they are doing at this point is extending communication and productivity functions for their employees. Its pretty typical that organizations will first target their employees and later the customers. At this point, the insurance industry is mostly focused on providing these functionalities or tools to their employees for them to access contact information and scheduling.