Among the new features of AMS 360 is Document 360, which embeds document management workflow info the agency management system, noted Mr. Dixon.

“The agency can track how documents move through the agency and how effectively they move,” he explained. “The agency can attach documents to activities and search across the entire database for documents with fairly extensive search capability.”

In addition, the new management system version allows an agency to specify security parameters on a “document-by-document level,” while attaching it to a variety of entities–including banks, the insured and employees, he continued.

“You may be able to designate a document as 'hidden,' so if I don't have security clearance, I may not even know it exists,” he said, adding that the new system also provides management reports to help the agency manage the efficiency of its document flow.

Mr. Dixon said that customer service representatives in particular will benefit from the new system, thanks to faster workflow. For example, they can import and export data schedules from insureds without having to re-key information, which also reduces the risk of errors. Agency managers, meanwhile, will appreciate the increased efficiency, he predicts.

As an add-on to Version 2.0 of AMS 360, AMS will offer its Performance Analyzer product to agents using 360, as well as those using Sagitta, noted Mr. Dixon. “It takes production data and allows agents to drill down and analyze it,” he explained.

Among the statistics generated may be top producers in certain areas and which insurers contribute most to the agency's bottom line. “Management doesn't have that now without doing a lot of work,” he noted. “This gives them an easy way of identifying opportunities and costs.”

Meanwhile, over at Applied Systems in University Park, Ill., 2006 will see the company trying to leverage collaborations with carriers to enhance the ability of agents to transact business more efficiently, according to its chairman and chief executive officer, Jim Kellner.

“Carriers want to be able to touch the person who transacts the business–the CSR,” he explained. “They have a business relationship with the agency owner who is licensed to produce for them, but the people behind the scenes who work with interface usually have a deeper relationship [with the insured]. The person at the keyboard has as much to do with transacting business as anyone.”

Mr. Kellner said that in 2006, Applied's agency management systems will feature expanded capabilities–including the ability to support real-time transactions. Upgrades in the company's systems will allow agency CSRs to handle an “alert” transaction with an insurer.

“We'll have full support for 'alerts' in all our systems this year,” he said. For example, if a carrier system sends out an alert to a CSR that a policy is going to be canceled, “you can prevent lots of paperwork if the CSR contacts the insured and secures the payment, so it never gets to that stage,” he noted.

Such enhanced communication, he added, will benefit carriers as well as agents.

“If you enable your servicing through independent agents, you can eliminate those giant service centers, or right-size them,” said Mr. Kellner. “Carriers can also use this system to roll out marketing programs to CSRs.”

Meanwhile, Brea, Calif.-based XDimensional Systems has targeted release of Version 1.9 of its Nexsure agency management system for March 1. According to the company's president, Bob Juracka, the upgraded system will benefit from technology provided by the vendor's new strategic owner–Alpharetta, Ga.-based ChoicePoint.

“We will be infusing into Nexsure many of the ChoicePoint data services,” he explained. “We can tap into ChoicePoint data to get names, vehicles, VIN numbers, attributes and more.”

The new system version will be pre-filled with ChoicePoint data, according to Mr. Juracka. “It increases efficiency and lets the agent appear to have a lot of information, instead of fat-fingering data incorrectly,” he said.

ProI.D.–another ChoicePoint product–will also be part of Version 1.9, noted Mr. Juracka. It will allow agents to outsource initial data entries to the prospective client, after first verifying the client's identity by asking questions “based on what ChoicePoint knows about you.” The insured can do this directly through ChoicePoint, he added.

According to AMS's Mr. Bunker, a big trend in the future of agency management technology will be that agencies will increasingly turn to agency management systems vendors to provide other functions, including rating and “broader capabilities to help them run their businesses.”

He also predicts “more insured self-service,” especially on the commercial side, and increased agency-carrier connectivity, “enabling better flow of information between agents and carriers. [Carriers] know that to effectively share data, they need to tie into agency management systems.”

Applied's Mr. Kellner foresees a future in which virtually all agency management services are delivered to agents via the application service provider platform. He added that hurricanes and other national disasters are convincing more agents that their data will be safer if stored in a remote location that isn't subject to many such incidents.

He doesn't see offshore outsourcing being a large part of that trend, however. “We don't do anything offshore and we never will,” he emphasized. “We'd rather keep things close here. It's okay to outsource small, noncritical projects, but not something that's your lifeblood.”

Mr. Juracka also sees “more meaningful data interchange between carrier and agent” as part of a “slow and steady evolution.” He predicted there will be more recognition of the need to make the online experience more palatable to insureds as their involvement in the process increases on the Web. By doing so, he concluded, “you're endearing yourself to the client as an agent.”