"If we don't embrace real time now, what will happen with the next generation of customers who will expect 24-hour/7-days-a-week service?" asked Favreau, who is the commercial lines manager for Connell & Curley Insurance Agency in Natick, Mass. "This will hurt the industry as a whole. It's hard on carriers, too," she noted, adding some insurers are becoming frustrated with agents who don't use the technology that is being offered.

Someday, agents will be able to do even more with real-time transactions, she explained. "We'll be able to tell customers, 'I can do everything for you,' including a lot of things that are carrier functions now. Having to send customers away from our agencies to carrier Web sites cuts down on the relationships we're trying to build with those customers," Favreau pointed out.

"To agents who haven't adopted real time where it is available, I would say, 'Take a step back and think about it. If we all work together, it will happen faster. We need to work with the carriers on using it and on solving the problems–together,'" she stated.

The biggest hurdle when it comes to agent adoption of real-time technology is educating those agents who are uninformed, explained Favreau. "The message carries more weight when another agent tells you," she said, noting industry events–both national and local–offer prime opportunities for agent-to-agent education.

Meanwhile, at the same conference, Linn Wheeling, CEO of ASCnet, told a general session audience "hundreds of agencies and more than 80 carriers are using real-time interface to reduce transaction times for customers and to enhance the productivity of their employees." She added the agencies "are experiencing incredible results."

Higher customer expectations are driving the implementation of real time, according to Wheeling. "Our customers don't have different expectations for their insurance provider than they do for many of their everyday services," she explained. "The leap has been made. They want instant access–and ease of doing business. They want it, and they want it now."

Real-time adoption also could help the industry attract talented young people to the insurance industry, she added, by demonstrating insurance is a "technologically advanced" business. "The industry has the technology," said Wheeling, "but we know we can do more. We need more agencies and brokerages to use real time, more companies to support it, more industry leaders to lead the charge."