? Top Benefit - Faster turnaround time (processing) was cited by 73 percent of the agents as the top benefit they expect to realize from a commercial-line carrier's real-time interface.

? Key Functionality - 73 percent of agents said it was "very important/useful" for carriers to provide real-time feedback and quoting; another 24 percent said such functionality was "somewhat important."

? Agency Connectivity - 84 percent of agents surveyed said that cost-free instant upload from their desktops to the carrier, regardless of agency management system, would be "incredibly useful."

? Most Valued Feature - Indicating speed is of the essence, 72 percent ranked "real-time quoting from carriers" as the feature they would most value in an agent portal, followed by straight through processing (submit to quote to bind).

? Insurance Exchange - 16 percent said they currently submit business through an insurance-industry agent-carrier exchange. Another 61 percent are very interested in/plan to use an exchange.

What can a carrier do to increase use of their agency portal? A quarter of respondents checked off "increase frequency of on-site training" and another quarter felt a rewards program would be a great incentive. However, 39 percent had their own ideas. Many pointed to having a central portal site (fewer systems to learn) such as LexisNexis, and improving upload functionality for single data entry. Agents want the ability to enter data into their agency management system for carrier-system upload.

"Gartner's April 2010 Top 10 Technologies to Impact P/C Insurance report cited that 'portal and Internet technologies' are among the technologies that will challenge existing business processes, support new business models and allow companies to successfully differentiate themselves to drive revenue growth," says Meira Primes, vice president of marketing, FirstBest Systems. "Insurers understand that providing real-time agent/underwriter collaboration and one-stop shopping drives down costs, boosts quote productivity and quality and makes them the carrier of choice."

More than 80 percent of respondents work at agencies that write more than $10 million in premiums annually. Nearly 50 percent were agency owners, and another 35 percent were executive, senior-manager or division-head level. Seventy percent cited commercial lines as comprising more than half of their business. The majority of agents cited workers' compensation and commercial multi-peril as the most significant commercial lines of business for their agency today, as well as in the next three years.