Agents Future Depends On SEMCI

If youve been in the insurance industry for any length of time,youve heard about the drive toward SEMCI (single-entry, multiplecompany interface)the adaptation of real-time inquiry andtransaction processing incorporating XML standards.

You may have heard mixed messagesand misinformation. And you mayhave thrown up your hands and continued to do business the wayyouve always done it, waiting for a changeor not.

Let me clarify some things that could change your mind.

Two of the largest users groups (AMS and Applied), representing80 percent of all independent agents, have united in the strongestpush toward SEMCI and the use of Transformation Station that theindustry has ever seenwith the goal of making real-timetransactions without duplicate entry the industry standard. Quitesimply, the future of independent agents depends on it.

Look at your bottom line. Chances are your largest expendituresare for people. A lot of carriers have created their own Web sites,which is a good first step toward improving efficiency. But itsonly the first step.

We need real-time inquiry and transaction processing. We needdata pre-fills to these sites, and quick links from our managementsystems to our carriers Web sites. And we need more complete andaccurate downloads.

If youre an agency principal, you may not be involved in thenitty-gritty of your day-to-day operations. So, let me throw a fewstatistics your way. A recent ASCnet study compared the time spenton various tasks using different workflow choices. For new BOPbusiness rating and issuance, it took CSRs 64 minutes to get threecomparative quotes using three carrier Web sites, and only sevenminutes from start to finish using Transformation Station.

For billing inquiries, a carriers Web site took nine minutes, aphone call took eight minutes and Transformation Station completedthe task in two minutes. Based on these statistics, how much timeare you wasting at your agency? Even more important, what are yougoing to do about it?

Every major industry group has come together to lobby ourinsurance carriers to get on board with SEMCI and TransformationStation. But, like everything in our business, it takesrelationshipsface-to-face meetings between agency principals andcarrier CEOs. Were asking for you to look at how real-timetransaction processing can impact your bottom lineand were askingfor your help.

If you have a close relationship with an executive of one ofyour carriers, we need to hear from you. We need every agency ownerto band together to lobby carriers to drive the industrys future.If we want real change, every agency owner must make SEMCI a numberone priority. Your businessyour futuredepends on it.

Pam Parry is president of the AMS Users Group, based inIrving, Texas.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, August 19, 2002.Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.