Real-Time Transactions Save Time I recentlyread about a centenarian independent agent. In 1903, most agentshad no typewriter, no phone and no car. Of course, they didnt havemany clients either, since insurance was in its infancy.

But the comment that stuck with me was that because insurancewas new, the agent had to “wear several hats to make ends meet.” Alot has changed over the last hundred years, except for one thing:The modern insurance agent still needs to wear many hats. Only inthis case its to be more efficient and profitable.

As much as automation has been fought, or not utilized to itsfullest capabilities, by many agency owners, its the cornerstone toprosperity in an independent agency. If youre not budgeting forautomation every year, the agency will fall farther and fartherbehind and the ultimate expense to eventually upgrade will be thatmuch higher. Technology changes regularly, and with each changecomes the potential for saving time and money in your agency.

Our agency is a big believer in staying on the cutting edge. Wefirst automated in 1980 with a system from Burroughs, the B92. Thedisk held a whopping 10 megabytes! We moved to Travelers EBS in1982, and then ultimately to Applied Systems in 1991.

The agency management system is the heart and soul of anyagency. Many of the automation advancements that weve implementedemerged through the technology of our vendor to include marketing,download, upload, rating integration, MVR integration, fax servers,imaging, e-mail integration, iPAQ integration and more.

But now the biggest, most sought-after capability, the mostelusive, is finally herereal-time interface. Real-time interfacevia Transformation Station provides a direct link between youragency management system and a companys proprietary Web siteone ofthe keys to the efficiency of an agency.

The company Web sites are a necessary component to real-timeinterface, and they do provide certain informational sections, suchas company forms, manuals, sales and product information, etc. Butfrom a day-to-day workflow standpoint within an independent agentsoffice, what do we do the most? We provide the best customerservice of any of the insurance distribution centers.

This customer service revolves around data thats stored orimmediately accessible from our computers, such as billinginquiries, claims inquiry, reviewing a policy with a customer viapolicy inquiry, and first notice of loss so that we can provideanswers to our customer while theyre on the phone.

Secondly, its providing a choice for the prospect who needs anew policy and doesnt want just one rate that the direct writerwill provide. They want a range of options to choose from, assistedby their knowledgeable independent agent via real-time interface.Its what the independent agency system is all about! And its whyits always been the best distribution system for the insurancecarrier.

Its hard for me to understand how a company can take theproprietary stance and think thats the most efficient way to dobusiness with their independent agent partners. To try and lean ustowards one of our company partners or the other by providing the“best” proprietary Web site is not the correct thought process. Andin some cases we are being mandated to use it. Is this the best wayto provide a growth-oriented business partnership?

The successful independent agent isnt going to pick one or twoof the perceived best Web sites and only write with those twocompanies. Its only a little better than a direct writers option.The bottom line is that we are going to provide our customers withchoice, and were going to do it with the companies that make it theeasiest to do business with them.

Real-time transactions, SEMCI and Transformation Station aresolutions that agents have been waiting a long time to see. Theircomponents are XML inquiry and rating. Inquiry is available now, ina big way, which in the past we had to do manually (phone calls,proprietary Web site access via passwords, running to a file,etc.).

Rating is important, too, and cant be taken off the radarscreen. One of our major carriers has taken the lead in our officeby providing real-time rating via Transformation Station forcommercial lines and personal auto. Our office staff has commentedon how easy it is to obtain billing, claim and policy informationdirectly from our agency management system. The overall question Ikeep getting is “Why is real-time rating or inquiry only availablewith one of our carriers?”

I agree. Why are many companies sitting back, seemingly waitingfor real-time transactions to fail? Why is the impetus of educatingthe entire independent agent base on real-time transactions beingavoided by most companies? Why cant this be a team effort betweenindependent agents, vendors, associations and allinsurance carriers? Is it hard to envision that this camaraderiewould have the potential of taking market share away from directwriters?

Some carriers say the agents arent interested because theyre notusing it. The agents who arent using it arent aware of it! As hardas this small group of real-time proponents is working to get themessage out, reaching 40,000 agents is an uphill battle. We needcompany assistance. We need educated marketing representatives.

We need companies to talk about real-time transactions andTransformation Station at their marketing meetings, at the producerand CSR councils, and at their annual getaways for top agents. Weneed a partnership.

There is enough business to go around. If we can provide thecustomer choice, via real-time rating, and then provide superiorservice via real-time transactions, isnt that customer going tostick around longer, benefiting both agent and company?

Our office of nine employees, plus two remote offices, knows thebenefit of real-time transactions. I get positive comments daily.To obtain billing information on a customer in seconds versusminutes may not sound like a lot for one inquiry. But if we do 15 aday, that becomes a huge savings over the course of a year. Andtheres a similar savings with the policy inquiry, claims inquiryand rating. Just imagine the savings potential as an agencygrows.

Real-time processing means we provide better service to ourcustomers. Theyre happy and stay with us longer, and we have moretime to grow our business. Sounds like a win-win for the agent andcompany. So its time for companies to stop sitting back and waitingfor the agent. Its time for agents to take the time to understandthe benefit of this technology and do what it takes to move forwardquickly. And its time for all of us to work together to make realtime processing a reality to all agents.

Stuart Durland ([email protected])is co-owner of Warwick, N.Y.-based The Durland Agencies and is vicepresident of ASCnet, the national user group of Applied Systemsagency management technology.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, April 14, 2003.Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.