Agent-Company Interface Still High On User Groups WishLists Although agents are dealing with a host oftechnology issues, one that keeps coming up with user group expertsis agent-company interface, or SEMCI as some still call it.

Roy C. Riley, president of AMS Users' Group and chief operatingofficer of Peel & Holland Financial Group in Benton, Ky., saidagencies face “a whole host of issues.”

One of them, SEMCI, is improving, he said, though “you stillhave many differences from company to company.”

“Companies that have enabled real time, through Web sites orfrom our management systems, do make it easier for us to dobusiness,” he said.

Agents are still doing “a lot of logging in and out of companyWeb sites every day,” he said, which though negative in somerespects, is “positive in that the carriers have enabled thisability for the agents, which is a great first step.”

Now, he added, it's important to take the capability thecarriers have built and “spin it out to a more efficient way forthe agents beyond that–so that we can gain the information directlyfrom our management systems.”

Currently, AMS is working to solve SEMCI issues with its ownproduct, he said. “It's going really well. We have eight carrierscurrently enabled for billing and claims inquiry.”

He explained that with the AMS product, agents can start withintheir management system, load up a particular policy, “click acouple of buttons,” and the information will be returned withintheir management system, “as far as the billing or the claims,” inreal time.

This cuts out logging into multiple Web sites and multipleworkflow. “It allows me to teach my employees one workflow for anyof these eight carriers and I think they are hoping to roll outanother set of carriers soon.

“The more carriers, the more momentum,” he said.

For Sallie Knighten, president of Applied System's ASC-Netusers' group and operations manager of ISU Francis-Pinney InsuranceServices Inc. in Roseville, Calif., agency-company interfaceencompasses more than SEMCI.

Ms. Knighten said, “The biggest concern to agents is using ourmanagement systems more efficiently.” To be efficient, she said,agents need “to tie as much together as we can within ourmanagement systems so that we can utilize that in all ourworkflows.”

She noted that company Web sites tend to pull agents out oftheir agency management system. “We get a lot of information atthose Web sites, but for an agency to keep workflow consistent, toprevent errors and omissions and all the things that can happen,”the information needs to be pulled into management systems.

The issue differs from SEMCI, she explained, because SEMCIfocused on rating and quoting, whereas agent-company integration isneeded for all the transactions that occur, including claims, firstnotice of loss, billing inquiries and loss runs.

Agents get a lot of information at carrier Web sites, “but whatwe need to try to do with real-time interface is to try to pull asmuch of that as we can back into our management systems,” she said.“It's a technology integration issue.”

The technology is there–in many cases built by the companies,she said. “They just haven't built it out” to allow forintegration, she said.

Steve Redel, principal of Redel Insurance Agency in Ballwin,Miss., and board member of Ebix Users Group, agreed thatagency-company interface still tops the list of concerns.

The number of systems that users must access depends on thelines of coverage they offer and how the markets are set up, hesaid.

“In our little office, we have concentrated things to threepersonal lines companies. But with commercial, I might have to goto as many as five company sites to investigate a prospect or tryto put a quote together,” he said.

Where he believes agent-company interface is heading, he said,is a “quote to issue” system where basic information is entered toget a quote. About 90 percent of the time, companies requeststandard information, he said. If the quote is acceptable, adetailed application is filled out, which is then processed. Thequote is instantaneous.

To achieve SEMCI, Mr. Redel said, “I would think that you wouldhave to step back and approach it from a different direction,because we're not getting the job done year after year after yearwith having everybody agree to a single site.”

Mr. Redel said Ebix is working towards that goal with a productthat is able to store company user names and passwords, “so that ifyou are in their agency management system, you can do a direct billinquiry.” The system, he said, would log the user on and navigatehim or her to a direct bill inquiry screen where the status of acustomer's direct bill could be accessed.

“The beauty of this [product] is that companies don't have to doanything,” he said. “They don't even have to give authorizationbecause you're already doing it manually. All this does is save youall the keystrokes.”

Pam Parry, immediate past president of AMS Users Group andexecutive vice president of GBP Risk Solutions in Tucson, Ariz.,said the biggest issue for agents is still SEMCI.

“When I was president, I used [the term] SEMCI because agentsrelated to it. But I had a lot of companies up in arms saying'that's old.'”

“But if it looks like a duck, smells like a duck and walks likea duck, it sounds like a duck to me.”

The biggest problem facing every user is company interface, shesaid. “Web sites are a beautiful thing, but to have to leave ourmanagement systems and tag onto those Web sites to gather theinformation that we didn't have before is an extra step.”

All those extra steps add up, she explained, creating a“workflow nightmare” and a “password management nightmare” thatincreases the agency workload. Currently, she said, user groups arefocused on how to drive the industry to develop technologies thatwill streamline workflow.

Progress, she said, has been substantial.

“For the first time, everybody is working together to make ithappencompanies, vendors and agencies,” Ms. Parry said.

How will it work? “You would be able to access a [company] Website and never leave your management system,” she explained.Several products are in the works that would make this happen foragents.

“These technologies are starting to save bites of time withinthe agency,” Ms. Parry said. The technologies only handle certaintransactions at this point, and utilization by agents will beimperative to continue the development of the products “to thepoint where you won't have to leave your agency management systemfor anything that you can get off a company Web site.”

For example, she said, AMS Services Inc. has developed a productand so far has eight insurers on board for claims and billinginquiries.

“I just hit a couple of clicks within my management system whenI'm on a customer file and I immediately get back claims or billinginquiry from those two companies,” she said. Additionaltransactions and companies are ready to come on board to providemore services to agents. “So it's a beautiful thing.”

In general, she said, agents are struggling with themarketplace. “I think we're right at the beginning of theinformation age and we don't know what is going to happen,” shesaid. “I think a lot of agents are struggling with that.”

Mr. Riley said that another issue that agencies are strugglingwith is internal integration of agency management systems, documentmanagement systems and e-mail systems.

He said he is concerned that “the majority of agencies are notintegrated to the point necessary,” which could lead to issues withthe inherent exposures.

An example, he said, is e-mail, which is increasingly being usedfor communication by the carrier, the agent and the customer. Manyagencies, he said, may not be properly documenting their agencymanagement system.

“They may be depending on e-mail systems as backup. Yet manytimes if you haven't done an adequate job, it's hard to find thatone e-mail you need out of the 10,000 that are in your 'sent'items,” he said.

“As the business environment around us changes on a rapidbasis,” he added, “agents really need to take a hard look from anE&O [errors and omissions exposure] perspective. Are we reallyadequately documenting everything and covering ourselves?”

For agents, finding a solution can be as simple as working withtheir vendor to make sure they are taking full advantage ofintegration opportunities that currently exist. Most vendors, Mr.Reilly added, have work-around solutions where agents can cut andpaste an e-mail into an activity log or utilize some other methodto save and file. More than anything, he said, agents need to takefull advantage of the opportunities that are already available tothem.

For the most part, he noted, agents are becoming moretechnologically savvy “because it is a requirement to compete andremain viable into the future. You have to embrace technologybecause there are not a lot of other options.”

He added that agencies best poised for the future “are thosethat have their arms around technology issues.”

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, May 19, 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.