For those of you who loved The Da Vinci Code, I have a provocativequestion. What if someone discovered the Holy Grail and nobodycared? What if this object of obsession was left to gather dust ina museum, and no one paid it any attention? Sound as implausible asthe premise of Dan Browns best-selling novel? Perhaps not, if youconsider the insurance industrys sad example when it comes to itsown holy grail–SEMCI.

With single-entry, multi-company interface, basically were talkingabout the ability of agents to shop and service accounts via onemanagement system, without having to re-enter data or cope with amultitude of proprietary insurer Web sites.

Perhaps SEMCI has yet to be unearthed in one piece, as there arestill far too many technical hurdles to overcomemost of themartificial–for agents to truly have open access to all carriers.But many of the fragments have been discovered. All you must do isput the pieces to work.

Agents right now have at their fingertips the opportunity toconduct much of their routine business in so-called real time,which the Agents Council for Technology defines as follows:

Real Time is the ability to click on a button from a client filein your agency management system or comparative rater for immediateaccess to carrier information on that client. The transaction maybe a quote, billing inquiry, claim inquiry/loss runs, policy view,endorsements or a request for information. This approach provides asingle workflow for servicing or quoting.

This isnt some hypothetical concept. In fact, most agents cannow perform many common transactions and functions in real time,but either dont know they can, dont know how to do so, orevenworsedont care to learn how.

Whether the problem is ignorance or inertia, the burden hasshifted away from insurers lambasted for slowing down the systemand adding unnecessary costs with customized, password-protectedWeb sites. The spotlight is now being trained on those who havecomplained the loudest about the need for SEMCIagentsthemselves.

A wakeup call is being delivered by a coalition of insuranceindustry interests, who last month launched a marketing campaign toalert agents about the real-time opportunities available today.

The Real Time/Download Campaign was unveiled last month duringthe Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America annualconference in Washington, and was pushed again at this week's ACORDLOMA Insurance Systems Forum in Orlando. It is being led by ACT (anIIABA creation) and AUGIE (the ACORD-User Group InformationExchange), with support from a multitude of tech providers,carriers and agent groups.

Their goal sounds ambitiousto double over the next year thenumber of real-time transactions from the current 20,000 or so eachbusiness day (not counting those through comparative ratingsystems). But agents have so much catching up to do, a hurry-upcampaign is long overdue.

All agents should check out the campaigns Web sitewww.getrealtime.organdtake advantage of the many resources available through ACT, AUGIEand this new initiative. The site offers numerous reports, guides,links, advice on implementation and installation information.

The industry's holy grail is staring you right in the face, butinstead of using it to boost productivity, save time and cutoverhead, many agents are using it as a pot for their favoriteoffice plant.

If agents cant be bothered learning how to capitalize on theirown technology, they have no one but themselves to blame for thehigh cost and frustrations they must endure to do business.

What are you waiting for? What's holding up the process? Anyfeedback or suggestions on how to get this industry operating in“real time” would be welcome.