There is no doubt that the agency business has its ups anddowns. But for the champion in National Underwriter's inaugural“P&C Agency Technology Achievement Award” program–conducted inpartnership with ACORD, the industry standards and managementfacilitator–the “down” was almost “down and out” if it had not beenfor a series of technological lifelines grabbed with gusto by thefirm's solo principal, Ed Higgins Jr.

There were certainly far bigger agencies entered in this year'saward program, but none demonstrated better how the wise use oftechnology can level a playing field in competition with largerfirms, and help turn a struggling organization around.

“For a business owner, the gravest prospect is losing theenterprise,” said Mr. Higgins, president of Thousand IslandsAgency, which generated some $2.9 million in premium volume lastyear out of Clayton, N.Y., with one principal and six employees inall.

“In 1983, in the middle of a soft market, our agency businesswas on the precipice of losing the enterprise. I had one full-timeemployee,” he noted.

How did things come to such a sorry state? “What really got usin trouble was the fact that we were marginally profitable goinginto the soft market,” he explained. “Also, we were in limitedmarkets, which was a mistake. When I joined the agency in 1974, 95percent of our business was wet marine insurance. When that marketdropped down, we were in trouble. I realized that as the market waschanging, boat insurance was not a specialty anymore.”

According to Mr. Higgins, Thousand Islands didn't have adequatetime to consistently re-visit the risk management process withevery client, every year. Could tech save the day, and hisagency?

After seeing a demonstration of the Redshaw Agency Managementsystem, he realized the key to finding additional time for riskmanagement consultation and growth was to employ technology tostreamline the turnaround necessary for regular processing.

With the agency running in the red for 1983, “our purchasedecision was an all-out risk of the enterprise,” he said.

It wasn't smooth sailing at first. Indeed, he described theinitial experience with Redshaw as “disastrous, with the systemelectrically failing every single day for three months.”

Still, Mr. Higgins believed the system could work. The “greenscreen” Wang hardware-based system ran at that time on dual 8-inchfloppy drives with no hard drive. Having seen a successfuldemonstration of the product, “I thought logically the problem isnot that this won't work,” he recalled. “Finally the vendor broughtin an expert who identified the problem in 30 seconds to be afaulty power line conditioner, and we were then able to get down tobusiness.”

“We grew 50 percent in 18 months and upgraded to the next largersystem size,” he noted. “We saved the enterprise with our totalrisk approach. That experience clearly cemented my commitment totechnology and the business benefits it could provide.”

Mr. Higgins said the Redshaw system enabled his agency to do adirect marketing program that he thought was beyond the capabilityof an agency his size. “It has the capacity to profile prospects byZIP code, so we sent out mailings by bulk mail,” he noted.

The push to leverage technology was only beginning, however.

“Every time a staff member left their desk, we asked what theywere going to do and focused on ways to bring that information backto the Wang-based desktop,” he said. “We used the customuser-defined screen capability with hot-keys to achieve that in awork-around format.”

He added that the principle of keeping employees empowered withall of the information they need at their desktops prevails atThousand Islands Agency today, 25 years later.

In 1994, the agency implemented a technology-based, in-house,24-hour claim service that “out-called” to Mr. Higgins' cell phonewhenever a claim was reported after hours.

“We wanted an answering system, so we utilized voice-mail boardsin the PC,” he noted. “At night, we were able to re-route the phoneline into the PC. I found out that I could have the callsredirected to my cell phone. It was a cool way to provide a uniquebenefit.” The function was taken over by the agency'sVoice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) phone system in 2005.

“Customers always receive a reply call from the agency ownerwithin one hour of their original call,” said Mr. Higgins.“Cardscan software was added as a capability to create an Outlookcontact without a single key-stroke, with worldwide remote accessthrough a free Cardscan Web site storage facility.”

In 2000, the agency acquired desktop scanners (later upgradedtwice to fast 50ppm duplex capability) and began to experiment withhow they would integrate within their work-flow, but had difficultyin developing a logical storage model, he recalled.

“In 2001, while attending a national user group conference, wediscovered a way to make our T-Files electronic,” Mr. Higginsnoted. “Simply understanding the logic of the process wasempowering and meant we would never have to leave the desktoplocation to retrieve an old paper document.”

“Once we understood the logic of scanning, we moved every agencymanagement operations document to the electronic environment,” hecontinued. “No paper documents were maintained on premises, andpaper was discarded the next day after processing andbackup-electronic filing was completed.”

Incoming faxes were printed directly to electronic files, andcould become outbound e-mail attachments in seconds, he said,noting that it was no longer necessary to print out faxes. Multiplee-mail address books and distribution lists maximizedcommunications capabilities with clients.

Mr. Higgins emphasized that his agency's commitment to beingpaper-free is virtually 100 percent, although he noted there may bea few exceptions for regulatory reasons, or if some companies askthe agency to keep “wet” signatures.

“In 2001, we added dual monitors at every workstation and beganto maximize the leverage of our technology platform,” he said.“With convergence of multiple programs into an integrated model,speed of processing was multiplied, saving time and providing moretime for client value-added servicing.”

In 2002, he noted, “we acquired a second location 35 miles awayfrom our original site, and that was larger than our own agency. Itwas another big risk challenge, and the former owner left on thefirst day of our acquisition. Fortunately, we had coordinatedagency management systems and company representation for severalyears before.”

Within two years, he said, “we successfully digested theacquisition with less than 5 percent attrition, and moved to a newmodern building–all possible through technology leveraging. A VoIPphone system linked communications between the two offices, makingcall transfers between the locations and interoffice staffcommunications the equivalent of a free intercom call.”

In 2005, the agency installed triple monitors at everyworkstation, further leveraging the integrated desk-top model.

“We added real-time inquiry and agency management system inquirywith access for 80 percent of our personal lines premium volumethrough four carriers,” according to Mr. Higgins.

“The triple monitors gave us a huge advantage,” he noted, addingthe agency just upgraded to 19-inch-wide angle units. “It lookslike a traffic control center.”

As an example of triple-monitor efficiency, he pointed to thepayment process on the agency's self-insured health care plan. “Wecan look at the PDF document on monitor number one, go out to abank Web site and enter stop payment or other information on thesecond monitor, and compose a letter to the enrollee on the thirdmonitor,” he explained.

“We figure you could make a case for four monitors, but wehaven't got space for four,” said Mr. Higgins. “The power of thisapplication is that you have different applications open on thescreens, and you can drag and drop between monitors. You can doconventional tasks much faster.”

Bottom line, “it's all about time, and it's also aboutprofitability” he observed. “An agency also needs to make enoughmoney to pay the debt service for its own purchase. It also needsto be profitable enough to build a good benefits package to keepgood people.”

In 2007, Thousand Islands Agency re-constructed both of its Webpages (www.tiagency.com and www.mac-brown.com) to provide moreclient access to the agency, said Mr. Higgins.

Live-chat is a planned upgrade to both Web sites this spring. Hesaid the agency has also added a full document management systemfor the next generation of securely stored documents of all filetypes.

“By 2008, we converted to an ASP-based management system”–EbixASP–”which provides disaster protection for loss of our premises,”he concluded. While the agency's old management system is still onclient-server duty as a backup, Mr. Higgins said his agency'ssystems are “totally” ASP (application service provider)driven.

“We've also added automatic gas-generator capability forcontinuous operation,” he noted.

Today, Thousand Islands Agency remains a relatively smalloperation (six total employees) with big aspirations, but techhelps level the playing field with bigger competitors.

“Technology has become a permanent leverage point for our agencyover 25 years, moving us from the edge of extinction to a veryviable rural agency prepared for the environment of the future,”said Mr. Higgins.