Independent agencies and their insurance carriers that fail toembrace real-time data processing will soon start losing marketshare and could find themselves out of business over the long haul,a trio of cutting-edge agents here warned.

“Technology will increasingly become the critical factor in theagency-company relationship,” according to Edgar Higgins Jr.,president of Thousand Islands Agency in Clayton, N.Y.

“We're building a bridge to better business processing, and needto work together with carriers to meet in the middle,” he addedduring a panel on “The Future Of Agency Technology” at the ACORDLOMA Insurance Systems Forum.

Mr. Higgins, the 2008 Champion in the inaugural NationalUnderwriter P&C Agency Technology Achievement Award program,run in partnership with ACORD, said that “most agencies will soonrecognize the critical importance of real-time transactions, andthose that don't get on board will be left behind and aged out ofthe distribution system.”

Mr. Higgins said the burden is also on carriers to “embrace easeof doing business as a process and help agents get transactionheadaches out of their systems. They are the ones that will berewarded with greater market share.”

He added that “company proprietary agent portals are the mostoverrated tech options we're offered” because they add more time toan agency's workflow than they save. “As a company, if you thinkthat's a silver bullet to solve our problems, they're not,” hesaid.

Liz Tluchowski, chief information officer of Couch BraunsdorfInsurance Group in Liberty Corner, N.J.–which received an HonorableMention in the NU award program–said that “without adoptingstandards and real-time processing, we cannot survive as an agencysystem.”

She added that carriers that fail to facilitate real-timetransactions will see agents start steering business to competinginsurers that do make that option available.

Johnmichael Monteith, CIO of Parker, Smith & Feek inBellevue, Wash.–winner of another NU Honorable Mention–said that“while everyone talks about real time, we like to use the phrase'no-time,' because we want the process with carriers to becomeautomatic and instantaneous.”

Adding that “all of us see what the utopia is,” Mr. Monteithexplained that agencies “seek complete integration with ourcarriers, with no time wasted on authentication access passwordsand other artificial and time-consuming tech roadblocks.”

Standards play a key role in facilitating multicompany interfacewith single data entry, the panelists agreed.

“I don't have to know how the car works–just be certain that Ican get in and drive it with maximum engine efficiency,” said Mr.Higgins. “ACORD XML standards have been absolutely phenomenal as anenabling tool. I don't know how XML works exactly, but I knowstandards make my job easier and faster to do.”

He added, “If I can do something in 15 seconds thanks tostandards that used to take me three minutes, that's two minutesand forty-five seconds I can devote to more productive work.” Hewarned that it won't be long before most agencies refuse to workwith carriers that do not offer more efficient, standardized accesssystems in real time.

The panel's moderator, NU Tech Editor Ara C. Trembly, noted thatsome carriers believe agents are the problem, complaining many failto take advantage of real-time options already at theirdisposal.

“I can appreciate the frustration of carriers–particularly their[information technology] managers, who sold their CEOs on the ideathat, 'if we build a real-time system, the agents will come,' andthen they didn't rush to embrace it,” said Mr. Higgins.

“I say, be patient,” he added. “Agents will soon recognize thisis not only the best way to go, but the only way to go if they wantto stay in business.”

Mr. Monteith said a “critical mass” is approaching, likeningadoption of real-time processing to the cellphone. “Not everyonecarried it around when it was a huge brick, but now everyone hasone,” he noted. “As long as we focus on the pain points in thetransition and fix them, everyone will eventually get with theprogram.”