Las Vegas

In a reversal from four years ago, agents and brokers citedprice as the main driver when deciding where to place personallines business in 2010, eclipsing “ease of doing business,” thelatest AUGIE survey revealed.

The importance placed on price is a “validation of how today'seconomy is impacting the placement of business,” observed LisaGoth, vice president of the Charles P. Leach Agency and head of theAUGIE Survey Committee.

The ACORD-User Groups Information Exchange (AUGIE) survey wasreleased here during last week's ACORD LOMA Insurance SystemsForum.

For the survey respondents–the vast majority of whom were agentsand brokers–35.2 percent identified price as the main driver whenselecting a personal lines company, while 28 percent said “ease ofdoing business,” and 12.8 percent cited products. In the previousAUGIE survey in 2006, ease of doing business was the top driver forpersonal lines placement.

Products rated last as a factor in both the 2006 and 2010surveys for personal lines, but both studies showed products to beof increasing importance for commercial lines risks.

Indeed, for large commercial lines exposures–defined as accountswith over $100,000 in premium–the majority of respondents citedproducts as the top driver in both the 2006 and 2010 surveys.

When sharing the results of the 2010 AUGIE survey, Ms. Gothemphasized the progress of the “Real Time Campaign.”

According to the campaign's website www.getrealtime.org, “real timeis the ability to click on a button from a client file in youragency management system or comparative rater for immediate accessto carrier information on that client.” (For news on another surveyabout real-time usage, see page 19.)

Ms. Goth said a major reason for the campaign was a 2006 AUGIEsurvey response citing “duplicate data entry” as producers' toptimewaster (46.6 percent of respondents).

(In NU's May 29, 2006 article on the last AUGIE survey,it was reported that “the Holy Grail of property-casualtyinsurance–single-entry, multiple-company interface–remains more ofa dream than a reality for a significant portion of disgruntledindependent agents, a survey of intermediaries has revealed.” Seehttp://bit.ly/axLlDP for thefull story.)

The 2010 AUGIE survey did not use the wording “duplicate dataentry” as a response to its top timewaster question, but it offereda similar response of “learning and using various companyproprietary systems.” While this remained the top timewaster forproducers in 2010, the number of respondents saying so dropped to27 percent.

Ms. Goth credited this drop to wider adoption of real-timeprocessing.

She said 75 percent of agent and broker respondents now use sometype of real-time system, with 89 percent of those who do use itstating that it saves them time.

For personal lines, respondents saved an average of 60.3 minutesa day. Commercial lines respondents saved 43 minutes per day, thesurvey found.

Ms. Goth also pointed to the difference in the 2006 and 2010responses to a question about the difficulty agents have insecuring quotes from insurers, and whether that difficulty affectshow many carriers agents approach for a price quote.

In 2006, 32.9 percent strongly agreed and 39.3 somewhat agreedthat difficulty in securing a quote impacts how many carriers theyapproach. In 2010, 22 percent strongly agreed and 40 percentsomewhat agreed.

Ms. Goth said real-time adoption has helped reduce thisnumber.

For carriers, 44 percent said they offer real-time rating, 63percent offer real-time downloads, 32 percent offer real-timeendorsement processing, and 47 percent offer real-time inquiry.

“There is definitely an opportunity for carriers to increasetheir [real-time] offerings,” said Ms. Goth.

“Day in and day out, agencies operate in multiple workflowsbecause of the various ways insurance companies want to exchangeinformation,” according to Cal Durland, CPCY market developmentmanager and AUGIE facilitator at ACORD–a Real Time/DownloadCampaign sponsor.

“Broader carrier implementation of real time based on ACORDstandards will provide a more consistent workflow, one that usesthe agents' technology to access company systems,” she added in astatement. “This will deliver faster response, fewer errors and,most important, more sales.”

“Carriers have done a good job working with vendors to build outinquiry and service capabilities, and real-time personal linesquoting is growing rapidly,” said Jeff Yates, executive director ofthe Agents Council for Technology, part of the IndependentInsurance Agents and Brokers of America, another campaignsponsor.

“Agents want more carriers to focus on endorsements, providing'deep link' functionality that takes them directly to the companyendorsement completion screen to make changes,” he added.

Meanwhile, as much as respondents understand the significance oftechnology, old ways die hard, the survey found.

While 80 percent of respondents said more than 50 percent oftheir job requires the use of technology for collecting informationabout prospects, more than half said they still begin the processwith pen and paper.

Respondents were also asked to rank their top-three carriersthat have implemented technology resulting in ease of doingbusiness.

Travelers Insurance Company received the most top-three votes,followed by Progressive Group, Hartford Insurance Group, SafecoInsurance Company, Allied Group, Peerless Insurance, CNA Insuranceand Cincinnati Insurance Company.

Of the 4,794 respondents who started the survey and 3,826 whocompleted it, 87.3 percent identified themselves as agents orbrokers. An additional 10 percent were carriers, with the remainingrespondents consisting of solution providers and associationofficials.

For the agents and brokers, 90.6 percent said they wereindependent agents, while 7.3 percent said brokers.

The next AUGIE survey will be in 2014.