Mobile apps from indie agents. Real-time processing—not only ofpersonal-lines business, but also of midsize commercial accounts.Social media as a marketing essential. Cloud computing. The past 12months saw a number of game-changing tech trends that are rapidlyaltering how agents and brokers do business.

Though these latest tools havehardly achieved 100-percent penetration, they have become the normfor a growing roster of producers. Real-time technology use, forexample, is definitely on the rise—and for agents competing forpersonal business against direct carriers, such instant quotingcapability is a do-or-die issue.

A recent survey released by the Real Time/Download Campaign saidthat of the 3,100 insurance agents and brokers surveyed, the numberof agents using real-time tech is up six points to 63 percent ofagency-management-system users for personal lines. Stu Durland, theReal Time/Download campaign’s co-chair, calls this an encouragingsign­—and one “critical to the future viability of the independentagency system.”

On the commercial side of the real-time issue, the LexisNexisInsurance Exchange, which aims to simplify submissions of midmarketcommercial-lines risks to multiple carriers, gained some realtraction in 2011. The Exchange, backed by the Council of InsuranceAgents & Brokers and Marketcore, saw the number of weeklysubmissions increase to an average of 1,000 per week and more than2,000 individual users.

And while the large carriers and their captive agents have hadmobile apps for a few years now, 2011 saw Main Street producersstarting to create their own to offer better customer service totheir clients—who now expect to be able to execute routinefinancial transactions on their smartphones.

Additionally, in a largely overcast year—where revenuereductions had agencies looking for ways to cut costs and boostproductivity—many began counting on cloud-computing solutions as ameans to both eliminate some IT expenses and increase access todata by employees.

On the social-media front, personal-lines agents using Facebookand Twitter have begun to realize some tangible, if small, benefitsas they establish a presence where a growing number of theirclients and prospects are spending more time.