Back in the day, a one-person independent agency could get bywith a desk, a chair and a telephone.

With the emergence of mobile technology and smart phones, we'vecome full circle.

Today's mobile technology makes it possible for agents tocontact their customers, process documents and convene virtualmeetings from wherever they happen to be—which is pretty smartbusiness at a time when nearly half of U.S. adults use smartphonesfor just about everything, according to the Pew Internet & American LifeProject.

Ten years ago, insurance agency office essentials were prettyessential: phones and faxes were still king, with email quicklyclosing the gap on the preferred method of communication.

So what tech tools are as indispensable today as the typewriter,fax machine and desk phone were in the past? What sorts of techtools are the must-haves, can't-live-withouts that independentinsurance agents are using every day–to conduct basic businessand market and promote their firms?

We took an informal poll at several LinkedIn agent groups todetermine what constituted basic technology in today's agencies,and have come up with a short list of some of today's favoritebasic tools.

1. Smartphones

Using smart phones as a basic way of conducting business is away of life, especially among young agents—although basics likecopiers, scanners and even fax machines are still in use back atthe office.

“iPhones are our smartphone of choice. Mostly because of ease ofuse. We have also been using Evernote for creating presentationnotes and keeping up with activities.” –Joe Cerzosie,owner, Lexington Insurance Agency, Inc.Demographic infoLexington,Kentucky Area

“We couldn't live without smart phones and our multi-functionalcopier, which handles our copying/scanning/faxing/printing. Wedon't use the fax function much because we use cyber-faxing, but itis more convenient to use an old-fashioned fax sometimes.”– Angelyn S. Treutel, CPA, president, SouthGroupInsurance, Bay Saint Louis, Miss.

“I'm with Angelyn; our producers and management couldn't livewithout their iPhones or BlackBerrys, We also scan everything toattach to our client or employee files. Download that comes in fromour companies every day is a huge time saver, too.” –Andrea Axne, marketing coordinator at Clark-Mortenson Agency,Keene, N.H.

2. E-signaturesoftware

With mobile technology comes the necessity to procure customersignatures on virtual documents. Although there are a number ofproducts on the market, users are primarily concerned aboutsecurity and ease of use.

“Docusign(easy e-signature service) is the best thing to come along sincesliced bread, the phone, fax and i-phone! Simply amazing: justwrote one up the other day while they were camping!” —Michael Randles, owner, Insurance Center Associates,Greater Los Angeles area

3. Project management and document sharingsoftware

Successful insurance agents understand the importance of amanagement system that enables them to use the Internetto collaborate with associates and organize and sharedocuments.

“I'm using Basecamp to collaborate with my agentson different initiatives we are working on. It's a nice, simplelittle web tool.” – Aaron Wallrich, vice president,Wallrich Agency, Oshkosh, Wisc. area

“Dropbox makesmoving and sharing documents of any size easy and efficient,between PCs, Macs, iPhones, etc. Free version is more than enoughto be useful. Use mylink and we both get 500 megs extra free space.”– Charles Joiner, vice president, claims andoperations, The Insurance Alliance of Central Pa.,Inc.

4. Screen sharing technology

This is a must for working remotely and collaborating with folksback at the office.

“One of the greatest tools that I love is screen sharingtechnology (WebEx, GoToMeeting). From anefficiency and a 'getting-your-point-across' perspective, nothingbeats it…With the time savings from using my favorite technologies,I now have more time to figure out this social media stuff.”– Michael Rabinowitz, risk solutions consultant, RFKInsurance

5. Dictation software

With the need for blogging, tweeting and otherwise churning outcontent, writing is essential. But who has time? The solution isusing dictation software to capture your thoughts and turn theminto the written word.

While I was at Aartrijk Brand Camp, Jason Cass,owner/agent of JDC Insurance Group in Centralia, Ill.,said he uses Dragon Dictation app on his smart phone to compose blog contentand capture thoughts — three times faster than typing, according totheir website.

6. Cool new hardware

Some old-school pieces like keyboards and fax/scanners, arestill essential, although portability is still the watchword withthese. In-house staffers find using dual monitors to be especiallyefficient.

“If you are speaking strictly hardware, my favorite is mykeyboard. A great keyboard (mine: MicrosoftArc) is an essential productivity tool.” — MichaelRabinowitz

“My Fujitsu Scansnap S300 double-sided scanner is and has been oneof the most productive timesavers I own. I owe a shout-out toPhil Schmitz fromSchmitz Insurance for steering me in the right direction withthis technology. — Jim Wright, owner, Wright InsuranceAgency Inc., Greater MilwaukeeArea

7. Just for fun

At Brand Camp, Chris Amrhein ran a “name that tune” contest —and Jason Cass cheated by using the Shazam app to capture and identify thesongs, complete with lyrics.