Great American Insurance's Crop Insurance Division (www.myagritrust.com) recognizedthe significance of wireless technology in providing its agents,suppliers, and trading partners with a strategic advantage. Thecompany already provides agents with access to AgLink, itsproprietary crop insurance data management system. But AgLite, thenew wireless version, offers the functionality of AgLink's mostimportant features to agents in the field.

Great American outsourced some of the burden of going wirelessto system integration consulting firm Asynchrony Solutions(www.asolutions.com),resulting in wireless access for more than 3,500 agents andultimately to more than 40,000 producers.

Beth Puckett, senior VP of Great American's Crop InsuranceDivision said, “Giving our agents the ability to conduct businessoutside their offices is a top priority. We focus our efforts onproviding tools that help our agents spend more time with theirclients and less time on administrative functions.”

The wireless solution is device-neutral. The system dynamicallychanges its look and feel depending on how AgLite isaccessed-whether by Web-enabled phone, Palm, WinCE, Internet, orintranet. (See “This is Tomorrow,” April TD, for more aboutprotocol independence.)

“Our XML and XSL makes the application simple and universal nomatter what the device,” said Steve Elfanbaum, president ofAsynchrony Solutions. “We were able to help Great American's CropInsurance Division capitalize on its prior investment in AgLink.Now it's portable.”

Great American plans to expand wireless capabilities to supportand streamline other customer-focused and administrativeprocesses.