Who among us has not uttered those fateful words: "If you want a job done right, do it yourself"? The question before the jury today is about the data-specifically, who's responsible for them. The customer? The carrier? And who is most likely to get it right? After more than 40 years of doing it themselves, 21st Century Insurance felt it was time to empower its customers.

If a customer wanted to check her bill, why not let her do it electronically instead of paying a customer service representative to look up the information and repeat it over the phone. For a company that has made its mark in the western U.S. by dealing directly with its customers, it made perfect sense to let the customers do some of the work themselves.

21st Century is a direct writer of auto and homeowners policies. Its presence on the Internet was mostly brochureware; there were certainly no sales or service channels for its customers, said Marina Lubinsky, assistant vice president and manager of Internet business development. "We recognized that the Internet holds great potential as a natural extension of our proven practice of direct to customer marketing."