Technology remains both an issue of promise and frustration for agents and brokers. That point was apparent at recent meetings of retail agents in Washington, D.C., and wholesale brokers in Maui, Hawaii.

During his address to agents during the April meeting of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America in Washington, D.C., association President William G. Stiglitz III called on companies to resolve the dilemma agents face over finding effective rating engines that can deliver real-time quotes.

At one time agents relied on rating manuals from individual carriers to obtain a quote, but now they must work with keyboards, visiting individual carrier Web sites to obtain quotes, he said. This is an inefficient system that runs counter to the promise technology offers, he suggested.

"If we are not able to do competitive rating, then we have taken a giant step backward," said Mr. Stiglitz.

During the IIABA meeting, a new rating system, still in the beta testing stage, was being offered as a unique bridge between agency management systems and online company forms, with the potential to accommodate company proprietary Web sites quickly and easily.

Lincoln, Neb.-based Allied Strategy unveiled its SEMCAT technology with the promise of offering an efficient and radically different approach to achieving single-entry, multiple-company interface (SEMCI) technology.

Colby Thomson, an executive officer with the company, demonstrated SEMCAT (Single Entry Multiple Company Assistance Tool). The system downloads the information stored in an agency management system onto an online company form. The agent can then review the form and, through color-coded sections, fill in any missing information the company requires to complete the submission and obtain a quote.

Mr. Thomson said the system currently supports about 40 company proprietary Web sites of national carriers and aims to support a much broader number of companies, both national and regional, with real-time rating. With this technology, he said, the time for an agent to get a quote would be cut by more than half.

He added that with SEMCAT, an agency would have access to all its appointed carriers, either through the already approved list, or via connections the software would make once the agent contracted the service. Ultimately, the service will be available for both personal and commercial lines insurance.

The technology should be launched nationally sometime in the fall, Mr. Thomson said. The current pricing model is $44 a month per agent, but that scale is still subject to modification. Plans call for the first month of service to be free once it goes public.

Mr. Thomson noted that the response to SEMCAT from agency management vendors has ranged from support to rejection, as some see this as a threat to their own systems.

Additional information on the product is available at SEMCAT.net or AlliedStrategy.com.

Meanwhile, for the wholesale agents and brokers attending this year's annual meeting in early May of the American Association of Managing General Agents in Maui, the technology offerings spoke to the more complex needs of wholesale brokers who, as MGAs, act as the underwriter for carriers.

Wendy Gibson, chief operating officer, and Tom Mant, sales director for Frisco, Texas-based Skywire Software, explained that their suite of technology solutions is dedicated to the MGA and excess & surplus lines brokers.

Skywire offers the combination of Policyware, an agency management system, and InsBridge, an online rating solution.

The company executives explained that the InsBridge tool allows the business manager to load the carrier's underwriting criteria filed with the individual state insurance departments into the system. This then allows the broker or MGA to perform the underwriting work necessary to issue a bindable quote to the client.

According to the company, the advantage of Policyware is that it integrates with InsBridge and allows information imputed by a service representative to then be directly transmitted for rating.

Additional information is available at www.skywiresoftware.com.

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Technology Offers Promise And Problems For Agents

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