For at least the past 25 years, the Holy Grail for many in aproperty-casualty insurance industry desperate for greateroperating efficiencies through standardization and technology hasbeen single-entry, multiple-company interface.

The quest continues, with SEMCI transactions still coming inmore of a trickle than a flood for the majority of independentagencies and their carriers.

The latest effort to accelerate the move to SEMCI was the launchlast spring of the industry's most ambitious effort yet--the "GetReal Time" campaign--by a coalition of industry players, includingagent associations, agency management system user groups, insurancecarriers, tech vendors and the industry's standards organization,ACORD.

The campaign features an animated clock named "Eddie" (roughlyshort for "Ease Of Doing Business"). The goal is to raise awarenessand use of "real-time" technologies among agents and their carriersto help save both time and money.

The parties involved know it will take more than a cute cartoonmascot, however, to get the job done.

The goal is to double the number of real-time transactions from20,000 per business day back in March (a relatively tiny percentageof the industry's daily traffic) by the end of 2008.

The campaign was announced at a press conference in late Aprilduring the Independent Agents and Brokers of America's annualLegislative Conference and Convention in Washington, D.C.

Cal Durland, a facilitator of the ACORD-User Group InformationExchange--better known as AUGIE--and a real-time campaign leader,explained that the idea is agents "should not have to think twiceabout using real time. Our aim is to make it part of the normalworkflow."

"We are pushing this as a priority," added another campaignleader, Jeff Yates, executive director of the Agents Council forTechnology, an affiliate of IIABA. "But the biggest problem isgetting the attention of agency principals to realize that by usingreal time, it will free up time to do other things in theagency."

The campaign has put together an impressive Website--www.getrealtime.org--to help everyone get on board andovercome any problems or fears that arise.

Among its many resources, the site includes the "IndependentAgent's Real-Time Implementation Guide," providing a step-by-stepoutline for making real changes in an agency's standard operatingprocedure.

The problem in making real time the rule rather than theexception is twofold.

o Carriers are fearful of seeing their products commoditized, sothey hesitate about making it easier for agents to shopelectronically purely on price. Some wonder if loweringtechnological hurdles could be their undoing in a competitivemarket.

o Unaware agencies do not realize the real-time capabilitiesmany already have at their fingertips, or are ignorant of how totake advantage of the technology involved.

Ironically, Mark Ruquet reported earlier this year that "carriertechnology executives describe a Catch-22 situation where uppermanagement would not approve the expenditures to build, expand andimprove real-time access systems until they see a greater demandfrom agents for such services."

At the same time, however, he added, "producers and theirsupport staff are not inclined to use real-time technologyregularly until the carriers provide more such services."

"It's important that independent agents start using technologyto become as efficient as they can be in their agencies," accordingto Brady Polansky, director of agency operations for the Ohioinsurer Westfield Group. "It's a win-win-win for allparticipants."

Will "Eddie" and the efforts of all those committed to thislatest quest for the industry's Holy Grail help convince the vastmajority of agents and carriers to hop on the real-timebandwagon?

Only time will tell.