Brower Insurance puts a premium on technology and hastraditionally spent additional funds on the technology side to helpits staff be more efficient, according to Dan Driskell, a principalfor Brower, a regional agency in southwest Ohio.

“The producers and principals in our office rely on the customerservice reps quite a bit to handle the day-to-day activities of ouraccounts,” he says. “[Producers] are in the business of bringing innew revenue and we need a great staff behind us to bring inrenewals. We find making life easier for them keeps everyonehappier and streamlines some of the efficiencies.

(For more on carrier/agency technology, check out the interview with Nort Salz of Deep CustomerConnections and this interview with John Siglar of PacificComp..)

One of the tools used by Brower is the InsiderConnect electronicmarketing solution from the commercial lines solution providerProspX. Driskell uses the solution to stay in front of clients andprospects and manage the pipeline of business opportunities. Thecollaboration software allows producers to load the system withdata based on the company’s specific information and send that outto multiple carriers to determine if the carriers have interest inlooking at that particular account.

“Instead of typing e-mails, I can boil it down to one processand from that exercise we can find the carrier most interested inwriting that business and we can work with them to get it on thebooks,” says Driskell.

Brower works with approximately 15 carriers, according toDriskell, which he concedes is a large number.

“Brower has different segments of business,” he says. “Wespecialize in quite a few segments and every segment hasspecialized carriers so that’s probably why we have that many weregularly go to. In this competitive nature we need to have morecarriers in our quiver just to be competitive.”

In the world of small commercial lines, real-time download worksreally well, according to Driskell.

“It streamlines the efficiency and that’s a huge time saver,” hesays. “The less time we have to spend on processing business themore we make.

With the middle market and large commercial, producers spendmore time on the interview phase with clients and performing duediligence to get things right, adds Driskell. Bower’s producersspend a lot of time interviewing managers inside the company andbringing in an internal risk manager who looks at the company’scontracts.

“I don’t know if we can slow that down too much,” he says. “Whatwe can do is improve the application process. What we are shootingfor is to get applications to the carrier so they can quickly rateand underwrite the risk.”

Driskell believes that in today’s business environment, peoplewant things faster.

“They don’t necessarily want it today, but it’s not what it usedto be in the industry,” says Driskell. “With the advent ofall the technology it’s crucial we stay on the cutting edge and getinformation to the correct people in a timely manner.”

Driskell believes some commercial lines carriers are reluctantto quickly step into the technology realm beyond doing work overthe Internet in at least some capacity. National carriers typicallyroll out programs first for small business policies and simpleproducts that don’t involve much underwriting.

He maintains that national carriers are looking at ease ofbusiness to try and pick up more of the small commercialmarket.

Most of Brower’s middle market and large accounts still need aface-to-face communication with the underwriter, which means moretime involved and expense.

Most carriers have sunk some money into their systems and allhave different nuances, explains Driskell. Regional carriers aremore reserved, though, but most have Web-based rating systems.

Some carriers prefer agencies pick up the phone and discusscoverages prior to sending in submissions.

The more revenue an account offers means there is a certainthreshold to market it. Brower recognizes that when you work on anaccount it costs a certain amount to submit the policy to thecompany.

“We’re cognizant of that threshold and what we need to do towrite it effectively and still be profitable,” says Driskell.