Most people in our business love to denigrate Flo and the geckoas “commoditized” insurance, a cookie-cutter sales and serviceapproach that only works for the most basic personal linescoverage. Online rate shopping, instant quotes and web-basedcustomer service may be convenient, but they have nothing to dowith the needs of the commercial buyer – needs that only the“trusted advisor” can deliver.

But what if a broker could make those same methods work forcommercial property-casualty sales and service?

Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.is betting that they can.

Last month the San Francisco-based brokerage announced thelaunch of BizInsure, acommercial insurance website designed for small businesses andprofessionals to price and buy coverage online.

The platform, two years in the making, currently only offersprofessional liability insurance and E&O, with other commercialproducts to be rolled out later.

BizInsure allows buyers to:

• Compare multiple quotes from top-rated insurers with noobligation to buy
• Customize coverages to profession and compare online
• Purchase online with credit card and option to pay monthly
• Receive policy documents and certificates by email instantlyafter purchase
• Access Woodruff-Sawyer's licensed reps anytime throughout thepolicy period.

As Flo and the gecko already know, success depends ontechnology, which hasn't been available for commercial businessesand individual professionals with revenues of less than $2 million,said Greg Morris, president of the new enterprise and aWoodruff-Sawyer partner and senior vice president focusing onproperty-casualty and financial lines insurance. It's an attractiveand underserved market that has been on Woodruff-Sawyer's radar foryears, but wasn't accessible because these clients can require thesame processing and service as a middle-market client and ”themargin just isn't there,” he said.

The plan clicked into place after the brokerage found BizCover, the online arm of MegaCapital, an Australian professional risks insurance broker with thetechnology expertise needed for the project.

A quick look at the website is an interesting reveal. Startingwith the landing page, which features a picture of a stereotypicalgeeky insurance agent – big glasses and briefcase — and theverbiage (“Could the world go on without traditional insuranceagents? We think so. We've simplified the process and replacedoverhead with affordability”), the site seems to emulate the bigonline insurers. There's easy click-through, with big tabs for“professional liability insurance” and “errors and omissionsinsurance,” and insurer branding (Chartis, CNA, Hiscox, Liberty andPhiladelphia) at the bottom of the page.

What you won't find on the site is any Woodruff-Sawyer branding.That's because BizInsure is a separate company. The brokerage is a50 percent investor and currently providing the office space andsome management services, Morris said.

The design is no accident: The model is similar to a site likeEsurance, but Woodruff-Sawyer is acting as an agent and providingcustomers with choice and direct access to multiple insurancecompanies, Morris said.

BizInsure is unique to the marketplace, offering “all of thethings that people expect from a high-quality agent–productexpertise, a high degree of customer service, market access andclout–combined with the efficiencies, cost effectiveness andimmediacy of a cutting edge technology platform,” Morris said.

With a capital investment of at least $1 million,Woodruff-Sawyer is serious about making BizInsure work. They'remeasuring performance on policy count, as well as top and bottomline growth. “In a direct-to-consumer model like this, marketingspend is critical,” Morris said. “We had 100 policies sold afterour first month and hope to have several thousand sold after ourfirst year.”

BizInsure's business model is the future for independent agents,Morris said. In fact, the brokerage wants to expand the modelto serve independent agents. The big challenges involve balancingtechnology, marketing and the insurance aspects of the business –not to mention the regulatory aspects, because they operate in all50 states.

BizInsure raises an interesting question: Can the worldgo on without traditional insurance agents? And will sites likethese help agencies grow in an online world, or drive them closerto extinction?