New ASCnet Prez. Campaigns For SEMCI

That initiative was announced during the conference by agency management vendor Applied Systems of University Park, Ill. (See related story in yesterday's "Hot News" at www.NationalUnderwriter.com.)

Applied said it has set up all of its agency customers with IVANS "Transformation Station" accounts, "pre-configured for real-time interface with the companies they represent." Transformation Station is a managed Internet data exchange for real-time insurance transactions, using ACORD XML and the Internet.

The initiative, dubbed the "Light ?Em Up Campaign," allows agents to process insurance company transactions and retrieve carrier account status information directly from their agency systems.

Eight insurers are participating in the initial campaign by pre-authorizing real-time communication access for their Applied Systems agencies– Acuity, Encompass Insurance, The Hartford, Kemper Auto and Home, Ohio Casualty Group, Progressive, The St. Paul, and Travelers Property-Casualty.

Transactions are limited, however, to policy rating and issuance; first notice of loss reporting; inquiry for policy status, billing status, claim status and loss run; and data bridging between agency systems and company Web sites, said Applied. Not all of the companies participating offer all of the transactions.

"We're going to hold 'Light 'Em Up' campaigns to educate agents and show what it can do for them," said Ms. Knighten, who is operations manager of ISU Francis-Pinney Insurance Services in Roseville, Calif.

ASCnet is starting a grassroots campaign to get more carriers to support agents through Transformation Station, she explained. Form letters that allow agencies to communicate this to carriers will be posted on ASCnet's Web site (www.ascnet.org) within the next month, she added.

Ms. Knighten's response, when asked whether agencies should favor insurers that make single-entry possible over those that stick to proprietary systems, "That's an agency business decision."

She does, however, favor promoting agents who are currently using single-entry systems. "I would educate the agents so that they would go back and ask the carriers to look into Transformation Station," she commented.

Asked why insurers might be reluctant to support transactions through Transformation Station, Ms. Knighten observed: "If they can get you to come to their side and you learn their [proprietary] software, you're going to place more business with them."

Ms. Knighten suggested that enabling transactions such as policy inquiries and loss runs constitute "baby steps" toward carriers eventually providing rates and quotes in real-time via SEMCI.

"If carriers look at the time and effort that are put into [inquiries and loss runs], this does save them time and money," she said. "I'm optimistic that this will happen once carriers see how excited agents are about it."

As for the likelihood of a world in which agents can use a single entry to send requests to any number of carriers and receive immediate responses, Ms. Knighten quipped: "If I had a crystal ball, I wouldn't be here today. It's like asking if we'll ever find a cure for cancer; if we don't try, we never will."

According to Ms. Knighten, "insurers really need to understand what agents need for automation that will help them do business." She pointed out that ASCnet's workflow studies have demonstrated that Transformation Station can be a boost to agency efficiency.

"If we lose a minute here and a minute there, by the end of the day, just think of all the [additional] policies we could have written," she said. "That helps both agents and carriers. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out."

Founded in 1987, ASCnet is based in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Ms. Knighten joined ASCnet's leadership as secretary of the Northern California user group in 1996, and two years later was appointed regional director and a member of the ASCnet board of directors. In 2000, she was elected to the board's Executive Committee as secretary-treasurer, and in 2001 she was named vice president.