Study Offers Interface Best Practices for Agencies

Study Offers Interface Best Practices For Agencies

This year, our agency management system user group spearheaded a review of what agencies can do to get the most out of their systems by interfacing with carriers.

We sought to help agents who don't understand interface and what it can offer, as well as those that already use interface and want greater efficiencies. Most of the study findings could be described as a healthy dose of common sense applied to increasingly advanced technological capabilities from the vendor and carrier community.

I believe this commonsense approach makes the “Interface Best Practices Guide” an exceedingly practical tool for agency principals and technology leaders both on the agency side and on carrier staff to use when mapping out successful agency-company interface strategies.

We determined that a key first step in implementing interface best practices for agencies is when they convert from one system to another or, more commonly, when they first enter the download arena. These agencies should use what's called an initial load a one-time, mass download directly into the agency management system database from each company represented. Costs are minimal, and doing so ensures that data loaded into the system is accurate and current. The process also works for agencies that obtain a new book of business through merger or acquisition.

While initial download is a good step for many agencies, switching systems or obtaining a book of business aren't everyday occurrences. What does happen every day is new business.

New business is the most efficient way to get broad interface benefits. The study encourages agencies to tap interface from the start of their workflow, to more easily reap rewards when subsequent transactions take place. Agencies that do so can eliminate multiple entries of data and reduce errors that often accompany re-keying.

The study also offers suggestions for batch upload and real-time interface. Agencies using batch upload eliminate multiple entry and can use company-unique screens to provide a thorough submission and cut down on follow-up requests.

Real-time interface for rating and policy submission offers greater benefits for agencies. Agency management systems can be bridged with carrier Web sites, allowing office-generated application info to pre-fill the site. Similar, but a step beyond this bridging, is real-time rating. The agency's system lets a user complete company-unique screens and edits. Rating is done behind the scenes and comes back to the user without requiring the agency to access a carrier Web site. To issue a policy, the agency simply selects an issuance button, which generates a policy number that is entered into the billing screen.

Once an agency taps interface and has policy information in their system, the foundation is laid for best practices to continue. Using available communication technology, agencies can reap a broad host of benefits from interface.

Billing inquiry tops the list. An agency can receive response to a billing inquiry from the carrier in seconds, enabling that agency to serve insureds more quickly. The same holds true with claims inquiry. An agency can check claim status with a carrier instantly, avoiding phone calls or waiting for a mailed response.

Policy inquiry provides another opportunity for interface to boost agency operations. A policy can be viewed exactly how it appears in the carrier system. With a combination of download and policy inquiry, agencies and carriers can stop sending paper back and forth, relying instead on data in the agency management system.

Agencies looking for best practices can gain by using interface for other transactions, too. Endorsements can be bridged to a carrier Web site or uploaded using batch transmission. A First Notice of Loss can be uploaded in real time to the carrier, with a claim number being returned virtually immediately.

Renewals provide another way to tap the best of interface. Whether it's downloading policy data, getting loss runs, rating and re-marketing, or even rolling a book of business, interface can improve agency workflows and cut down on process-intensive staff work.

Some agencies find interface and in particular, initial download and new business processing to be overwhelming. There is uncertainty involved in an initial download. Some people are afraid that downloads might override important information already in their systems. We looked at that in the report, and offer ways to address it, through workarounds and by using sound information management practices.

Downloads offer significant benefits including time savings and we find that as the processes are better understood, more people take advantage of the capability. User groups, software providers and carrier staff should help agencies answer some of these questions.

There also are some quirks in submission and real-time rating that cause hesitation. For instance, some agencies have had problems with quoting, so they decided they wouldnt try anything else. Carriers and vendors have heard these concerns and have worked through some of the issues.

Agencies that may have encountered problems in the past should look at interface once again to see how it can improve their operations. Past discouragement certainly should not be a barrier to implementing interface best practices.

Donna Barr chairs the Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet) Interface Committee and is assistant vice president in Marsh's Private Client Services Practice. She can be reached at donna.j.barr@marsh.com.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, May 10, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.