Managing general agents (MGA) face the daunting technology challenge of having to act as a data go-between with all the many groups with which they have relationships.
"Unlike most companies, we have a many-to-many problem that is very, very complicated," says Frank Neugebauer, CIO for Farmington Hills, Mich.-based wholesaler Burns & Wilcox, which bills itself as the country's largest MGA.
"We have many agencies, we have many carriers, we are dealing with them simultaneously—and we put them together in virtually unlimited ways."
"So," Neugebauer continues, "while others in the industry are talking about trendy things like mobile computing and other second-generation-type technology, our biggest problem is just the basics."
One of these basics, he says, is "winning the war on key strokes." And a key player in this battle to reduce redundant data entry: ACORD form standards.
If ACORD's standard data inputs were adopted across the industry, life would be much easier as the keying in of information into the form would happen just once at the retail-agent level—and then be electronically passed along every other step of the way from the wholesaler to the underwriter.
But Neugebauer notes that many carriers continue to customize their forms, making it difficult to keep track of what each requires. This translates into a lot of back and forth—and also creates an "errors-and-omissions exposure and maintenance nightmare," he says.
In Neugebauer's view, insurance-solutions-provider Vertafore has taken the lead in providing standardized technology solutions, but "they only have some of our carriers."
While some carriers are being "very aggressive" about technology improvements, Neugebauer says, others "have not changed and don't communicate with us digitally."
The end goal, Neugebauer says, is to assist the retail agent with their relationship with the insured. "We want to remain human beings and not become the Progressive model," he says.
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