A Special Section Sponsored by Alliance for Productive Technology, Inc.

TRAVELERS CONTINUES STRONG SUPPORT FOR APT AND SEMCI

Company responds to agent demands for policy change capability

"Our number of implementations continues to grow by
20 to 30 new agencies each month."

By Richard J. Cuozzo, CPCU, CLU, Personal Lines Agency Automation, Travelers Property Casualty

At the recent APT conference in Newark, Travelers Property Casualty was recognized as one of the top five APT SEMCI companies and one of the companies that has helped make SEMCI a reality. As a founder of APT, we were there at the beginning and our commitment to APT has not wavered. Travelers offered new business upload to its personal lines agents for both APT vendors and Applied Systems in the spring of 1995, and since then more than 800 agencies have accepted our invitation. On any given day, we will process nearly 500 new accounts through one of the two versions of SEMCI.

At the Travelers, our goal has been to offer agents several interface options so they can select the one that best fits their workflow and desktop technology. That includes proprietary interface as well as SEMCI. The growth in our APT and Applied implementations shows that SEMCI is clearly the interface of choice for a growing number of agents. Our number of implementations continues to grow by 20 to 30 new agencies each month. Those who choose SEMCI as their answer do so because it delivers single entry to familiar screens as promised. Many have told us they would not place business with us in any other way.

So what about those agencies that choose not to implement SEMCI as it exists today? Generally, they cite the following reasons: First, they see policy change as the key feature to make SEMCI pay off in their offices. Change transactions are where the high volumes and the real savings lie. Second, they do not at present see the "multi-company" aspect of SEMCI in their offices. With too few companies implementing SEMCI, there are not many agencies where SEMCI can give them a single way to transact business with all or most of their companies. Last, agents need to be comfortable that SEMCI is a durable answer that will move ahead with new technology.

The good news is that there is an answer to these issues. First, with vendors finally implementing policy change on a broad basis, that function will soon be more available. At Travelers we plan to support policy changes early next year. The second issue requires more agents to demand SEMCI and more companies to implement it. That seems to be happening. We see more and more agency situations where other companies also make SEMCI available. A year or two ago we were almost always the only company offering the SEMCI option.

With these two developments SEMCI will become the answer of choice for even more agents. Travelers will continue to be there and to offer SEMCI in whatever technology is appropriate. *