READERS' FEEDBACK
I greatly enjoyed "Three perspectives on interface issues" by John Ashenhurst that appeared in the October 2002 issue of Rough Notes (www.roughnotes.com/rnmagazine/
search/technology/02_10p98.htm). I read it on my way home from a board meeting of the AMS Users' Group. I loved the yin and yang among the three technology experts.
I have a close friend who runs an agency with two carriers and one CSR. He does not have an agency management system and does not keep any paper. He simply connects directly to the carrier's Web site when needed, even while the client is on the phone. He scans what paper is generated and runs everything on direct bill so he can manage the money side directly from his checkbook or by using some off-the-shelf software. This is a simplified version of what Rick Morgan is talking about in this article--data in one place and we don't move it but rather access it. Really utopia, but I don't see how this would work in a larger agency with 15 or 20 carriers.
For the most part, I find myself in John's camp and, from what I heard at the AMS board meeting, many of us are. We tend to be larger (not broker-size) agencies, with somewhere in the range of 20 employees and several carriers. The carrier Web sites, for the most part, are great and, as Rick said, they do the majority of what we want. The problems are well documented, however. They all look different, too many passwords are required, and on and on. And of course there is the huge problem of double and triple entry of data. My tortured example is seeing a CSR punch the data into two carrier Web sites for 25 trucks with long VIN numbers, just to get two quotes and finally poke all the same detail into our AMS system because these two carriers do not download back to us ... yet.
John is right. Transformation Station, that pulls this data from my AMS System and mimics all the rekeying, seems to be workable. But if Transformation Station is installed by 20 carriers and I represent only two of them, I still have the problem. I understand there are at least two and perhaps three other solution providers that have solved this dilemma and might even cost the carriers less. Agents, for the most part, are simply concerned with finding a solution to the duplicate entry problem, and are less interested in the technology behind the solution. Vendors, however, should be looking at all the solutions since most of us agents really aren't concerned with how many of these solutions it takes to get the majority of carriers on board, as long as the solutions are seamless to us and we put the data in only once. The key to all this is the carrier's ability to accept an ACORD XML stream, and many are ramping up for this by using ACORD Standards.
An XML-supported bridge between our management systems and any carrier's site where we can get real-time rating, new business and endorsement processing, claims inquiry, and billing information would be wonderful and would allow us to maximize the value of what the carriers are developing for us. Many of us think this capability is close; and those carriers that support ACORD Standards, see the value in bridging solutions, and bring this forward will earn our loyalty--and for sure our business--while those carriers that continue to force us to key data into their sites will lose market share.
Carl L. Gaspar, CPCU, CIC
Gaspar-Jones & Associates, Inc.
Greenwood Village, Colorado
Carl Gaspar is the chairman of ACORD and a member of the AMS Users' Group board of directors.