Agents' secret: independent producers have their own wish lists for improving carriers' distribution systems.

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Just as a child carefully crafts a holiday wish list complete with the latest toys and gadgets, independent agents have wish lists of their own when it comes to distribution systems. And electronic distribution--either through real-time transactions or carrier Web sites--often tops the list.

The industry continues to make great strides on these fronts. So what are independent agents now looking for from carriers' distribution systems?

Continued ease of use and greater efficiency is the general consensus, said Jeff Goldberg, senior analyst with research and consulting firm Celent.

Added to that, "carriers need to provide tools so we or consumers can process requests, whether new business, endorsements or general service requests, with greater ease," said Michael Foy, chief financial officer for independent insurance agency Foy Insurance Group in Exeter, N.H.

Much of the answer to agents' desires lies with real time, said Jeff Yates, executive director of the Agents Council for Technology, an affiliate of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America.

"Agents are trying to move to an electronic approach where they eliminate paper and automate processing wherever possible," he said. "They can be more proactive with their customers with things like real-time transactions, which permit them to answer customer questions right on the spot by accessing multiple companies through their agency management systems to get needed billing and claims information."

They're also looking to get information back into their agency management system after the real-time transaction using download, he added.

"It's important for carriers to fully build out their real-time capabilities," he said. "One of agents' biggest frustrations is knowing which carriers have what real-time functions available--inquiries, endorsements, quoting--and for what lines of business."

It's also important that transactions begin and end in agency management systems and that ACORD standards are followed, said Cyndy Smith, vice president and director of technology for independent agency Haylor, Freyer and Coon Inc. "Today, independent agents using an agency management system like AMS Services or Applied Systems have integrated real-time tools through TransactNOW and Transformation Station. These real-time options are available at no additional cost to the agent," she said.

Real time is a central focus of her agency's operations. The firm recently jumped from an average of 3,600 monthly real-time transactions using TransactNOW to 5,000 transactions in one month--a gain of nearly 200 hours in productivity.

Foy sees things a bit differently. While he agrees that processes should begin in the agency management system, he doesn't necessarily believe that's where a transaction needs to be completed. "You can connect to a carder Web site and process that information" he said. "Real-time tools allow you to start in management systems, complete transactions on carrier Web sites and return data via download back to the agency management system."

Portal Power

Carrier Web sites have their own list of demands.

Much of what agents want, and carriers now compete on, centers on what Jon Walheim, senior executive in Accenture's Insurance Practice, calls "agent interaction capabilities."

"Those include agency management system-centric work flow, marketing, proprietary applications, performance management, real-time collaboration and content. Regarding content, the expectation is that it remains relevant and improves the agencies' efficiency with which employees operate with a company. I think we'll see even richer Internet applications as Web sites become easier to use. Carriers will continue to use their Web sites to promote bundled services." The next step will be content that's more integrated with transactional capabilities, he said.

Walheim added that agents also expect carriers without agency management system interactions to have good sites where they can submit business. "There's variation on acceptance from agencies for proprietary applications, but the best acceptance comes from agencies that like to conduct much business with specific carriers," he said.

A value-add for carriers is that building a portal doesn't take a big bite out of IT budgets, Goldberg said. "Carriers can put together a decent portal with a small team compared to millions of dollars and years spent on implementing a new policy administration system or other technology project."

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However, he cautions, "the next piece to making portals isn't just layering that on top of things. Instead, they need to develop a real channel to view information by either replacing or rethinking existing internal systems."

A recent Celent survey of what independent agents want in carriers' systems unveiled several other must-haves.

"Something that keeps topping the list is a system that supports e-mail as a means of getting or sending information," said Goldberg. "Agents want to still work with e-mail, bypass some systems, submit information and get a response."

He said agents are looking for round-the-clock access, ways to prevent rekeying of data and access from any Web browser. "They tend to gravitate to carriers who let them, with the least hassle and as quickly as possible, submit business and interact, while doing the least amount of work or rework."

As far as specific tools, Goldberg said sales and illustration software top agents' wish lists, followed closely by online automated quote generation.

Celent's survey results also show customer service tools, such as proactive alerts and 360-degree views of existing customers, are sought after by independent agents, Goldberg added.

Walheim said something agents desire, but many carriers aren't yet delivering, is performance management. "At a basic level, it's having performance front and center and integrated into agency systems. As an example, as appropriate to their role in the agency, everyone could see how close they are to certain achievement levels per carrier. This would be far more meaningful than the commission statements now delivered a month in arrears."

Checking Off the List

So, are independent agents' demands being met?

"Each year we're making steps with the kinds of carrier tools available to agents," said Goldberg. "The bar keeps getting higher. It used to be carriers could just throw up some kind of basic Web page with information and some connected calculators to get quotes. But that's not sufficient anymore."

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Yates added that "the level of carriers supporting industry initiatives and trying to improve efficiency for their agents is higher than ever. These carriers are increasing their quote volumes and getting a payback."

Some carriers continue to lag when it comes to real time and commercial and personal lines download adoption, he said. As for portals, Goldberg said he's concerned that "as it becomes harder to differentiate carriers from others' portals, we'll see some overreach and attempt to build clever functionality and live chats. While that has some benefit, it may be less valuable than simply getting all back-end pieces working together to get real straight through processing and elimination of rekeying."

Proliferation of agency management systems also can pose a challenge to meeting agents' needs, said Walheim. "We have some dominant ones, which have been helpful for carriers to focus on but new entrants are popping up regularly." He said carriers need to figure out which agency management systems to support, which transactions to support, how to support them and how to move from that landscape back to their own portals.

Plus, IT dollars are limited, said Foy. "Some insurers don't have necessary resources to get tasks done, and I've seen lots of carriers who have selected vendors who haven't been able to deliver."

A number of carriers have set up their own agency technology councils to solicit agent feedback. Said Walheim: "This is the battleground of the next five years in insurance. Carriers have always listened to what agents want but lag behind industries like banking and retail organizations in systematically defining what agents are asking for and attaching that to a financial benefit."

Agents need to decide what's important, communicate that to carriers and give them a timetable, said Foy. "They can't just talk about things that are important to the agency. The more we show that something is also an industry solution, the better the result."

And size doesn't matter, Goldberg added. "It's not just the large insurers who have the big budgets to spend on technology projects that build the most agent-friendly systems. There are some smaller and regional carriers with some of the best technologies because they spent time talking with agents and building exactly what they want."

It's also important to involve agents throughout the development process, said Foy. "Without collaboration, a carrier can make a good product. But by all of us coming together, it could be a great product."

Forging Ahead

Carriers also need to have "a better understanding of what's happening in agency offices and why it's important for these tools to be built," said Smith. "They also should recognize that all agencies are independent so they operate differently. Ease of doing business is more a factor in the placement of our business." Carriers need to go back, look at their databases, work with vendors, put structures in place to develop products and deliver high-quality electronic information, she said.

They should also look at back-end systems, said Goldberg. "That will make processes run more smoothly and integrate them behind the scenes, so when agents require online quoting, what they're actually getting is from a carrier's rating system of record."

As for agents, Yates said "some agencies today continue to grow even in a very soft market. That's because they've concentrated on eliminating paper and automating processes wherever possible. They now can be more proactive in contacting customers, protecting renewals and cross-selling business and developing relationships.

Yates said ACT also would like to see carriers and vendors use real-time applications to improve password management for agencies. "These real-time transactions through the agency management systems deserve a higher degree of trust from the carrier compared to a Web site log-on, because the agency user has already been authenticated by the agency system." For example, carriers now are starting to permit nonexpiring passwords for real-time transactions so that the transactions do not error out because the agent's password has expired, he added.

Smith said agencies also should be more vigilant about agency-carrier technology agreements. Many carriers require agents to sign to access their Web sites. "Agency principals and managers need to make sure only authorized personnel commit the agency to such agreements and that agency leadership closely reads the documents."

Longer term, said Yates, "I think it will be a matter of further extending functionality. Real time today is about 20% where it ultimately needs to be. We're now in an age of electronic connectivity between agents and carriers, so I think we'll see even more functions and innovative ways to use real time.

And carriers don't want to be wasting money, added Goldberg. "This is an opportunity to not just throw money at the problem but instead talk to agents and find out what their most crucial needs are and build those first. That's what carriers should always be doing but it's even more crucial now."

* State of the Market: Agents have a list of "wants" for carriers' distribution systems.

* What's Being Done: Some carriers are making great strides on electronic distribution with real-time transactions and portals.

* What Lies Ahead: Agents and carriers are continuing to come together to communicate agents' wish lists.