Reaching out: insurers need to match technology with agents' needs.Technology is becoming more and more important ha keeping agents and insurers connected, but as it grows, insurers and agents need to have open communication to use technology to their advantage, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. industry leaders. "When the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the began exploding in the late 1990s, some in the industry thought it would take over insurance distribution, said Todd Silverhart, assistant vice president and head of technology, marketing and distribution for Limra International. But today, statistics aren't supporting that theory, and the industry is realizing that "people still want to buy insurance from a trusted adviser," he said. Now the focus among insurers is how to use technology to support the distribution strengths that they already had, Silverhart said. As a result, companies are using technology to attract producers by making themselves easy to do business with.Adding that functionality and persuading producers to adopt it and be trained to use it properly can be challenging, however, he said. Companies are reacting by making their Web sites as easy as possible to use, and some are even forcing producers to go to the site for some information, such as commission information, with the hope they'll use other parts of the site once they're there, Silverhart said. A study by Limra and the American College American College is the name of:
As companies offer the solutions, it's important that they keep ha mind what agents want to access, said Madelyn Flannagan, director of agency technology for Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America. Agents want to access routine information, such as accounting, claims and insureds' records, she said."They want to bypass service centers ... [because] providing customer service is a hallmark hallmark, mark impressed on silverwork or goldwork to signify official approval of the standard of purity of the metal, also called plate mark. The hallmark was introduced by statute in England in 1300 and enforced by the Goldsmiths' Hall, London. for agents," she said. But some companies offer access to information most agents can't take advantage of, such as downloadable policies. Companies appreciate the greater efficiency and money-saving aspects of having agents download To receive a file transmitted over a network. In any communications session, "download" means receive, and "upload" means send. The download/upload often implies a big/little scenario, in which data is being downloaded from the "big" server into the "little" user's computer. the policies rather than having to send print copies trough Trough The stage of the economy's business cycle that marks the end of a period of declining business activity and the transition to expansion. the mail, but not all agents are ready for uploading and downloading
"Upload" and "Download" redirect here. For other uses, see Upload (disambiguation) and Download (disambiguation). information, Flannagan said. Something agents are eager to have is carriers' marketing material for their own Web sites, and carriers are offering the access, Flannagan said. There also is a trend for carriers to provide an interface to allow clients to access their own policy information through agents' sites. Agents appreciate the arrangement because they don't have to have the information on their services, but they serve as a portal, Flannagan said. Producers also need the technology to better communicate with each other. Mergers and restructuring restructuring - The transformation from one representation form to another at the same relative abstraction level, while preserving the subject system's external behaviour (functionality and semantics). have left fewer field managers responsible for larger areas, Silverhart said. In a typical model, most managers had face-to-face contact with producers, but that seems to be changing. "It's much more prevalent for managers to be responsible for agents that are remote," he said. Growing geographic regions make it impossible for managers to meet with producers, so they're using e-mail, teleconferencing, videoconferencing A real time video session between two or more users or between two or more locations. Although the first videoconferencing was done with traditional analog TV and satellites, inhouse room systems became popular in the early 1980s after Compression Labs pioneered digitized video systems and collaborative Internet sites to deal with the changes, he said. EFUSION 2003 Insurence-Driven Technology Speaker Spotlight Madelyn Flannagan Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America Todd Silverhart Limra International "Earth to Agents: Connecting With Producers on Their Terms" Richard Connell Richard Edward Connell, Jr. (October 17, 1893 – November 22, 1949) was an American author and journalist, best known for his short story "The Most Dangerous Game." Connell was one of the best-known American short story writers of his time and his stories appeared in the Selective Insurance Group Inc. "Selective Insurance: Translating the Vision" Hyatt Regency Hotel The Regency Hotel was a hotel in Denver, Colorado. Built in the 1960s to serve as a regional convention center, it was famous locally for its large gold dome and the luxury of the rooms within. Philadelphia Sept. 28-30, 2003 www.efusion2003.com |
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