St. Paul eyes small-business market. (Property/Casualty: Marketplace).

St. Paul Cos., moving to focus on the small commercial market, unveiled a technology platform to help agents and brokers reach that business.

Jay Fishman, St. Paul's chairman and chief executive officer, said that 18 months ago St. Paul's strategic direction and focus weren't properly positioned for success. "We didn't consider ourselves a mainstream commercial-lines writer. Maybe that played well in the insurance markets of the '90s, but it doesn't play well in what the insurance market is today."

Fishman insists the insurer isn't "too late" in entering this market. He offered statistics that the small-commercial market has estimated annual premiums of $55 billion. According to research, about $5 billion already is being written by national competitors such as Hartford, Travelers and Zurich, so with $45 billion in available product "there's plenty of room for us," he said.

Gerry Levy, president and chief executive officer of CBS Coverage Group Inc., a producer in Plainview, N.Y, said St. Paul is doing three things right. Levy said St. Paul reduced its prices, ramped up its technology and has financial strength.

"The tech platform is turbocharged--it helps to bring the transaction closer to the customer," he said.

The new platform, called SPCXpress, offers agents and brokers a Web-based tool to quote, qualify, issue and endorse typical small-business policies via St. Paul's Web site. St. Paul also broadened its small-commercial policy offerings to include St. Paul MainStreet and St. Paul Advantage, which covers businesses as they grow Marc Schmittlein, president and CEO of St. Paul's small-commercial division, said the company created a commercial service center in Atlanta to meet the needs of agents. With the low commission factor on small-commercial policies, adding a few endorsements could eat into the meager profit made from an account. So St. Paul established the service center to free agents of the time-consuming tasks of maintaining accounts and allow them to go out and get more business.