Best of Times: Agent Real-Time Functionality

This represents success on the part of carrier IT organizations from a technical standpoint, and on the part of the carriers generally in terms of their relationships with their independent distributors. It also represents a threat to carriers who are yet to provide real-time functionality to their agents, but that will push further penetration of the related technologies through the carrier community.

It may be the worst of times for business as a whole, but 2009 is shaping up to be a great year for the insurance IT field. An item in today's I&T Daily on agents' increasing use of real time functionality is just one example.As Kathy Burger reports, according to a survey conducted by a coalition of organizations representing the independent agent system, "more than half of agency management system users tap a real-time tool to start an inquiry or service transaction." Forty-three percent of agent respondents to the survey say they rate personal lines business in real time, via an agency management system or a comparative rater.

These findings demonstrate that the industry has passed a threshold of provision and usage of real-time availability for key functionality. This represents success on the part of carrier IT organizations from a technical standpoint, and on the part of the carriers generally in terms of their relationships with their independent distributors. It also represents a threat to carriers who are yet to provide real-time functionality to their agents, but that will push further penetration of the related technologies through the carrier community.

Insurers may still be technologically laggard to their financial service counterparts in various ways - some defensible, some not - but insurance has weathered the financial crisis far better than other industry segments and is in a position to continue moving its technology forward. Like the carriers who have failed to implement real-time agent-facing functionality, insurers generally will be spurred by the atmosphere created by the financial crisis to develop in particular areas, such as risk management and analytics generally. The good news is they can afford it.

But technology investment and new development activity will also be higher than last year in other areas as well. I will address this in greater detail in a subsequent post, but insurers are not only sticking to their budgets, but a large percentage are planning core systems projects during the coming year.

The industry may move slowly, but today's news shows that it is indeed moving in the right direction, and I predict we'll have a good many positive stories during a year where other industries are sunk in wailing and lamentation.This represents success on the part of carrier IT organizations from a technical standpoint, and on the part of the carriers generally in terms of their relationships with their independent distributors. It also represents a threat to carriers who are yet to provide real-time functionality to their agents, but that will push further penetration of the related technologies through the carrier community.

Anthony O'Donnell has covered technology in the insurance industry since 2000, when he joined the editorial staff of Insurance & Technology. As an editor and reporter for I&T and the InformationWeek Financial Services of TechWeb he has written on all areas of information ... View Full Bio