Technology Must Be Seamless and Consistent Between Carriers

One important technology that carriers need to implement (if they haven't done this by now, they are behind the times) is real-time integration with agency management systems. Also important are download capabilities for both personal and commercial lines, agency self-service and self-administration for portals, e-signatures, and online rating and issuing systems. When it comes to the independent agency channel, the technology needs to be seamless, in the background and consistent between carriers. Systems should be agency-friendly, easy to use, and should fully utilize the ACORD standards and real-time technologies. The technology shouldn't differentiate companies ... unless they lack technology, which would shed a negative light.

The technology that got carriers where they are today is not the technology that will carry them forward. Younger, more tech-savvy folks will demand carriers and agencies use common business technologies, like text messaging and other technology that consumers use to communicate and conduct business. Today's insurers are making monumental efforts toward enabling their mainframes, but are still barely scratching the surface of the younger and more diverse workforce. An example of that is customer automation. As an industry, we need to figure this out. Customers prefer the agency as their distribution channel. We need to make it easy for them to self-service their policies through their agency, regardless of if they have policies with multiple carriers. As insurance companies, we ultimately have to enable our Web services or our technology to the agencies in a way that it becomes seamless.