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... In the next few years, you'll probably be devoting more time and resources to Life and Health insurance products - that is, if you're at all like the estimated 2,000 independent agents who participated in the "Future One Agency Universe Study." The study shows that independent agents are increasingly aware of the need to be full-service insurance providers. Agents who have traditionally focused on Property/Casualty insurance see the need to expand more aggressively into Life and other types of insurance products. In fact, slightly more than half the agencies surveyed said that over the next three years, they'll devote a higher proportion of agency resources to Life and Health products. Processing Challenges But Life is not Property/Casualty insurance in product or in process. Unlike Property/Casualty, no true turnkey agency system vendors exist in the Life industry. Instead, agents or insurance companies use multiple vendors and must pay someone to integrate the packages, or else they must enter the same data over and again. An agent may use several software programs to manage the business: Contact management programs help track prospective customers; fact-finding programs help document information from an initial sales call, such as current insurance and income investments; and needs-analysis programs process these facts to calculate how much Life insurance is needed by a customer. Next, illustration software reveals the costs and benefits of Life insurance over a certain period in different variations and amounts. Finally, the final recommendations are presented in a proposal package to the customer. This all happens before the sale! Once a customer buys insurance, agents use database programs to manage ...

... In the next few years, you'll probably be devoting more time and resources to Life and Health insurance products - that is, if you're at all like the estimated 2,000 independent agents who participated in the "Future One Agency Universe Study." The study shows that independent agents are increasingly aware of the need to be full-service insurance providers. Agents who have traditionally focused on Property/Casualty insurance see the need to expand more aggressively into Life and other types of insurance products. In fact, slightly more than half the agencies surveyed said that over the next three years, they'll devote a higher proportion of agency resources to Life and Health products. Processing Challenges But Life is not Property/Casualty insurance in product or in process. Unlike Property/Casualty, no true turnkey agency system vendors exist in the Life industry. Instead, agents or insurance companies use multiple vendors and must pay someone to integrate the packages, or else they must enter the same data over and again. An agent may use several software programs to manage the business: Contact management programs help track prospective customers; fact-finding programs help document information from an initial sales call, such as current insurance and income investments; and needs-analysis programs process these facts to calculate how much Life insurance is needed by a customer. Next, illustration software reveals the costs and benefits of Life insurance over a certain period in different variations and amounts. Finally, the final recommendations are presented in a proposal package to the customer. This all happens before the sale! Once a customer buys insurance, agents use database programs to manage ...

...can communicate productively with vendors via an RFP or in any other way, you ... optimally. At this stage, beware of vendors who might “lowball” requirements ...

... for value-added customer service and sales. The ultimate efficiency of an agency's operations, however, depends very greatly on the interface capabilities of the agent's companies and on the ability of the agency's system to handle these electronic transactions effectively. ACT was faced with these facts: Agents were becoming increasingly frustrated with the proliferation of proprietary company Web sites. Companies, in contrast, were telling us that the agents haven't been delivering a clear message, leaving many company executives with the impression that agents were just fine with the Web sites. ACT decided that first it needed to assist agents by developing a clear message that reflects their perspective on current interfaces; and second, it needed to convince agency principals and managers that they should make this issue a priority and communicate their concerns and needs to their companies and vendors at every opportunity — whether at an agency advisory committee meeting, a convention, or a one-on-one meeting. The ACT Interface Statement , as well as Agent Talking Points, are available on the ACT Web site . Briefly, the ACT Interface Statement states that the benefits of real-time processing and access to information through company proprietary Web sites have become overwhelmed by the sheer inefficiency of agent having to deal with a multitude of sites. These inefficiencies result from agents having to entry data separately for each company site, log on separately to each site, learn different workflow procedures for each company, and train agency staff on all of these differences. ACT seeks to pave the way for our industry to enjoy the benefits of real-time processing while transcending the limitations on current proprietary Web sites. Companies should work ...

... for value-added customer service and sales. The ultimate efficiency of an agency's operations, however, depends very greatly on the interface capabilities of the agent's companies and on the ability of the agency's system to handle these electronic transactions effectively. ACT was faced with these facts: Agents were becoming increasingly frustrated with the proliferation of proprietary company Web sites. Companies, in contrast, were telling us that the agents haven't been delivering a clear message, leaving many company executives with the impression that agents were just fine with the Web sites. ACT decided that first it needed to assist agents by developing a clear message that reflects their perspective on current interfaces; and second, it needed to convince agency principals and managers that they should make this issue a priority and communicate their concerns and needs to their companies and vendors at every opportunity — whether at an agency advisory committee meeting, a convention, or a one-on-one meeting. The ACT Interface Statement , as well as Agent Talking Points, are available on the ACT Web site . Briefly, the ACT Interface Statement states that the benefits of real-time processing and access to information through company proprietary Web sites have become overwhelmed by the sheer inefficiency of agent having to deal with a multitude of sites. These inefficiencies result from agents having to entry data separately for each company site, log on separately to each site, learn different workflow procedures for each company, and train agency staff on all of these differences. ACT seeks to pave the way for our industry to enjoy the benefits of real-time processing while transcending the limitations on current proprietary Web sites. Companies should work ...

... and needs to their companies and vendors at every opportunity — whether at an...t agents face. We urge companies and vendors to implement these guidelines so ...

...able in similar fashion from many vendors. Does that mean that Personal Lines ... the system competently. The systems vendors are as guilty as the agencies in ...

...NTATION IS A PROJECT “Most vendors help agencies implement their automa...egy that supports your goal. Because vendors keep enhancing their systems this...

...ide telemarketing services. These vendors generally charge a per-call fee or a... to conduct a test of a new program. Vendors may be able to use advanced techn...

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