March 2001
Long-time technology advocate's latest venture offers Internet savvy to agents
Most gurus advise their acolytes to look inward for enlightenment, but agency technology guru John Ashenhurst has a different lesson for independent agents. He suggests that agents and the rest of the insurance industry focus on the broad horizon that is the Internet — because their customers already have.
June 2003
Have traditional agency management systems become obsolete?
Perhaps the real reason interface hasn't ever operated as advertised is that it simply isn't possible... for two decades we've been barking up the wrong tree.
May 2003
Two vendors implement real-time inquiry transactions
Agents can now do carrier billing and claims inquiry out of their management systems into carrier Web sites--with one workflow and one presentation.
April 2003
Should you delegate running your software to someone else?
Some agencies have made the switch to ASP — but most aren't ready. Are the early adopters on to something? Or are their more conservative peers right to wait and see?
March 2003
Agency Web site success stories
Only one in four agencies has a Web site. Can that be right? ….Some agents report getting real value from their sites. Why the disparity? What follows are some success stories about agencies that consider their investment in a Web site money well spent.
January 2003
Tablet PC takes all that's great about notebook PCs
and adds features to improve mobile computing
Years ago at Comdex in Las Vegas, I watched a Microsoft presentation of a "clipboard" or "slate" type PC — something you would hold across one arm while using a stylus (pen with no ink) to navigate and write on the screen. ….
December 2002
Are agency Web sites worth the time it takes
to properly create and maintain them?
Since the mid-'90s, producer groups, carriers, and vendors have exhorted independent agents to provide Web sites…. Are agency Web sites really not worth the bother — even if they're free?
November 2002
Using existing elements to answer a need in a new way
The elements of new products and services lie right before our eyes ... we can all appreciate and adopt innovation if we're awake to it.
October 2002
Three industry technology pundits debate the right process to solve SEMCI, carrier Web sites, and other interface problems
Rick Morgan, Steve Anderson, and John Ashenhurst find some points of agreement in describing solutions to persistent interface dilemmas.
August 2002
Two books offer insight, practical advice
If you make your Web site visitor work too hard at something that should be relatively transparent and effortless, your site won't succeed.
July 2002
A proposal for agents, carriers, vendors, and customers
…. Overall, the idea is that agents would be able to move reasonably effortlessly between their management systems (also rating) and relevant carrier sites — with the management system providing information to the Web site so that it could "pre-navigate" the agency user to the right page in the carrier Web site — with the data from the agency system pre-filling (when relevant) the form on the carrier site.
June 2002
Industry online utilities represent lots of opportunity for positive change
Until recently the focus of industry cooperation has been on improving the interaction between carriers and agencies…. One emerging idea for cooperation is the creation of industry-wide online utilities — in which all parties involved in certain families of insurance transactions can share….
May 2002
The evolution of QuoteSmith, InsWeb, and Insurance.com
….an increasing number of consumers — personal lines and small business — want to or do use the Web for insurance shopping and self-service.
March 2002
Is SEMCI just around the corner? Not quite.
…. While the convergence of three vendors on a single interface platform is certainly good news, it would be a mistake to assume that SEMCI is now a reality or will be any time soon for most of the agency population.
February 2002
Practical use of Internet and other technologies can bring
competitive advantage and efficiencies to small agencies
Just east of Clayton, New York, the Thousand Islands dot the St. Lawrence River. This "summering" area is known for boating, fishing, and diving….It's in this physically desirable but economically challenging environment that Ed Higgins has chosen to build his Thousand Islands Agency into an asset to fund his eventual retirement. One key strategy he's employing is the productive use of technology — especially his agency Web site.
January 2002
Canadians cooperate to solve vexing industry problems
Early in 2002, Canadian brokers (independent agents) will be able to go to one Web site, the CSIO insurance portal, to get accurate and up-to-date comparative quotes and to do policy maintenance at multiple carrier systems.
November 2001
Safety Insurance — A success story
….Virtually all carriers now have Web sites. Some use them to sell in parallel with their agents. Some provide self-service to their policyholders. A fair number provide some sort of online self-service to their agents. What makes a carrier Web strategy successful?
October 2001
Carrier proprietary Web sites, extranets, agency portals — whatever — cause agents all kinds of problems and they're not going to morph into something more acceptable on their own.
….Carriers are now beginning to implement agency portals (or extranets or carrier proprietary Web sites) and want agents to believe that the extranets solve the problems caused by proprietary interface. Some commentators agree with the carriers. So what's the truth? Are proprietary carrier Web sites good for agents? If they're not, can they be improved upon in a way that benefits both carriers and agents?
September 2001
Industry crusades have a tendency to subvert the operation of the marketplace of ideas. Free discussion, representation of varied points of view, in-depth examination of issues, and being well informed are all ignored.
More than once this year, people who should know better have told me that when the ACORD XML standards are implemented, proprietary carrier interface (or Web sites) and other perennial problems for agencies will disappear. Technology and, in particular, ACORD XML will (finally) be the salvation of the independent agency system….Unfortunately this just isn't true.
August 2001
Application service providers can take away the headache of computer problems — or cause them
…. ASPs have the potential to reduce the level of technology stress in your office. And in some cases they can provide solutions to problems the industry has struggled with for decades. But they can also destroy or severely damage you business.
July 2001
Allowing your customers to serve themselves through your Web site
can improve their satisfaction and save you money
Online self-service may be a little more work for the customer than delegating the task but the customer gains control — completing the task in one sitting and at a time and place most convenient for the customer.
May 2001
Put usability first; practice simplicity
Good agency Web sites require a great deal of thinking, research, experimentation, and evolution.
April 2001
Some practical steps to make your Web site more visible
….The Web is chaotic and on its own has no organizing principal. Customers and prospects in the physical world can follow a few well-traveled paths to find you. The Internet provides no universally used and successful search mechanisms. From the point of view of finding an independent agent, the Internet is a mess….
March 2001
Extending and improving your agency's out-facing services
Should your agency have a Web site? Or would you be better off using the Internet to provide out-facing services to your customers? Are they both really the same thing?
February 2001
Making sense of the convergence of the Internet and insurance
Out-facing services are likely to be most effective when offered as part
of an agency service package, not as some dot-coms have thought, detached
from any traditional face-to-face professional support.