Author: ACT staff

When agents talk, carriers and vendors listen. That's been part of Susan LaBarre's career experience for some 40 years in the independent agency channel.

Susan, the director of agency automation and quoting at Liberty Mutual, sees positive forward movement in the use of technology within the IA channel. It might not be happening at lightning speed, but there is “daily progress," she says, adding that the agent's voice is crucial in getting the right technology and processes developed by both carriers and vendors.

“ACT is very helpful to me, because we get stuff done," Susan says. “I can take specific concerns of agents and bring those back to the carrier members. From there, we can work on solutions that agents want and need. The ACT work groups are of real benefit. For example, ACT has a work group dedicated to Small Commercial Rating, which is great."

ACT plays a crucial role in serving as a forum for independent agents to voice their needs, their frustrations and their vision. Agents don't need to come to the table with proposed solutions. Simply voicing a wish list or addressing problems they are having interfacing with markets or with customers is enormously valuable. Susan and other work group participants take those comments and run them through fairly hefty analysis, determining if the problems or desires are common across the IA channel or fairly narrow issues that need to be dealt with individually.

The ones that are common are dealt with in conferences or publications (including the ACT Changing Nature of Risk advisories), in discussions with vendors, and in requests for changes to agency management systems and carrier interface platforms. Agent input also generates webinars, podcasts and trainings.

In a previous role, Susan was on the marketing side at Liberty Mutual. She was able to work with her tech team to understand what functionality they would offer and what information agents would need. She also compiled business requirements for the IT staff so they could design a product that was agent-friendly in terms of usability and appropriate to the needs agents had. Having both of those components was critical to achieving a good adoption rate. Today, Susan still provides that bridge in her various industry capacities outside of her job at Liberty Mutual and in conjunction with it.

And ACT provides a nice venue.

“In ACT, information flows both ways," Susan says, noting that the council “also allows the team to talk to vendors about potential collaboration on solutions."

Having access to the vendors is really important, because vendors often can provide a commonality of systems across carriers, enabling a more standardized workflow.

“It's counterproductive for agents to have multiple workflows with multiple carriers," Susan says. “Carriers will never be identical, but we can follow set best practices and standards."

Getting more information flowing between carriers, agents and vendors is paramount to keeping independent agencies in business. With the rapid change of technology and addition of insuretech companies, agencies need to keep pace and take advantage of the available technology in the marketplace.

“Agents can have the same technology as the insuretech distributors," Susan says.

However, that is tied to vendors' investing in their systems so they can easily interface with carrier programs.

“It is absolutely achievable," Susan says. “The insurance industry just needs to commit and make it happen."

The good news is ACT members on all sides—agent, vendor and carrier—are interfacing.

“At every meeting, I hear from someone who sparks a good idea," Susan says. “As I start talking to developers, I realize there are synergies. Over time, small changes add up."

Specific Tech Challenges 

There are a handful of things that should be no-brainers: electronic policy delivery, for instance; carrier staff directories on the insurer's portal specific to agents and their needs so it's easy for agents to get to the person best suited for the question or action; alerts to agents of recent activity, such as policyholder claims and non-payment; and commercial lines download. There are other valuable technologies—such as small commercial quoting, eDocs and messages, personal lines real-time rating, and real-time transactions—that are making gains.

Some technologies are harder to bring to market than others. Real-time rating in the commercial space is one. Electronic policy delivery is another.

“I'm looking at what the barriers are," Susan says. “My challenge is to make the electronic experience better rather than relying on the old methods. To be successful, we have to be responsive to agents' concerns. For instance, with electronic policy delivery, I have heard agents say they need to quality control the policy before it goes out. In this example, the solution may be that the agent previews it before issuance. Thus, we have to look at the technology from the agents, perspective if we want adoption."

Carriers, vendors and agents can work together to craft solutions that address such concerns…if the concerns are known. Joining the conversation is key, so Susan encourages all participants in the IA channel to give voice to their needs and requirements for technology.

“The value of ACT is as a community of agents, insurers and vendors that openly discusses how technology can help all of us better serve and protect our clients. The IA channel gives the consumer the best representation and the best breadth of products. And ACT is a key resource for all of us to help drive that success."