What do agents want from their agency management systems? In its "Agency Technology Survey-Executive Summary," ACORD Corp.'s ACORD User Group Information Exchange (AUGIE) set out to answer this question and reveal other agency technology needs."The survey shows that many agents are frustrated with the process of having to go from Web site to Web site to get quotes-a process some liken to the situation 15 or 20 years ago, when we moved within our agencies from one company-provided terminal to the next," says Lisa Leach Goth, vice president of New Bethlehem, Pa.-based Charles P. Leach Agency and chair of the survey working group. She sees the survey findings as encouragement for carriers to support more uniform processes that work through the agent's own system.
More than 7,500 agency, brokerage, MGA and wholesaler professionals took part in the survey. They reveal what capabilities their agency management systems have.
Just more than half (52%) of the respondents have the capability to customize their client data in their agency management systems. The majority of the respondents (69.7%) have the capability for a full client view of all the business they have with those clients, and 72.2% can track prospects.
Another important capability agents identify involves carriers: More than three-fourths of the respondents are more likely to choose a carrier, regardless of price, if the agency management system could pre-fill some of the fields on a carrier's proprietary Web site.
