Digital distribution

Hartford, Conn. - Six months after introducing its enhanced Select Accounts products for small businesses, St. Paul Travelers reports the feedback from independent agents has been overwhelmingly positive.According to a survey of more than 1,300 agents, 96% rated the breadth of product eligibility and 88% rated the pricing and coverage features to be the same or significantly better than the competition.

St. Paul, Minn. -- A study of insurance brokers and consultants' attitudes about relationships with group life insurers shows they place high value on technology and good service and little value on freebies."The study confirmed our assumptions about how best to approach benefits brokers and consultants," says Paula Bilitz, marketing manager, Minnesota Life Group Insurance. "Professionalism rules, with a clear focus on how best to serve the employer-client."

Beijing - InsCom, an e-commerce insurance company based in China, has been awarded as one of China's Top 100 Business Web sites of 2005 at the second awards ceremony of the China Commercial Internet Developing Conference. In the five years of the top 100 business Web site award, this is the first time an insurance Web site has won.Rapid development of the insurance industry has led to diversities in the insurance marketing channel. Some traditional channels such as: direct sales, full-time or part-time agents, telephone, correspondence and networking are seeing new changes being gradually introduced in order to modernise roles in product sales and business development for insurance companies.

Columbus, Ohio - Nationwide introduced a new look and feel for its main consumer web site, nationwide.com. The re-design represents the first phase of a multi-year overhaul, the company reports.

Westlake Village, Calif. - The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. has been recognized for call center operation customer satisfaction excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center Program. The Hartford property and casualty sales and service centers are the first in the insurance industry to be certified under the program.Through its direct personal lines business, the Hartford, Conn.-based carrier handled more than 10,000,000 telephone, e-mail and fax interactions in 2004 from its call centers in Southington, Conn., Allentown, Pa., Santee, Calif., and Oklahoma City.

Washington, D.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill extending a federal program that guarantees the government's support of some losses from terrorist attacks, a measure that insurers and property owners call critical to the economy.

Creating economic value from distribution has never been more difficult for life insurers trying to increase business and reduce costs. Balancing the complexities inherent in a competitive marketplace, more than 1,000 U.S. companies currently offering a host of life and annuity products are in a scramble to hold on to representatives from traditional channels and acquire those from nontraditional channels.In the face of a growing market (Baby Boomers looking at retirement strategies now count 77 million), Internet-based customer self-service and a host of alternative distribution channels, keeping traditional, dedicated life insurance sellers on board is no easy task. The number of career life agents dropped to 178,000 in 2000 compared to 238,000 a decade ago, reports TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass., research and advisory firm.

They began in the late 1990s as personal Web sites for hobbyist-authors to climb on their soapboxes, voice their opinions and reveal their daily activities to the whole wide world. Today, there are more than 17 million "blogs"-short for weblogs-and they're making their way into the business world, including the world of insurance."Weblogs have such a strong appeal to Web users," says Julie Ferguson, a communications consultant for Lynch, Ryan & Associates, a Westborough, Mass.-based workers' compensation consulting firm. "They're an important source of information, and if companies do them right, they speak with a more authentic voice than other forms of communication."

How important is your distribution network? Is it the lifeline of your business? What if your distribution network was a finely tuned machine, cranking out more business than capacity allows? As seen in our cover story, carriers agree that technology is the key to solving many distribution dilemmas. In another article in this issue (page 20), we learn that they're not all that excited about investing in technology that enables agents to leverage single-entry, multiple carrier interface (SEMCI) technology. It may depend who you ask, but few would disagree that technology plays a critical role in independent agents' ability to help carriers realize success-across all lines.So, who is ultimately responsible for making sure that happens? In a recent Insurance Networking News virtual trade show, available on the INN Web site, we posed that question to Jeff Yates, executive director of the Agents' Council for Technology for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, a national alliance of 300,000 business owners and their employees.

Although insurance carriers have been slower than banks in adopting e-billing and e-payment technologies (see "Carriers Have Some Catching Up to Do), two insurers recently have taken a lead in this area.Esurance, a San Francisco-based direct-to-consumer auto insurer, has added a PayPal payment option to its Web site. PayPal is one of the leading forms of online payment, with approximately 79 million accounts worldwide.

In this age of Blackberries and instant messaging, insurance carriers and agents alike are focused on finding high-tech solutions to conduct their businesses. Enter: Single Entry Multiple Carrier Interface-also known as SEMCI.The concept of SEMCI technology sounds simple. Vendors create applications that enable independent insurance agents to access one site, hopefully through their own agency management system, enter data once and then communicate with multiple insurance carriers to obtain real-time quotes.

By converting from paper to e-billing, companies can reap appreciable cost savings, achieve significant efficiencies, hasten incoming payments, gain greater accuracy in accounting and invoicing systems, and reduce labor operations.But only a relatively few carriers have thus far converted to e-billing, also known as Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP).

New York - CIGNA Inc. is expanding its on-line pricing data for consumers, the company reports.

Chicago - The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) and Visa USA have agreed to support participating Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies nationwide that are offering their members co-branded debit cards to pay for healthcare related expenses. The Blue-branded Visa debit card will allow customers to pay for qualified medical expenses by providing them with access to their health plan personal savings accounts. The co-branded cards are part of a larger initiative by Blue Cross and Blue Shield to provide consumers with the information and tools they need to make better decisions healthcare for themselves and their families.

New Orleans - McGlinchey Stafford PLLC, a law firm based in the Gulf Coast region, has developed a weblog for companies with business interests in hurricane-affected areas. The blog, found at www.hurricanelawblog.com, features up-to-date information about post-hurricane legal issues, including insurance, real estate, healthcare, environmental, finance and litigation.The blog, which was created in response to client needs, offers businesses a single location to find information regarding legislation, litigation, and regulatory issues in and affecting Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama. McGlinchey Stafford's hurricane blog will serve as a central repository for relevant information from both federal and state organizations, legislative bodies and courts.

Pittsburgh - Highmark Inc., an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, is contributing $26.5 million to The Pittsburgh Foundation, which will use the funds for an electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) initiative.The foundation has created the Highmark eHealth Collaborative to encourage the adoption of health information technology used in patient care in order to improve patient safety and quality while increasing cost efficiency.

San Francisco - The results of a newly released consumer survey commissioned by TeaLeaf Technology Inc. and conducted by Harris Interactive indicate that online transaction failures can have a detrimental impact on businesses, forcing customers to abandon transactions.The study, which focused on consumer transaction experiences on shopping, banking, travel and insurance Web sites, found the vast majority of online consumers (89%) say they experience problems when conducting online transactions.

Horsham, Pa. - NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Quality Systems Inc. has completed a pilot project with Empire Medicare Services, a fee-for-service Medicare contractor, and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Foundation to facilitate the use of electronic attachments between a health plan and its providers.The pilot program, which was funded for Empire Medicare Services and WEDI by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), tested the use of electronic claims attachments in accordance with HIPAA's transaction code sets, including ANSI 275 and 277.

Indianapolis - The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), an Indianapolis-based full-service national trade association with more than 1,400 member companies, has unveiled the latest version of its Web site, NAMIC Online, featuring simplified site navigation, streamlined page layouts and realigned presentation of content. The site contains information on public policy and legislation as well as advocacy, including state agendas and resources, and state, federal and association news. Its redesigned information tools assist visitors to find the information they want more quickly and efficiently. Founded in 1895, NAMIC underwrites 43 percent ($196 billion) of the property/casualty insurance premium in the United States. Source: NAMIC

In 16 states and the District of Columbia , independent agents and brokers now can go online and quote complex package operations (commercial property and general liability insurance combined) with the same ease as writing a Safeco businessowners policy (BOP). That's because Seattle-based Safeco has fully automated the sale of commercial insurance packages to more than 800 classes of small- and mid-sized businesses.Accounts such as manufacturers, restaurant chains and auto mechanics can be quoted online in as few as 15 minutes, with the first price being the right price, the company claims.