Eliminating the waiting game

Rough Notes, Aug 1998 by Strazewski, Len

Company's technology development efforts benefit agencies and their commercial cutomers

No one likes the waiting game, but it's been a fact of life for commercial agents. Fill out the ACORD applications, mail or fax the forms to your carriers' underwriting departments, and start gnawing your nails about rates, limits, exclusions and endorsements.

When a policy comes back to you as much as three weeks later, spend another day checking for the inevitable clerical errors and omissions that will lead to corrective endorsements and even more waiting.

Or not.

W.A. Lang Co., a Minneapolis-based commercial agency with about 100 employees, is learning to beat the waiting game with a new online link that connects the firm's agency automation system directly to the Chubb Group via a single-entry multiple company interface (SEMCI).

The Chubb Exchange Interface, developed by the insurer and Applied Systems, Inc., in University Park, Illinois, allows the agency to enter commercial lines application information directly into the Applied Systems Agency Management System for Windows (WinTAM). Overnight, or sooner if necessary, the WinTAM system dials up a computer modem connection with IVANS, the insurance industry data transport system, which dumps the application information into the Chubb local area network (LAN) of desktop computers.

By morning, underwriters are reviewing the application materials on their own desktop computer screens and preparing quotes, terms and conditions, and final policies that can be transmitted back to the agency by the same system.

W.A. Lang has been testing the interface since January, says Senior Account Executive Dana O'Connor, and has learned to cut the wait for commercial lines account processing in half with efficiencies both inside and outside the agency's back office.

"The interface automates both halves of the commercial policy development process," she explains. "The first step of the process involves entering the client application information in our own records on our own agency office system.

"Then instead of printing it out or retyping the application, the information goes unchanged directly to the underwriters. Not only is the process faster and more efficient for us in preparing the application, it works more effectively for the underwriters who receive it in the form with which they like to work."

"When the quote or policy is returned to the agency through the SEMCI link, account information survives intact," adds Account Manager Jeri Frederick. "We spend a lot less time proofreading and checking the forms for errors. The information is returned to us exactly as we entered it, every keystroke captured by the system."

O'Connor says the use of SEMCI also has given the agency a priority relationship with Chubb and a competitive edge with its commercial clients that range from high-tech consulting companies to industrial manufacturers.

"Our relationship with Chubb and this interface certainly gives us an advantage in a competitive situation. Not only can we respond more quickly to our commercial clients, but our privileged connection to Chubb is very promotable in terms of continuing service from the insurer," she says.

The SEMCI service is one of several new computer-based products and services that target commercial agents and their policyholders, according to Deb Bronson, vice president of electronic commerce management at Chubb in Warren, New Jersey. "Link by link, the insurer is forging a chain of electronic commerce that will eventually bind agents, policyholders and company employees through Internet-based online communication and data services," she says.

SEMCI products continue to be particularly hot with agents and their insurers and the Chubb Exchange product is the cornerstone of the electronic commerce development, according to Bronson. However, Chubb also offers other interactive services for agencies and their commercial customers, many of which are available through Chubb's Internet site (www.chubb.com). They include:

Loss Reporting: Agents can report a personal or commercial loss at any time through the company's Internet connection. Online forms are available for auto, general liability, property and workers compensation (www.chubb.com/lossrpt). The company promises e-mail acknowledgment and telephone contact within 24 hours.

ClaimView: An Internet-based risk management information system, ClaimView provides agents and commercial policyholders with realtime access to actual claim notes and financial information. The service is available for business auto, general liability and workers compensation claims. About 120 policyholders are presently using the system.

Loss History Analyzer: A Microsoft Windows-based risk management information system, Loss History Analyzer is designed to help agents and policyholders keep track of insured losses. The downloadable software, now in its third version, allows users to sort, select, analyze, report, graph and export monthly updates of loss information. The software supports boiler and machinery, business auto, general liability, inland marine, ocean cargo, package, property and workers compensation coverages.