The Future of Real Time

Real Time—referred to in the past as “SEMCI” (Single Entry Multiple Company Interface)—has been a goal within the industry for almost 30 years now. While this initiative has gone through a number of iterations, the fundamental industry goal has remained constant—to provide agents the easiest and most efficient methods of writing and servicing business. One thing that has noticeably accelerated is the pace with which technology has made advancements possible.

No matter where a consumer looks there are examples of how technology is delivering easy-to-use, instant services. This drives the level of customer expectations and has put a premium on execution—both for carriers and agencies. The Real Time initiative has gained a strong foothold within the insurance industry. Thanks to promotion and educational tools by the Real Time/Download Campaign (GetRealTime.org), ACT (Agents Council for Technology), AUGIE, ACTTech.org, as well as vendor and carrier adoption, we can take a measure of pride in where we’ve come, especially in the past few years. Real Time has become a reality, but it’s certainly not where it needs to be.

There are several keys to more fully driving the advancement of Real Time, including one of the crucial points—the role of the company sales manager/ agency relationship in advancing the understanding and use of technology.

The next generation of agents, and certainly customers, will demand to do everything instantaneously, primarily using some form of web application. Customers are increasingly quoting and comparing online, however, they are also relying on agents to understand their needs, and they demand rapid service. The agents, in turn, want to service their customers’ business quickly and offer value-added services to differentiate themselves.

Thus, Real Time is invaluable to agents for several reasons. It allows them to provide ease of doing business functionality, save time, key strokes and errors, provide the best service to the customer and bridge the gap of different interfaces provided by carriers. The impact of all this is better margins and more earnings.

For carriers, Real Time is a business imperative. It can help streamline internal processes, speed up transaction processing windows, minimize reliance on call centers and help desks and increase profits. In the not-too-distant future it will be very difficult—or even impossible—for carriers to compete without robust Real Time functionality.

The bottom line is that in the current business climate, it is essential to make doing business easy for agents and customers. When all other aspects are even close to being equal, agents will do business with carriers that make their processes easy and error-free. Even more important, most agents will choose not to do business with carriers who fail to provide EODB functionality.

So, if it’s obvious that Real Time is a good thing for all parties, why is the industry still struggling with it?

First of all, the vendor market is quite fragmented, which causes a serious challenge for agents and companies. From the agent perspective, this fragmentation creates confusion over which tools are appropriate for a specific agency. Of the many choices out there, some are Real Time. However, some are not. Some of the carriers are on board with Real Time for some of the vendors, some are not. This adds complexity and time to agency workflow.

For carriers, much of the challenge lies within prioritization—prioritizing different vendors in different geographic areas. Which are the “impact” vendors? Prioritizing the differing workflow needs of the agents also plays a part—some use management systems, others rely on comparative raters. Still others go directly to carrier Web sites to quote, bind and service business. At a higher level, it is the reality of balancing resources for new Real Time functionality with necessary internal carrier system enhancements and regulatory requirements.

The company sales manager of today—and the future—must understand and support the technology direction of both the industry and the company. The sales manager must have the knowledge to actively assist agencies in effectively implementing Real Time technology.

As agency advocates, sales managers should be able to be active conduits for agents to provide feedback on carrier and industry technology, help resolve issues and speak to future direction. The future sales manager should also be able to clearly advocate the producer impact of potential carrier strategies.

At the end of the day, agents and carriers will be more successful when they involve well-trained company sales managers—those who not only speak to carrier technology direction, but also support their agencies by helping them understand and fully utilize Real Time functionality. This will benefit the agencies by helping them to minimize duplicate entry, and help them serve their customers in the best way possible. Putting in place sales managers who can actively obtain and accurately relay agency Real Time feedback to the carrier management will help improve the carrier’s Real Time implementations, increase its EODB and generate more business from its agents.

Scott Kuczmarski (skuczmarski@metlife.com) is vice president of agency distribution for MetLife Auto & Home, based in Warwick, R.I.