This commentary is included with permission from Sounding Line. It appeared on the September 2002 news page.

News Notes Commentary

Will AUGIE Survey Results Prompt Action?

Regarding the AUGIE survey, ACORD's Rick Gilman reported to ACORD Conference attendees, "The thing that surprised me the most was just how much of the survey wasn't that surprising."

It's been nearly 100 days since Gilman announced that observation, but outside of ACORD's own reporting, surprisingly little commentary and analysis have been offered by other industry media outlets, except for the perfunctory rehash of the earlier ACORD press releases. That's a shame. Though I've been candid about my initial skepticism, I've been pleasantly surprised by the overall effort, response, and ACORD's preliminary presentation and analysis of survey results. I hope the results generate serious review.

The true value and benefit of the effort that captured input from 8,531 respondents will not be evident for some time as various parties digest the meaning of the survey and apply it to their own situations. However, as I study survey results in the context of the larger industry technology landscape, I keep coming back to one particular thought; that is, agents are not doing their part in keeping up with technology, and instead believe that most industry technology problems originate at the carrier level. If the 87 pages of agent comments reveal anything, agents have 1) convicted themselves of their own ignorance about industry-wide technology issues, and 2) have deluded themselves into thinking that a single technology panacea, especially in the form of SEMCI, is agency technology's salvation.

I happen to agree with most of the conclusions found in the AUGIE Survey's Executive Summary, such as, "…the industry is fragmented about automation desires and opportunities. What agents want and what they indicate they're willing to invest in may sometimes be different." Additional findings note that "many agents don't budget for technology," "perhaps agents don't have the confidence in understanding technology…," and "…without a solid technology infrastructure, the efficiencies agents are looking for can't happen."

These comments are not highlighted to minimize legitimate agent concerns associated with duplicate entry and proprietary systems. Realistically, these two issues have existed in a variety of forms since the early days of insurance industry technology and remain elusive. Various initiatives have been directed toward "correcting" the problem, but agents seem naive in hoping for a simple solution.

For example, these two comments echo much agent sentiment: "SEMCI should be a reality in that companies should refrain from improving their proprietary systems and concentrate on a true SEMCI product." "All carriers and agents need to work toward the standardization of electronic interface." Like hoping for "world peace," prescriptives like these aim at utopian ideals, but fail to offer well-reasoned and constructive suggestions for reaching them.

The degree to which the carrier and vendor segments can and will respond depends on many factors, including budgetary. Many carriers are tightening purse strings in the wake of 9/11 losses. In the meantime, agents would do well to study the AUGIE survey results with the view of self examination for optimizing their own technology posture.

for more information: www.acord.org

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