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October 17th - 19th,
1999
"Progressive Wages War for Independent
Agents"
Speaking Tuesday at A.M. Best Co.'s 12th annual Insurance Information and Technology Conference, "Continuing the E-volution," Garson said that to improve work flow, Progressive expects the 30,000 independent agents it sells through to go paperless within the next two years Progressive's plan to convert agents to e-commerce started in 1997 with a system vision. The company determined that it wanted to have the best proprietary system and the best third-party interface, to be the easiest company to do business with and to promote a positive buying experience. The agents' responsibility was to install Windows on their desktops, network their computers, connect to the Internet and download the required materials. To encourage agents' participation, Garson said, Progressive wrote software and created tools that allow an agent to fully underwrite an auto policy application in 3.5 minutes, checking the pertinent data bases online. Progressive also supports modem sharing and electronic software distribution. In addition, Progressive offers technical support and advice. Technological advances will continue to ease work flow and improve distribution. Innovation during the next three years will surpass the achievements of the past 30 years, Garson predicted. It will lead, in the next few years, to seamless Internet interaction. "When agents can't tell the difference between when they are working on the Internet or not, we will have succeeded," he said. Progressive plans to move information off the agents' desktops and onto the Internet as bandwidth increases to accommodate it. However, all the technological advances that Progressive is making available to independent agents may have a downside. As Progressive moves its proprietary software and tools to the Internet and has accomplished the task of getting the agents online, it may make it easier for those agents to do business with Progressive's competitors. By Marilyn Ostermiller |
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The Online War for
Independents:
Transmitting business electronically is one of two
key ingredients to capturing more market share, according to Chris Garson,
Progressive Insurance Group's general manager for agent technology. The other,
he said, is competitive products.