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Tuesday, November 17th
Speaking at the A.M. Best Co.'s 11th annual insurance information management conference, Koster said Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, N.J., is spending $100 million to equip and train the agents and their support staffs on the company's LaunchPad program. With the program, which is installed in IBM ThinkPad computers, agents have the tools they need to do their job. The LaunchPad program has prospecting tools backed up to a data warehouse. In addition, it includes software for managing contracts, conducting client needs analysis, providing illustrations and writing the business. Agents carry portable printers on sales calls, but the goal is to eliminate all the paper that typically passes between agent and client during the sales process except one--the check the customer writes to pay for the policy. Reaching that goal depends on regulatory authorization to permit electronic signatures. Prudential decided to computerize its sales force in deference to the new generation of buyers of life insurance policies, annuities and mutual funds. "Generation Xers are the reason we must teach technology," Koster said. "They come out of college fully computer literate and they comparison shop on the Net. When they do, they ask, 'Why would I want that product?' " "That question is the reason there will always be agents," she said. Prudential began rolling out the LaunchPad program in May 1997 with a pilot project that involved 500 agents. After using the program for six months their productivity increased 143%. Currently, 9,300 agents have received computers. Training to use the program includes two days of classes. A team of trainers visits agencies for follow-up training about a month later. They leave CD-ROMs so agents can continue learning how to use the new program. And agents are call a help desk 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Agents must take an online course and pass it before they are authorized to use the various product programs. And each product program has its own user ID and password for security. |
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By March the more than 10,000 agents that make up Prudential's
captive sales force will be equipped with laptop computers, according to Barbara
Koster, chief information officer, Prudential Insurance Group. Two years ago
most of those agents were handwriting information on pads of yellow legal-size
paper.