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ACT is a partnership of independent agents, companies, technology vendors, user groups, and associations dedicated to enhancing the use of technology and improved work flows within the Independent Agency System. |
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Independent Agency Preferences for Carrier Electronic Communications - This report sets out how agents would like to receive electronic communications from their carriers for specific types of notices and transactions, so that agencies can benefit from a consistency of approach. The report includes a very helpful chart outlining each type of communication, how agents would like to receive the information, and, if the recommended method is email, a recommended format for the subject line.
Effective Communication and Training of Technology Issues to Independent Agencies
and Brokers - This report provides the industry with guidance on how to communicate and train agencies in new technologies and workflows most effectively and provides compelling "success stories" that will motivate agencies to implement real-time interfaces, commercial lines download, and strategies to become "paperless."
ACT Commercial Lines Download Report - This May, 2005 report outlines the latest efforts in the industry to make commercial lines downloads more accurate for agencies. It recommends that carriers newly implement an agency testing process and contains prototype documents for carriers and vendors to use so that agencies can implement these downloads from a particular carrier more effectively.
Real-Time Endorsement, New Business Submission, and Activity and Note Transactions -
Along with inquiry, these are the most important real-time transactions for agents. This report spells out the agents’ business requirements for these transactions.
Turning Off the Paper to Agents Phase Two Report- The trend is for carriers to provide agents with electronic information and discontinue sending the paper policy information. This report takes a close look at the workflow and procedural issues agents and carriers face when the paper is turned off. It is hoped that the carriers will heed the recommendations so that the changes work efficiently for their agents and brokers. The work group’s Phase One Report is attached to this report, because its recommendations continue to be very important for the parties to take into account.
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Guidelines for Effective Agent-Carrier Technology Agreements - This ACT report includes major principles that agents and carriers should consider including in their technology agreements. These agreements have become more important as the level of agent-carrier electronic interaction has continued to increase. ACT encourages agents and brokers to carefully review their current technology agreements with their carriers, to understand and implement the requirements contained in these agreements, and to encourage their carriers to follow the recommendations contained in the ACT report in their agreements.
ACT HIPAA & Privacy Supplement: A Companion Resource to ACT’s Report, “Safeguarding Non-Public Personal Information”- This report includes more detailed information about HIPAA, including security considerations, frequently asked legal questions about HIPAA requirements, and HIPAA’s impacts on the workflows of Benefit Departments.
The Real-Time Revolution: Redefining How We Work - This major new ACT report, defines the commonly used real-time terms, describes the real-time interfaces that are being introduced today, and then discusses the potential for real-time to radically reshape how we do our work in the future. The report encourages agents, brokers, carriers, and vendors to embrace real-time in order to improve their efficiency and responsiveness.
The Transition to an Agency Sales Organization—Culture and Process First; Then Technology - ACT has published phase one of a new two-part report to help independent agents and brokers build a disciplined, sales-driven agency culture and then take advantage of the technologies necessary to sustain and manage sales processes. ACT's Sales & Marketing Work Group has examined the existing sales culture of independent agencies and brokerages nationwide and is devising ways to help them embrace technology in their efforts to sustain an effective sales management process. In phase one of this report, the work group focuses on positioning the agency to be a disciplined sales organization by establishing the needed culture and sales processes.
Turning off the Paper to Agents; The Key Responsibilities for Each of the Parties - The trend is for carriers to provide agents with electronic information and discontinue sending the paper policy information to agents. This paper outlines several steps and safeguards that carriers, agents, and vendors should follow so that these workflow changes work positively for all of the parties involved. See also Phase Two Report which covers agent and carrier workflow and procedural issues in greater depth.
A Vision of the Future for Agency Technology Including Essential Next Steps for Independent Agents - A major ACT product that was six months in the making. It is a collaborative effort involving agent, insurance company, technology provider, and industry association participants. ACT went beyond its membership to seek input on the report from numerous opinion leaders in the technology area including independent agents and brokers, agent user groups, young agents, the IIABA Executive Committee, the Commission to Enhance Agency Value (which produces the Best Practices studies), IIABA and state association staff, other producer trade associations, ACORD, agency automation vendors and consultants, and insurance company executives. This report is the product of an extensive review process by all of the ACT participants, and we believe it will provide a very useful framework for agencies, companies, and technology providers as they address technology issues.
ACT Download Work Group Report and Recommendations - In order to better understand concerns about current downloads and to make recommendations, the ACT Download Work Group pulled together representatives from downloading carriers, the automation vendors and their user groups to research and identify overarching issues.
ACT Guidelines for Multiple Passwords - ACT has approved recommended password formatting guidelines for companies and vendors and urges companies and vendors to adopt them. These guidelines, when adopted, will permit agents to use a common password for several company and vendor systems, alleviating the current password nightmare that agency employees are experiencing. At the same time, the adoption of the guidelines will enhance security at the agency level because agency employees will no longer have to maintain lists of passwords. These guidelines were revised by the ACT Governing Council on September 21, 2003.
A Vision of the Future for Agency Technology Including Essential Next Steps for Independent Agents
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The Need for More Effective Agent-Company Interfaces—A Call to Action -This statement outlines the growing frustrations that agents are feeling because of the proliferation of proprietary company Web sites and the inefficiencies that are developing because of the need to enter data multiple times, the need to logon to each site, and the different workflows site to site. The Call to Action then sets forth specific steps companies, vendors, and agents should take now to get the benefits of real-time processing while eliminating many of these inefficiencies.
ACT urges companies and vendors to adopt the ACT vision as an overall objective and then work toward it. The ACT vision provides that agents can interface in real-time with multiple companies using their agency management system or other integrating platform, where logons, passwords, and data flows between systems are handled seamlessly in the background by the various systems interacting with each other. The statement urges companies and vendors to begin to implement the ACORD XML standards now and to participate in efforts that will permit company systems and web sites to interact automatically with agency management systems so multiple data entry is eliminated, logons are handled machine to machine in the background, and agents can follow the consistent workflow of the agency management system.
It also is critical for agency principals and agency association and user group leaders to make the need for improved agent-company interfaces a priority in their discussions with company and vendor CEOs and to undertake the necessary investments in their own technology to be positioned to take advantage of these new interfaces. In addition, agents need to work with companies and vendors to help them develop improved interfaces and then reward those companies which make the necessary investments with growth.
ACT believes the industry has a unique opportunity at this particular time to realize enormous benefits from the adoption of these new technologies which will be very important to the Independent Agency System’s long term competitive position. This statement can be very helpful to both company and vendor executives in their technology planning because it outlines agent concerns with current technology but then provides the steps that companies, vendors, and agents can take to deal with the current inefficiencies and to free up agency personnel for much more productive customer service and sales work.
Agent Talking Points for ACT Interface Campaign - ACT urges agency principals and leaders to talk with company and vendor CEOs and senior executives at company advisory committee meetings, conventions, and in individual discussions to press for these needed interface improvements.
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