By Shirley Lukens, VP, Independent Insurance Agents of America

SEMCI AGENTS MUST
LEAD THE WAY!

"APT has provided the catalyst needed to make SEMCI
available to all independent agents."

It has been more than 15 years since the need for what was to become known as "single entry multiple-company interface"--or SEMCI--was identified.

In 1991, driven by the hope that a consensus approach to achieving SEMCI would hasten its delivery, the IIAA played a major role in creating an alliance of insurers, automation vendors, and other interested parties to form what is now the Alliance for Productive Technology, Inc.--or APT.

While much has changed since APT was formed, one thing hasn't. Independent agents still have to operate in a relentlessly soft market brought about by intensified competition and an increasingly sophisticated insurance consumer. Agents are being challenged every day to provide higher standards of service and performance by both carriers and policyholders. Thus, the agent who hopes to survive into the next millennium must not only rise to these challenges but must consistently exceed them just to stay even.

It is these very pressures that reinforce the IIAA's belief that SEMCI and APT have never been more necessary to the independent agency system than they are today.

As a result, the IIAA remains firm in its conviction that no matter what the technological environment, SEMCI continues to hold the key to the improved efficiencies so necessary to the long-term good health of both the personal and commercial lines segments of the property/casualty business.

As SEMCI has moved forward, other promising technological advances have come on the scene. Consequently, some industry participants point to the lightning speed with which the Internet has emerged and question the value of SEMCI. Others talk about object technology and the relative ease with which it allows developers to update their systems and question the ongoing benefits of SEMCI.

Since SEMCI is not about technology but is about how independent agents and carriers do business, the IIAA does not view these major advances in technology as SEMCI replacements. Instead, we view them as significant SEMCI enablers that have the potential to exert additional positive impact on the distribution system.

After all is said and done:

* Agents must still be able to operate efficiently in a multiple-company environment. SEMCI achieves this.

* Agents still must be able to communicate and transact business electronically with all of their companies, using only one system and one set of procedures, preferably their own. SEMCI achieves this.

* Agents and companies still must be able to use industry standards to upload and download underwriting and policyholder data for both personal and commercial lines transactions. SEMCI achieves this.

If anyone questions the value of SEMCI, (s)he needs only to look at the benefits it has already delivered to agents and carriers. In fact, those Best Practices agencies with the highest revenue per employee ratio--one of the accepted measures of productivity--attribute their success to the effective use of automation, which includes SEMCI.

APT provides the catalyst needed to make SEMCI available to all independent agents. However, in order for SEMCI and APT to achieve their full potential, the active support of every agent and carrier who relies upon the independent agency system for the delivery of its products and services is urgently needed.

Most important, agents must recognize that they hold the deciding vote on SEMCI. As technology marches forward--so must SEMCI. Agents can and should lead the way! *