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RATING: A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN SEMCI

Quoting is a significant aspect of an agency's workflow--
make it as efficient as possible

"Our goal is to work on behalf of agents and carriers to eliminate redundant administrative tasks, make their work flow more easily, and help control costs."

By Charles F. Walsh, Director of Sales & Marketing, Boston Software

At Boston Software, we are doing everything we can to make it easier for agents to share data and achieve a true SEMCI work environment.

As such, we have enabled our Windows rating system, WinRater, to integrate with the APT SEMCI Access Module (SAM) and allow agents to share data with multiple companies and automation systems. The results are a significant increase in overall agency and carrier efficiency, elimination of extra work steps, and reduction of associated costs.

Even a brief glance at the workflow in a typical agency shows that a significant amount of work begins with rating. Agents are continually quoting and re-quoting policies for many reasons including new business, renewals, endorsements, book transfers, and price comparisons. In fact, many agents will first generate a quote for a policy, ask qualifying questions about coverage needs, and then decide with which carrier to place the business.

If customer or policy information is entered into WinRater, we can enable agents to immediately upload the information to their carrier through SAM via a couple clicks of their mouse. The carrier, in turn, can download the policy to the agent's management system and, thus, fulfill the SEMCI promise of single entry of data.

We initially built this functionality into our WinRater program to meet SEMCI requirements specified to us by a large carrier as part of a customized WinRater rating program they will distribute to their agents. As an APT member, this carrier recognizes the tremendous value in providing agents with the ability to quickly and easily quote a policy, execute carrier-specific edits, enter company-unique data, and print and/or upload an application to its policy processing system.

Boston Software, located in Needham, Massachusetts, developed the first private passenger auto rating software for Windows nearly five years ago. Since then, we have rolled out homeowners, dwelling fire, workers compensation, and businessowners rating programs. WinRater Rating Software is now used in thousands of agencies in over 26 states. By the end of the year, we will enable all our rating programs to integrate with SAM so that agents can share data with multiple carriers and automation systems.

Just as importantly, we are working hard to integrate with as many management systems as possible. We recognize that integration between our WinRater rating system and agency management systems is vital to the SEMCI process.

Ultimately, this capability will allow agents to perform their work more efficiently. If they enter customer and policy information in WinRater, they can upload to their APT-enabled carrier or export to their management system. If the work is initiated in the management system, the customer record can be imported into WinRater where a new quote can be generated and, of course, uploaded to the carrier. Now that's efficient.

We currently integrate with InStar, Special Agent, and several other management systems. We expect to release our Applied integration bridge later this fall. We have integrated with AMS in the past but are waiting approval from the newly reorganized AMS Holding Group to re-release our AMS for Windows and Prime bridges. Delphi and S.I.S. are also on board for integration in the near future.

We are excited about our partnership with APT and are devoting significant time and energy to putting the technology in place to help bring about SEMCI. As automation vendors, we understand that our goal is to work on behalf of agents and carriers to eliminate redundant administrative tasks, make their work flow more easily, and help control costs. *