AUGIE Agency Survey Offers Up Numbers

Orlando – “The thing that surprised me the most was just how much of the survey wasn’t that surprising,” ACORD vice president Rick Gilman commented.

According to Gilman, the result of the AUGIE Agency Survey showed that agencies overwhelmingly are interested in educating and training their staffs to meet today’s technology needs.

Gilman discussed those findings during the second day of the 2002 ACORD Conference “Real World Solutions.”

Some 9,000 agents took the survey, launched Jan. 2 and concluded in mid-February, featuring 40 questions.

Gilman, who expects to have the survey wrapped up in the coming weeks and available on CD, noted that more than half the respondents were responsible for both personal and commercial lines.

Among the findings: How do you budget for technology? (48 percent said they pay as needed; 41 percent make it part of their annual budget; 11 percent said they didn’t know). When asked what Internet connection they use, 81 percent indicated they use Broadband access (DSL, Cable, T1, etc.). Of those agencies with more than $150,000 in revenue, more than half said they have a Web site.

According to Gilman, “duplicate data entry ranked as the greatest time-waster among the respondents.” By and large, respondents indicated they wanted a system where they have accurate, fast-quote turnarounds.

“Among the key findings we saw were that all agents should budget for technology, and agent/carriers need to be operating on the latest technology.”

Of the current methods agents use, most agents prefer uploading for personal lines, while many rely on e-mail for commercial lines.

“Among the next steps is to see an industry-wide push for agents to upgrade their systems,” Gilman added. “60 of respondents said they were willing to maintain an industry-wide data base of agency technology information.”

For more information on the survey, log onto www.acord.org/AUGIE

Topics Trends Agencies Tech