More than 2,000 AMS Users’ Group Members Sign Semci Reform Petition

The AMS Users’ Group recently announced that 2,099 users signed an unprecedented petition for SEMCI Reform. The number represents 29 percent of the organization’s total membership and the petition detailed the reported urgent need for enablement of single-entry real-time transaction interfaces between agency management systems and carriers.

“In today’s competitive market, real-time interface is no longer a luxury, it’s key to our survival,” Pam Parry, AMS Users’ Group president, said. “We’re wasting time and wasting money re-entering data, searching through multiple company websites and spending countless man-hours that could be better spent delivering accurate, immediate service to our customers. With this petition, a renewed commitment to innovative use of interface technology to deliver real workflow value is demanded…”

In addition to signatures, the petition asked agents to provide specific agency data to illustrate the impact their business has on the carriers.

Survey respondents represented 14 billion dollars in premium volume. Extrapolating these figures, AMS users collectively represent 48 billion dollars in premium volume. They process 106,000 billing inquiries, 74,000 claims inquiries and 102,000 quotes daily. Top carriers represented by AMS users include Travelers, CNA, Hartford, Chubb, Safeco, Cincinnati, St. Paul, Auto Owners and AIG.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” Parry continued. “Recently we have been hearing that many carriers believe independent agents don’t really care about the goals of SEMCI. Maybe the acronym itself is old and overused, but the bottom line is still the same – we don’t want to enter information more than once, and we want to initiate and process all transactions from within our agency system. It’s really that simple. So call it whatever you want. Today we can solidly say, and say it with $48 billion dollars of premium behind our voices, that we more than ever need the workflow benefits of real-time single-entry carrier interface”.

A copy of the petition can be found at www.amsug.org/SEMCIReform_Results.asp.