ACORD 2010 By the Numbers
Posted by Mason Power - May 27th, 2010 at 10:05:14 am180 – The 180-degree view of the Las Vegas strip from the penthouse we rented for our client cocktail party at ACORD was amazing. See our COO Curt Stevenson on the balcony
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6.5 – The number of miles Ellen Carney of Forrester said she walked in a day at ACORD (she had a pedometer)
5 – The number of Sword AgencyPort clients receiving ACORD awards for solutions including our software (Aon Benfield, MEMIC, The Hartford, Harleysville, Concord Group, and The Hanover)
4 – We demonstrated four types of solutions at our booth this week from distribution by Sword AgencyPort, policy administration by Sword Intech, Insurance CRM by Sword Ciboodle and Sword’s overall business intelligence tools
3 – We are proud to have won three ACORD Awards for leading the ACORD standards forward and for implementations with clients (Aon Benfield and Concord Group)
3- The top requests regarding upload by Agents at the AUGIE meeting were more carriers handling upload, single sign-on, and for the solution we call Interview
2- Novarica surveyed CIOs and worked with Tech Decisions to launch new awards called RAVE and we won for Best Portal and were honorable mention for agency connectivity
1- Congrats to our Dennis Fosberg for scoring his first eagle in golf. Dennis is pictured with Joe Feo of Selective.
AgencyConnect Now Supports Agent Upload via Appulate
Posted by Mason Power - May 4th, 2010 at 11:05:43 am
The AgencyConnect value proposition continues to expand, with the latest news being that Concord Group Insurance and several independent agents are piloting the use of the quote submission service by Appulate to bridge new policies online for personal auto in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine and homeowners insurance in the same states and Massachusetts.
Appulate is a privately-held company headquartered in Agoura Hills, California which provides a new path for agent to carrier upload for new business quote requests. Independent agents use Appulate software to open ACORD new business submission .pdf forms in their agency management systems and request a quote from Concord Group.
Concord Group licensed AgencyPort’s AgencyConnect interface solution to process inbound quote requests from multiple systems including agency management systems (e.g. Vertafore or Applied Systems), comparative rating systems (e.g. SilverPlume’s PL Rater, or Boston Software’s WinRater/SinglePoint) and now from Appulate. AgencyConnect not only transforms complex agency interface channels into one stream of normalized ACORD XML but also integrates with rating and other systems at Concord to enable a true real-time, round trip experience for the agent.
AgencyConnect processes the policy data sent by Appulate via ACORD XML and applies Concord Group’s underwriting rules to process any automated data corrections or automatically adjust limits to Concord Group’s insurance product specifications. With secure, single sign-on authentication in place, the agent is then presented with a list of any further data errors or missing information so that the agent can finish the whole process in seconds and be bridged into E-Coach, Concord Group’s agent portal for online binding.
From our press release today, “Appulate enables agents and carriers to bypass the traditional upload channel via TransactNow and Transformation Station and we have completed integrations with carriers in the past but none have gone as well as the Concord Group project,” said Jeff Harris of Appulate. “We were glad Concord Group had a proven product on the other end of the data pipe like AgencyConnect and we are really pleased to offer quoting by Concord Group to agency users of Appulate.”
Agency Bulk Export & You
Posted by Mason Power - April 26th, 2010 at 10:04:25 amTo clarify the systems landscape for bulk transfer from agencies to carriers and where our BookSmart product fits here’s a breakdown by agency management system vendor:
Vertafore
Agencies using most versions of most Vertafore agency management systems can create a batch file of the multiple policies in a particular book of business.
The format can be either AL3 with an ACORD XML wrapper or ACORD XML.
The bulk export is then sent to a carrier and carriers with Vertafore’s Transit Server product have the book of business posted to AgencyPort’s Booksmart.
BookSmart breaks down the bulk file to validate and correct the policy data, transform and normalize it for downstream rating and core processing systems, and enable ad hoc user-generated reporting to determine the suitability of the book of business.
Sifting through thousands of records to find the desirable policies previously was inefficient and ineffective. Seven insurance carriers have now demonstrated that using BookSmart saves huge amounts of time and money and greatly enhances the quality of book analysis.
Among our seven installations to date, this bulk export method has proven to be the best method for book rolling.
Should your agents not be able to export in bulk from Vertafore they can create AL3 files for each policy and send them via TransactNow and on to BookSmart, but this requires the agent to pull each and every policy, a less than happy user experience for them.
Applied Systems
While Agents can pull individual policies and upload them via Transformation Station to BookSmart (we have a customer who is finding success here), bulk export as described above is not available and is not on the foreseeable Applied roadmap (due to lack of agent demand). However, we understand from some carriers that Applied covertly supports a method where agents can export in Excel after generating a custom report out of Applied. Talk to us about how we can help carriers process these excel sheets on the other end.
Other agency management systems
None have provided our customers with specifications for their bulk export capabilities. We’re live with single policy upload from many comparative raters and we’re working on Hawksoft and Appulate. If you work at these or at an agency management system vendor, we’d love to hear from you if you can support bulk export.
In general , for any agency system vendor that can export ACORD standard formats – AL3 or XML – BookSmart can pull policies in one by one in through the browser, or in bulk by uploading a zip file. So really, no matter the originating system, as long as you can get the data in ACORD format, you can get it into BookSmart without custom integration work or transport middleware.
Agents Complain about Carrier Technology
Posted by Mason Power - February 23rd, 2010 at 03:02:28 pm
National Underwriter wrote a story about a recent survey of 405 independent insurance agents asking which paints a picture of frustration with carrier technology. The survey was conducted by a Massachusetts consulting firm called Deep Customer Connections and the report is available ($) on their site.
The findings of the survey reinforce the need for AgencyPort’s products and our stated goal to enable easy online distribution for insurance carriers. To explain, let’s take the major findings as covered in National Underwriter’s story:
Issue: “Real-time integration with the agency management systems is an important improvement carriers need to make”
How AgencyPort can help: AgencyConnect integrates more carriers with more agency management systems and more comparative raters for more lines of business in more states than anybody else. AgencyConnect is recognized by Novarica with its top ranking.
Issue: “Standard solutions…elimination of double entry…navigation capabilities that match {agent’s} workflow…{by} connecting technology designers and developers with their agents (customers)”
AP: For 9 years we have built products on top of industry standards and designed them from the perspective of the end-users (agents). To stay current, we recently spent time with agents up and down the Eastern seaboard and published our own findings of what agents like and don’t like with carriers’ technology solutions.
Deep Connections’ survey also points out that beyond technology improvements, agents want to be loved. They want carriers to communicate, train and better support them. This is consistent with the findings of another study, this one by JD Power, about which I blogged recently, including a couple of recent awards won by AgencyPort customers who are seeing agent satisfaction increase after implementing AgencyPortal and AgencyConnect.
Agency Interface: Why AgencyConnect?
Posted by Mason Power - February 4th, 2010 at 06:02:57 pmToday we presented our AgencyConnect solution at an industry event about real-time agency interface.
The upside of the presentation format was explaining to 170 people how we are the most experienced provider in the space with over 40 implementations of AgencyConnect – our software handles multiple formats of inbound messages across disparate systems (e.g. agency management systems, comparative raters) for multiple transaction types (quote, bridging) for many coverage types in many states via all of the transport vehicles (TransactNow, Transformation Station). We do this for individual transactions and for bulk transfer such as for book rolling.
The downside was trying to cram this story into a 6-minute speaking slot.
The result is the slide show below which shows the challenges facing carrier CIOs in navigating a complicated space. AgencyConnect insulates carriers from the current chaos and the inevitable changes coming by normalizing this traffic into one standard ACORD XML output to be integrated with carrier systems such as point of sale, policy administration or rating engines.
Contact us if you would like to leverage our experience and be a leading carrier in the minds of agents who are dying for efficient upload and real-time interface.
170 People talking Insurance Technology
Posted by Mason Power - February 4th, 2010 at 12:02:40 pmAUGIE is the ACORD-User Group Information Exchange (from the website: a forum for ACORD, agents, brokers, insurers, solution providers, and associations to gather information, share ideas and actively shape the future of the insurance industry). AUGIE is holding a regional meeting today.
There is a big crowd here in Tampa to discuss what agents and carriers want from each other (real-time quoting and download). I’ll be tweeting about it for interested parties.
“Once You Go Agile, You Never Go Back”
Posted by Mason Power - January 25th, 2010 at 05:01:32 pmOr so says a fan on the official Agile Manifesto web site (every revolution, even those in project management, needs a good manifesto). (Find good background on the methodology and its manifesto here).
Listening today to a webinar by Camilion about product configuration being a key driver in staying current in today’s market, we picked up on a side comment made by Novarica’s Martina Conlon who was also speaking on the webinar.
Martina said Novarica has seen an increase in the adoption of the agile methodology by carriers, saying “it proves viability through successes early in the process”. AgencyPort uses the agile method and adds a hefty dose of method tailoring in order to suit the project methodology to the needs of the particular client, including the internal methodology adopted by that client or any third party integrators they might hire.
Because of the rapid deployment capabilities of the AgencyPort framework, the agile methodology suits us well. Since many client projects involve changes to policy administration and other core processing systems (i.e. big projects where production environment milestones can be years out), our clients’ master project plan usually calls for AgencyPort deliverables to front-end the plan, thereby driving business ROI early in the process. Using an iterative approach, AgencyPort and the carrier can prioritize these high value business drivers that will get you to production quickly.
While every RFP we see asks about our methodology (e.g. agile versus waterfall), the success of our project delivery is due to the ideals we hold to be all-important (perhaps we need to write the “AgencyPort delivery manifesto”?).
These ideals include honesty (you get the good, the bad and the ugly – we believe this openness instills trust among all parties to a project and this trust drives everyone to a better result); keeping teams intact; rotating the assignments of delivery staff so they are proficient in several areas; having a team with deep domain knowledge (we know ACORD, real-time rating, upload from agency management systems, what makes portals beloved by agents, integrations, comparative raters, etc.); and importantly, we provide a team of interesting and fun people (have you seen them karaoke yet??).
We won a significant new client in December and our project methodology played a big role in their decision-making. Thanks to Martina for confirming what we have seen: an uptick in client demand for our chosen delivery methodology. Have we mentioned that all of our clients will act as a reference??
The Agent Insight Tour: A 2010 Update
Posted by Mason Power - January 22nd, 2010 at 08:01:26 am
Our friends at Insurance Networking News wrote a feature story about our 2009 Agent Insight Tour in their January issue. It’s in print but you can see it online here, although I warn you that the interface is a bit clunky.
The article covers the salient points that agents made loud and clear and in 2010 the situation is much the same as it was in 2009: a mix of pain and progress.
The pain of serving your client with as many quotes as you can while still making a profit on the transaction – not much has changed in 2010. Yesterday we we showed a new colleague from the U.K. how an agent performs an upload, you should have seen her jaw drop.
But as we noted in our Agent Insight Tour report, there is incremental progress being made on many fronts. For instance, we are completing more real-time integrations for carriers (nobody has done more carrier integrations with comparative raters than AgencyPort), we are working with carriers whose agents send them ACORD applications by e-mail to convert these forms into XML, we are helping carriers use our consumer portal to serve consumers who want 24×7 quoting or self-service, all of these are product ideas that came from the 2009 Agent Insight Tour and are becoming a reality in 2010.
We have a few forthcoming announcements about extending the use case for AgencyPortal, we’re breaking new ground. Watch this space.
2009: The Year in Review (Part 2 of 2)
Posted by Mason Power - December 24th, 2009 at 09:12:48 amContinuing the previous post, we wanted to highlight some achievements and fun times we’ve had with clients, these from the latter half of the year:
First, we saw a client sign up for software only and rely entirely on their own staff to implement AgencyPortal. With only standard training and 40 hours of “kickstart” services, this project validated the notion that using the ToolKit could empower clients to decide on using our staff, a third party system integrator or their own staff for part or all of the implementation. On the topic of training, we conducted 5 training classes educating over 20 developers who work for clients and partners. Clients have been demanding this form of empowerment and choice and market feedback places us on the bleeding edge in delivering on the toolkit approach.
This summer, in an effort to impress potential acquiring companies, Steve and Eric beefed up the experience level of the team. One of them, with 35 years in insurance technology, still loves to go out with clients. We are glad to have welcomed Bob Dolan to the team in 2009 and enjoyed his visionary leadership, shown here at a company off-site near our Portsmouth, NH office.
This summer, Hiscox was the first to go live with our CoverIQ solution to normalize inbound premium and exposure data from coverholders to give Hiscox an edge in modeling North American property faster and with cleaner data and by offering its coverholders a better experience in managing bordereau reporting.
Gary Brach, CEO, upon returning in late September from Jackson Hole in time to address the opening session of the User Conference only to waste everyone’s time with a 25-minute description of how elks mate. Getting in deep about the rut and how males lock horns in order to woo the right female, Gary related this mating ritual to the insurance technology space, asking why all vendors couldn’t all just get along. This speech inspires graphic designers in the audience to adapt a famous image of hope to the Gary Elk story (or “GELK” as it has become known).
Before Gary enlightened the audience, AgencyPort management premiered the “Castoff Video” where Curt Stevenson comes the rescue of Gary, Eric & Steve who were lost at sea. See the team, thinking they were gone forever, discuss their regrets and hopes for the insurance technology industry.
This year’s User Conference featured our clients leading most of the sessions, a change that was well-received. To show our appreciation of General Casualty’s Todd Chesbro for volunteering to lead one of the most popular sessions, we let Todd clean up that night’s after-party. Thanks Todd!
We were lucky to have WR Berkley lead conference sessions (and some rousing Bon Jovi karaoke later) and Hartford leading a session about implementing distribution technology in a large enterprise (and dancing lessons that night).
We’re proud to have helped Kemper achieve a Top 10 ranking in INN’s recently-published list of the Top 10 innovations in the use of insurance technology (our BookSmart) for reducing the costs of book rolling by 25%.
This fall we achieved the Gold Ranking for Novarica ACE Rankings for both AgencyPortal (ranking here) and AgencyConnect (ranking here), which are based on client feedback and validate the impact our technology has on driving efficient trading for our clients.
After 9 years of building a business from scratch to having implemented 70+ projects across 53 clients (all of whom still stay with us, buy our other products, come to our conferences and act as references) and building a team of colleagues you’d love to work with, AgencyPort proudly sold itself and the team stays intact as part of the Sword Group.
At our year-end holiday party, four members of the team celebrated their 5-year anniversary with the company, all four are great at their jobs, but also have personal hobbies and interests. In typical AgencyPort fashion, we celebrated these personal interests with the attached magazine covers (were they expecting a gold watch instead?). Marcia Berner was so grateful for her gift that she decided to leave the company. We wish her the best in her new job. Coincidentally to the investigative journalists who published her magazine cover, she’s joining ACORD and yet she denies the allegations implied in her magazine cover…
Thank you for 5 years Marcia, Patrick, Dennis & Norm
Among the many projects with a successful conclusion this year (e.g. Tower Insurance went live for workers comp on our newest product, ProgramIQ), we completed a four-year project for ACIC to transform point of sale for Homeowners and Personal Auto.
Rounding out a strong year for Steve Hauck, where Steve was tapped by Sword to lead all of Sword’s insurance activities in the Americas, was his getting kicked out of his own New York office Christmas party by a bouncer.
2009: The Year in Review (Part 1 of 2)
Posted by Mason Power - December 23rd, 2009 at 08:12:05 amLooking back on 2009, it’s been a year packed with highlights, none bigger than adding more clients to our roster, introducing innovative new products and closing out some significant implementations. Oh yeah, we also sold the business after 9 years.
This post hopefully comes before you’re tired of the retrospective “2009 year in review” specials on tv, and focuses on the achievements we’ve made for our clients and the fun we’ve had with them along the way. Happy Holidays to all.
New clients we added in 2009 include MiddleOak, LUBA, Fireman’s Fund, Lexington, The Hartford, Berkley FinSecure, Harleysville, Safety, Hortica, Western Reserve Group, CompSource and Chubb Specialty. We work for our clients every day and are honored to be chosen by these reputable firms.
In January, an existing client, General Casualty, won a prestigious award judged by analysts Celent. In naming the components of a model carrier based on effective use of technology, General Casualty’s use of AgencyPortal won for “Personal Lines Agency Point of Sale Enhancements”. We were also recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies and Boston Business Journal for its Pacesetter Award.
ACORD’s annual conference in May is our biggest industry event of the year and there were a series of highlights:
ACORD was the end of the Agent Insight Tour where we interviewed 66 independent agencies about using technology to conduct business with carriers. The team of folks on staff who pulled off this feat should be very proud, it was a strategy/R&D home run for us. The tour was also the official launch of this blog.
Penn National won the ACORD innovative implementation award for using the Interview module with AgencyConnect. Continental Western Group won another ACORD award for “Real Time Implementation & Download Implementations” (same link).
Have you seen our matrix of AgencyConnect support for comparative raters, agency management systems etc? Call us, we’ll be happy to show you how far you can reach using one product and one knowledgeable team.
Commerce won INN’s VIP award honorable mention published around the ACORD conference for implementing our AgencyPortal and AgencyConnect for their homeowners’ book.
ACORD was also the official release of AgencyPortal 4.0 which, among other terrific product enhancements, delivered version 1 of our ToolKit. Now clients can build and maintain their web portals easily and without hard-coding. The ToolKit demonstrates our commitment to staying ahead of the competition in delivering multi-channel product distribution solutions to P&C carriers.
You think this is impressive? You should've seen Dennis Fosberg on the dance floor that night.
Later in the week at ACORD we had a client outing to a nearby nightclub where we rubbed shoulders with Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic. Interesting as this was, our clients seemed to talk more about the trip back that night and the exposure they got to our partner Edgewater.