Call for Single Entry

For many years the independent insurance distribution system has longed for a single entry multiple company interface to compete more effectively with direct distribution. The independent system brings many valuable assets to the insurer. Customer knowledge, quality and loyalty, product knowledge, market selection, and professional representation are just a few of the advantages that this form of distribution offers.

The one area that the industry has been working to improve is in technology and the delivery of information, and product. CSIO has worked diligently to achieve this goal and has, especially over the last year, made great strides towards completion.

“E” revolution

The new technology that is overtaking the business world is e-business. Huge strides have been made through the Internet, and the insurance industry is no different than any other business trying to take advantage of the web. Unfortunately, most of the incredible development that has been done is on an individual basis requiring the broker to update files on the individual company’s system, while requiring a second entry to update the brokers’ files. The advancement of the Internet is certainly a step forward to the SEMCI solution, however, having to know several different systems and the fact that multiple entries must be made, appears to be a step back in time.

Single entry

The independent broker system depends on its ability to transact with several markets. To do this in the most cost effective manner, we must be able to deal with each of those markets by a single entry while updating our own records at the same time. We also need to be able to make these entries on a common screen that will update the appropriate company from a single source.

We all realize that to be successful in a very competitive market, we need to reduce expenses. One expense that can be affected is the cost of handling information. Effective electronic communication helps to reduce that cost, however unless that communication is through a single entry system, it is no longer cost reduction, but cost transference.

In some ways our industry is languishing in the stone age of technology, yet in other ways we are surging forward to the space age. We must continue to grow in a way that allows us to communicate with as many of our markets as possible with a common method while ensuring that whatever information we send is also maintained on our own system.

By Ken Orr, president of the IBAO for the 1999/2000 term