Applied Systems backs SEMCI call

About 1,500 Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet) members, guests and staff of the automation vendor converged on Toronto in October for the 15th Annual ASCnet Education Conference. The conference, which is held throughout North America, brings together Applied Systems’ Agency Manager users for education sessions and an annual general meeting and election. Chief among the topics for discussion this year was the future of single-entry, multi-company interface (SEMCI). In a recent letter to members, ASCnet past-president Tom Taylor says, “We encourage ASCnet members to resist accepting company mandates to use proprietary upload. We also encourage insurance companies to develop SEMCI processes that will help both companies and our agent members lower the cost of doing business.”

Taylor points out that proprietary systems, including new Internet-based systems, are “a step backward to a time when agents had a dedicated PC for each carrier and had to learn unique features to input into each one”. Rodger Middleton, president of the network in 1999, and only the second Canadian to hold that position, says interface is a key issue on both sides of the border. “SEMCI is something that has been talked about, dreamed about, wished for…but it’s always ‘going to happen next year’.” The failure of insurance companies to join together on Synchron is belied by the fact that companies are willing to invest in upload/download technology.

Middleton is concerned with the Centre for the Study of Insurance Operations’ (CSIO) plan for web-enabled screens for brokers, which he says does not align with ASCnet’s concept of SEMCI, “because it’s done outside of the broker management system”. Brokers will be doing double-duty, he suggests, if they are expected to take client information from their own systems and manually input it into insurers’ systems. “There’s a conflict between what CSIO is calling SEMCI, and what we’re calling SEMCI.”

Middleton does, however, credit CSIO, and its president, Klaas Westera, for working with American counterparts ACORD to harmonize XML data interchange standards across North America. “That’s a very positive step for CSIO.”

The ASCnet conference was a chance for Applied Systems to familiarize brokers and insurers with its new offerings, the Diamond product for insurers, and Warp, a data interchange system that Middleton says could be “the savior” of brokers. The system would allow data transfer from broker management systems, whether the Agency Manager or another vendor system, to insurance companies. As well, delegates took part in a number of education sessions on a variety of technology and broker-related topics.