Dear Agent,

Four years ago, some 9,000 of your fellow independent agency professionals voiced opinions on technology issues affecting their operations. Perhaps you were one of those agents or CSRs who shared ideas as part of the AUGIE (the ACORD-User Groups Information Exchange) Agency Technology Survey.

The online survey sought answers to many questions that carriers and vendors were asking about agency technology needs. The response was amazing – and much of the progress in agency technology and related workflows stemmed from what agents shared in 2002. Here are some of the focused strategies you helped bring about:

• Dramatic improvements to commercial lines download;
• More real-time rating through management systems and comparative raters;
• Practical real-time transactions, including policy, claims and billing inquiry;
• Increased "ease of doing business" with carriers; and
• Enhanced communication between agents, vendors, carriers and associations.

Our user group is an active participant in AUGIE, and we wholeheartedly support the survey. We want to make sure all agents – including our members – take part. The Survey is available now through March 1, 2006 at www.augiesurvey.org. For more information, go to http://www.acordadvantage.org/augie/index.aspx or http://www.acordadvantage.org/augie/survey.aspx

Results will be announced in May at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum, in Las Vegas, NV www.acordlomaforum.org in time for carriers and vendors to plan for 2007 and beyond.

Please take time to complete it, and encourage every member of your staff to do so. It should take less than 45 minutes to finish – a modest time investment compared with the impact it could have.

Please don’t pass up this opportunity to make your voice heard.

Sincerely,

Ron Binning

President of NASPA

National Associations of SIS Partner Users