AUGIE Set To Survey Agents On Tech

Orlando

Following a closed-door meeting held during the ASCnet16^th Annual Education Conference here, the ACORD UserGroup Information Exchange (AUGIE) announced that in December itwill initiate a survey of insurance agents to determine theirtechnology wants and needs.

The announcement came at a press conference staged after theAUGIE meeting. The meeting itself, to which NationalUnderwriter had originally been invited, was closed to themedia only days before it was to take place.

AUGIE consists of agency management systems user groups, vendorsand carriers.

According to Gregory Maciag, president of Pearl River,N.Y.-based ACORD, “The purpose of AUGIE is to gather information,share ideas and play an active role in setting an agenda forworking together. Equally important, the group will partner withACORD and our membersinsurers, vendors and associationsto shape thefuture of e-commerce for the insurance industry.”

At the press conference, Rick Gilman, vice president of ACORD,said the AUGIE group began working on the survey questions in Aprilof this year, soliciting questions from some 500 vendors andcarriers “asking what would they want to ask agents if they had achance.”

The group got back nearly 200 suggested questions to agents,then narrowed the list down to 30 questions during a meeting inJune, Mr. Gilman said. It then brought in “a market research firm”to develop an online survey based on those questions.

That online survey, in turn, was sent to “a select group” of 175agents whose names had been submitted by the member user groups,Mr. Gilman explained. That effort brought back 80-plus responsesthat are being used to “validate” the questions.

“This is not meant to be statistically significant,” he noted.The idea, he added, is to develop a “comprehensive survey that willbring valuable information to AUGIE participants.”

At the beginning of December, AUGIE will launch its finely tunedonline survey, which will be followed by focus groups, Mr. Gilmansaid.

“We would love to have the survey completed by the end ofDecember,” he added. This would be followed by “public release” ofa report on the results “in February.”

But another AUGIE participantPaul Pruett, vice president,e-business manager, strategic development, for Warren N.J.-basedChubb & Sonwarned that the group might have to push back thattimetable in order to “get it right.”

Mr. Maciag agreed, noting that “Were all making very expensivedecisions. There [are] too many generalizations out there. We needreally good data. If we dont get this one right, actually, weredead in the water.”

Another press conference participant, Michael B. Hofmeister,president of the Columbus, Ohio-based National Association of SISPartner Agents, emphasized that “the survey is one step. We have tovalidate AUGIE.”

Asked about what the next step for the group will be, ASCnetPresident Dana Nulty-Beals replied: “We dont know. The [survey]results will prioritize what we do next.”

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property &Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, November 5, 2001.Copyright 2001 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.

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