This year’s Insurance Advisors’ Report Card shows any technology news is good news for the advisors at the firms surveyed in 2004.
There were noticeable gains in the average ratings for the categories of front-office technology and Web tools for advisors.
There were also smaller gains in the average ratings for quotation and illustration systems and underwriting policy systems.
The average rating for front-office technology rose to 8.0, a 1.3- percentage point increase over last year’s results. Insurance advisors also rated their corporate Web tools a solid half-point higher than in 2003, for a score of 7.8.
That increase is led by significant gains at Great-West Life Assurance Co., at which the front-office rating jumped by 2.2 points to 7.3. One Great-West Life agent on the East Coast cites “technological improvements” as one of the firm’s best aspects. Asked about the importance of technology improvements by the firm, a Great-West Life agent in Alberta replies: “[They’re] doing it right now.”
But Toronto-based Equinox Financial Group Inc. is the real leader in this category. “Technology is key with Equinox” is how an agent in Ontario puts it.
“It’s unreal,” echoes an agent in British Columbia.
Not only did Equinox show the greatest gains, with an impressive 2.5-point increase over last year’s ratings, but its technology earned the company two of its nine first-place finishes. “It’s well ahead of the competition,” says a Western Canadian Equinox agent. Its front office is rated 8.9, and Equinox Web tools are given an 8.6. An Equinox advisor in the Prairies rates the front office “a high nine,” explaining that: “I never give a 10. There’s always room for improvement.”
Equinox’s general manager, Daniel Dessurealt, says in the past year the company has introduced online commission statements and electronic transfer of payments to advisors’ bank accounts. “It saves the agency a lot of manual processing of paper and cheques,” he adds, “and therefore makes their lives easier, gets them their money faster, they can look up their commission statement at any time and they’ll always be up to date.”
As part of this year’s survey, we asked insurance advisors to rate — on a scale of one to 10, with 10 indicating high importance — how important it is for their firms to focus on upgrading technology in the coming year (see table). The agents we surveyed put their ratings into perspective. “It gets out of date so fast,” says an Equinox advisor in Vancouver.
“I think it should just keep up what it’s doing and it’ll be fine,” adds another advisor in B.C. That seems to be the general feeling among agents. As long as firms carry out their current improvement plans, satisfaction with technology will stay high. Advisors appreciate the emphasis on Web improvements. According to one Toronto-based independent agent: “I’d like to see more online.”
Attuned to advisors
More online is what State Farm Canada agents will be getting. Although the company didn’t lead the technology categories, it did earn a second-place score. It can credit its success to staying in tune with advisors’ needs with its ongoing technology plan. As Bob Cooke, senior vice president and CEO of Toronto-based State Farm, says: “About every three years we improve and upgrade the technological base of the various different departments of the company.
They’re all on a three-year cycle.”
He says this year’s goal is expanding current online application processing to handle a larger amount of the company processes.
Advisors can look forward to more comprehensive Web advances at Great-West Life, as well. In August, agents will have a new Web site with more comprehensive tools, including sales ideas,
product information, access to client information and the ability to produce customized reports.
Despite modest gains this year in technology categories, it appears more work is needed at The Co-operators Group Ltd. Speaking about front-office technology, one Co-operators advisor in Ontario says the company has gone from a three to a six: “It’s getting better. It’s a slow-turning wheel.”
According to Guelph, Ont.-based Co-operators’ director of agency, Jim Wingrove, the wheel is starting to turn faster. “From a technology perspective, it’s been a big year,” he says. “Over the past six months, we’ve been rolling out a Windows platform. As a consequence, we’ve been able to deliver some updated tools. Now [that] we’re finally off this OS2 platform, it will hopefully allow us to take advantage of other opportunities.”