From: ACORD/LOMA Conference: Agents Realize Savings from Real-Time Connectivity Products

Vertafore, a leading provider of software and information to the insurance industry, at the ACORD/LOMA Conference in Las Vegas announced that its agent-carrier connectivity products, TransactNOW, PL Rating and Sircon, have facilitated more than 10.8 million real-time transactions so far in 2010 -- a 56-percent increase over the same period of time in 2009. Vertafore's connectivity solutions enable its agency customers to connect with carriers and MGAs in real time, which has resulted in approximately 700,000 hours of time saved, and $20 million in costs saved, to date in 2010.

Source: Source: Vertafore | Published on May 25, 2010

“As an independent agent, I represent 25 personal lines carriers. In order to provide the best possible service to my customers, we include anywhere from 10 to 15 carriers per quote,” said Mike Foy of Foy Insurance Group, Inc. “By using Vertafore’s rating and connectivity solutions, I’m able to save the equivalent of five full-time employees over the time it would have taken us to do the same number of carrier quotes directly on their websites.”

In support of the industry’s real-time initiative and campaign, Vertafore’s connectivity solutions help carriers and MGAs with a major challenge: efficiently integrating with hundreds of thousands of desktops that use agency management and comparative quoting solutions available from Vertafore and other vendors. TransactNOW supports a multitude of transactions, including billing inquiry, claims inquiry, policy view inquiry and endorsement and quote requests for both personal and commercial lines. PL Rating is a comprehensive and easy-to-use multi-carrier, real-time comparative rating application that dramatically reduces hours spent navigating and rekeying redundant data on carrier websites, empowering producers and CSRs to do what they do best—sell insurance. Sircon streamlines complex agent licensing, appointing and other compliance-related transactions through an intuitive online service that links carriers, agencies, producers, CE providers and state regulators.

“Real-time connectivity is all about productivity and time savings for agents. Carriers participating in this industry revolution are providing their sales channel with an easier way of accessing their products directly through the systems agents use every day to write new business and service clients,” said Dave Acker, vice president of connectivity at Vertafore. “We’re seeing this tremendous growth in all of our products because of greater agency adoption and support of the industry’s effort to drive efficiencies into the independent insurance channel. Carrier adoption of ACORD XML industry standards for web services allows Vertafore to drive new, more accurate carrier functionality to market faster, which contributes to accelerated growth.”

For more information about Vertafore connectivity solutions, visit www.vertafore.com. To learn how Vertafore is driving real-time adoption through TransactNOW and PL Rating training sessions, e-mail connectivity@vertafore.com.

For information about the industry’s Real Time/Download Campaign and industry standards, visit www.getrealtime.org or www.acord.org.

About Vertafore
Vertafore is the leading provider of software, services, and information to the insurance distribution channel including independent agents, brokers, MGAs, carriers and reinsurers. Vertafore leverages a unique industry presence to deliver meaningful solutions - powerful technology, critical information and robust insights to help organizations effectively respond to business challenges and capture new opportunities. Vertafore solutions have helped more than 17,000 customers and 200,000 users gain a competitive advantage to accelerate their business performance. F