This blog post contributed by Stephane Risk @ Autoquoter – See if you can drive down the cost of ownership on your vehicle through insurance savings at www.autoquoter.com

Potentially the stoplight of the future – tired of guessing how long it will take for that red light to turn green?  This stoplight has led’s that count down the amount of time you will be stopped for the red light.  Many common first interpretations are that it will cut the guesswork down and allow drivers to speed off at the immediate flip to green.  The true intention however is for the environmentally friendly benefits of being able to turn off your vehicle for a period of time and reduce the amount of fuel you will be burning while sitting idle.

Let’s start with a brief description of what Insurance Agency Software is so we have a good basis for discussion.  Insurance Agency Software is a package of computer programs that help to streamline the business operations of Independent Insurance Agents and the agencies they work for.  Having a strong software package simplifies the day to day tasks around the agency and allows for focus on core business strategies.  There are many advantages to agents that work in agencies running Insurance Agency Software.

The first and most obvious is the benefit of electronic record keeping.  That file folder under your desk works great until that cup of coffee on the desk spills all over it ruining what you had stored inside.  Having all of your customer information saved in a computer programs such as a Comparative Rater, Premium Finance Program or an Agency Management System could alleviate many headaches caused by the unexpected loss of paper records.

The next point to highlight would be efficiency – helping you the agent become more productive.  Whether it is visiting multiple carrier websites or filling out multiple in house forms — any time you have to enter the same information into several sources you’re spending your time doing unnecessary tasks.  Using Insurance Agency Software automation becomes a central focus and the burden of work is transferred from you the agent onto the software that your agency is running.  QuotePro’s battery of Insurance Agency Software all use the ACORD standard for interfacing.

Another advantage is the reporting capabilities that Insurance Agency Software can offer both the agent and the agency.  Agents are able to follow their leads and track where they come from, what rating territories are “hot right now” and other sales statistics can highlight interesting sales trends.  Agencies gain the benefit of seeing which agents are selling more policies and which carriers are providing the best commission dollars.  The advanced reporting capabilities found in QuotePro’s software packages can really help to improve your close ratios with the carriers.

• Allowing independent insurance agency staff to be trained on a single comparative rating workflow rather than several carrier interfaces that all gather the same insurance rating risk information.
• Enhancement to an insurance agency’s professional image by having one standard web based comparative rater or pc based comparative rater for all of the insurance rating needs.
• Increased revenue for independent insurance agency owners by way of freeing up CSR time for new sales recruiting. No more bouncing from insurance carrier site to insurance carrier site, the comparative rating software will handle all of that for your CSR.
• Customer service becomes easier as all current policy information is available at the fingertips of the CSR

Comparative rating software will apply carrier underwriting rules, surcharges and discounts on the insurance risk during rating.   Comparative rating software is readily available in two forms of computer software.  PC Based Comparative Rating software which is a computer application locally installed on a computer.  Web Based Comparative Rating software is accessible on the internet via a computer web browser.  A Comparative Rater is a software tool useful to both Independent Insurance Agents and Personal Property Casualty Carriers for use in rating insurance risks.