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AUGIE Rebranded - Associations & User Groups Information Exchange
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On October 4th a release was sent out to the industry that AUGIE was rebranded as the Associations & User Groups Information Exchange. The rebranded AUGIE is governed by an Executive Council, comprised of representatives from the national associations and national agency management system user groups as follows:
- AAMGA
- Applied Client Network
- Hawksoft UG
- IIABA/ACT
- NetVU
- NeXsure
- Partner XE
- PIA
- We are seeking support from the CIAB and NASLO
AUGIE is led by a Chair, Jim Armitage and Vice Chair, Mike Skeele, for a term that ends in December 2017. Cal Durland will provide administration support.
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AUGIE Priorities
AUGIE is currently in the process of updating its mission statement. The individuals who attended the face to face meeting on November 1st asked that our vision include assisting the independent agents and brokers in providing the service and digital experience their clients expect. If you have an opinion on what should be included in the mission, please respond to this email.
AUGIE will be focusing on three priorities:
- eDocs and Messages
- Commercial Lines Pairs
- Claims Download
All of the above assist the independent agency distribution channel in acquiring quality data that will be used by the agency and ultimately their insurance clients.
AUGIE is successful when everyone works together. Specifically, the agents/brokers, carriers and solution providers. Thus AUGIE encourages all who are interested to actively participate. Those who participate are considered members of AUGIE, and there is no fee to be a member of AUGIE. AUGIE will rely on donations and sponsors to cover its annual expenses.
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Monthly Calls and Rebranding Status
Starting in January 2017, AUGIE will hold one open call on the second Tuesday of the month, at 3:00 PM ET. If an issue or opportunity arises that needs the attention of the Executive Council, a separate call will be scheduled.
or respond to this email to request the calendar invitation.
The Executive Council is in the process of updating the AUGIE General Reference Guide and establishing AUGIE's budget for 2017. We will continue to use Constant Contact for our communications and have established a Gmail account,
AUGIEDigitalAdvocacy@gmail.com for you to contact us.
We are investigating using Facebook for shared documents that are being drafted by the AUGIE task groups. We will use AUGIE's LinkedIn Group for discussions that need industry feedback and communications. The AUGIE twitter account will also be used for communications. Please confirm that you are following us on these social networks.
- LinkedIn - Associations & User Group Information Exchange (AUGIE)
- Twitter - @AUGIE_DigitalA&B
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Measurements of Success
AUGIE will be measuring its success and communicating its progress to the industry. The rebranded AUGIE succeeds when
- 27,000+ agency automation contacts are identified and using IVANS Exchange to communicate with their agency management and solution provider partners.
- 300 + carriers are providing connectivity, download, real time, rating through the agency management systems
- All the agency management systems provide download, real time, rating and the ability for the agents to service their clients on a 24x7 basis through an agency portal.
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More on AUGIE Goals
AUGIE's overall goal is to assist the agents and brokers in understanding the value of providing 24 x 7 service to their clients through the resources available to them. This includes full use of their agency management system and the solutions available to them to provide mobile ready service to their industry clients directly from their agency or brokerage. AUGIE is working on the following three priorities,
eDocs and Messages, Commercial Lines Pairs and Claims Download because there is still substantial opportunity to assist the agents and brokers in accessing quality data within their agency management systems.
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eDocs and Messages
eDocs and Messages is a form of download that pushes a PDF or a message from the carrier system directly to the agency system. It allows carriers to systematically send to their agencies a variety of messages and documents using existing download services. This is a secure and managed alternative to email, mail and fax.
This task group is identifying opportunities to assist the carriers and solution providers with implementing this technology. It is also developing business use cases to assist agents in understanding why they should use eDocs and messages.
Co-Chairs: Brian Bartosh and Susan Labarre
Vice-Chairs: Mark Harrison and Jim Rogers
Task Group Scope:
To provide content that will assist the industry in understanding:
- The benefit of eDocs and Messages to the overall industry
- What eDocs and Messages are and how they support the agent/brokers business.
- How the availability of eDocs and Messages streamlines processes and provides the agency with information that may be used to service their clients
- Where the carriers and solution providers may find technical implementation assistance
- Why assisting the industry with education on eDocs and Messages will assist agents and brokers in providing their clients with excellent service and the digital experience they expect.
- Recommend changes to the ACORD eDocs & Messages specification and implementation guide to improve carrier implementations and overall agent experience
Time Commitment:
Monthly or Semi-Monthly conference calls based on communicated agenda
Measurement of success:
- Increased adoption by both carriers and agents
- Reduction in time agencies spend handling and managing paper & emails
Target completion date:
Q4 2017
If you would like to volunteer for this task, please reply to this email.
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Commercial Lines Pairs
Commercial download provides the agents with the ability to synchronize the commercial policy data that is in the carrier's system with the data in the agency's system.
This task group is encouraging agencies, who believe in the value of commercial lines download, or who are now starting to utilize commercial lines download, to document the facts of what they have learned. They do this by documenting onto an excel information about a specific carrier's download as compared to their client's declaration page. This excel is then available to other agents who will be downloading with that carrier through that agency management system.
Co-Chairs: Carl Schlotman and Jim Bany
Task Group Scope:
To provide documentation for agents to use who are starting to do commercial lines download with a carrier through their agency management system. The documentation will include information
- On the value of commercial lines download
- on what the agent will find in the download
- on what the agency will or will not find, with a recommendation on how to handle it
- about who to contact, if they have questions or issues
- that assists the industry with education on commercial lines download and why an agency benefits by having quality data to provide their clients with excellent service, including the information that clients want when and where they want it.
- On the enhancement requests that are sent to the agency management systems
Time Commitment:
Monthly or Semi-Monthly conference calls based on communicated agenda
Measurement of success:
Working on securing current baseline data
Target completion date:
TBD
If you would like to volunteer for this task, please reply to this email.
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Claims Download, inquiry, eDocs & Messages
There are a number of services available to agents today to secure information to assist their client with a claim.
This task group will work on identifying what is needed to assist agents, carriers and solution providers in understanding, implementing and realizing the return in their investment of offering and using these services.
Co Chair(s): Joyce Sigler and ??? (volunteer needed)
Task Group Scope:
(NOTE, we will fine tune this scope once the co-chairs are identified) To provide documentation to assist the industry in realizing the value of claims download. To help all to understand the difference between Claims Inquiry and Download. To show the value of having data, documents and status updates delivered directly to the agency management systems. The documentation will include:
- Education on why the agency/brokerage should be an advocate for their client's claim
- What an agent will learn in an inquiry versus what data could be delivered to their agency management system.
- Why carriers should do more than download the data using the CLI code.
- How the agency's involvement in the claim has assisted in retaining the client?
- How the Claims Download and eDocs & Messages download provide the agent with valuable information?
Time Commitment:
Monthly or Semi-Monthly conference calls based on communicated agenda
Measurement of success:
Working on securing current baseline data
Target completion date:
Q4 2017
If you would like to volunteer for this task, please reply to this email.
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