Fulfilling Agent Requests

As part of a strategy to facilitate growth and be more competitive in commercial auto, The Hanover Insurance Group (Worcester, Mass.; $2.6 billion in revenues) is providing its independent agents with an enhanced version of its point-of-sales system -- POS Avenues Commercial Auto system. "In order to further speed the quoting process, agents wanted our POS system to include an easy-to-use automatic quoting capability, enabling them to obtain a quote without having to enter all of the necessary information to issue a policy," relates Will Lee, a technology partner in the commercial lines business.

Starting in June 2005, The Hanover reworked its proprietary underwriting system to redesign the front end with the addition of prefill capabilities, the separation of quotes and issuance, and the paring down of screens from eight to five so agents could obtain quotes within five minutes. After testing the system with a select group of agents, The Hanover provided training to 480 agents prior to the system's release in June 2006. According to David Firstenberg, president of the commercial lines business, feedback has been positive, and, "We fully expect these enhancements will drive significant growth in our commercial auto business."