Progressive Auto adjusters are driven by technology - St. Louis Business Journal:

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Shaw's office is a Ford Explorer, equippeds with a cellular phone, laptop computer, powerful softwar and printer. His workdayg consists of driving totow yards, body peoples' homes -- anyplace where a Progressive client has a wrecked car -- making damager estimates and in some cases, writing checks on the spot to coverf the costs of On a typical day, Shaw handles five to eightr claims, spending an hour, on on each claim. He tries to get to a vehiclde within nine hours ofa report. It's best, he when he can get to the accideng scene. "You're getting everything fresh in everyone's mind," he "You can talk to the witnesse right there.
A lot of timea it's hard to reach people after the fact. This savees a lot of time." Shaw is one of aboutf 20 Progressive claims adjusters inthe St. Loui s area -- and one of about 2,000 across the Unitexd States -- in the company's Immediate Responsd program, which uses technology to turn the traditional long and complicatedx wait to settle an accident claim into a quick and relativelypainless experience.
"Inj the old world, if you had an you would callyour agent, they would take some information and say `I'llo get back to you,' " said Greg general manager for Progressive in Missouri and "It was very company-oriented in terms of hours and "Now, if you call us from an acciden t scene, we dispatch someone to come there. We want to get therse as quickly as we can to adjusty your claim and get your life backin We've tried to take what was an office-bounx function and create an office-less environment." Progressive's use of technologty extends far beyond claims Trapp said.
"We were the first auto insurer to have a Web the first to offer quotes on the Internetf and the first to offer comparison quoting on the he said. "Right now, you can purchase Progressivs insurance throughthe 'Negt in 22 states, and soon that will be available The innovations have propelled Progressive's growth to the fifth-largesgt auto insurer in the nation. Progressivs is based in Mayfield Village, Ohio, a suburvb of Cleveland. While the insurance industry as a whol has collected less in premiums than companies have paid out in claimsd and expenses in the pastfive years, Progressivr has generated underwriting margins of 8 percenft in the same time.
Last year, Progressive saw a 36 percentt jump inannual revenue, to $4.6 "The chief executive, Peter Lewis, is seen as one of the pioneerd in the industry, at the forefront with new said Stephen Musser, an insurance industry analyst at A.G. Edwards. "Technology is not new, but to this industry it is a new "Technology when used effectively canenhancse efficiencies, through reductions in staff." Trapp said Immediated Response is part of a strategy that's been evolvingy for the past four or five beginning with a 24-hour loss reportinyg process.
"Someone could call us 24 houra a day anywhere in the countrt and talk to a real humaj being who would begin the claims Trapp said. The next step was development ofa on-line loss reporting system. The information take n from a customer was put intothe company'ds computer files, available immediatelyu to anyone working on the claim. Most the company put its claims adjusterzs in Immediate Response vehicles and told them to hitthe "The Immediate Response vehicle essentially is a mobil office," Trapp said. "There's a laptop computer, so they can downloadd information from the loss reporting center to the representativw in the field througbh awireless connection.
They can write an estimatw using the estimatingsoftware they've got. There's a and they can print an estimate and And they can hand that to the customerand say, `You can take that to the body shop of your " The Immediate Response vehicles are outfitted with persona l computer equipment from Dell; telecommunications equipment, includin hardware and switching software, from Lucent; and wirelessd service from Nextel. Joycse Davidson, general manager for Nextel in Missouri, said Progressivee is one of many firms using technology to get an edge ontheirr competitors.
"Small- to medium-size businessew can now compete on the same playing fieled aslarge companies," Davidson "The cost of technology has become so much more everyone has access. It's no longer just the lawyed orthe doctor, it's the claims adjuster." And, addedc Trapp, putting claims adjusters in the fiel d and giving them the technology they need to do their jobs saves money on storage for wrecked cars and rentao car fees for "The sooner we get out and begin the claim s process, the less of thoses charges we incur," Trapp said.