American General Life and Accident Insurance Company

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Data Entry on the Move at AGLA

It's been said, "Good things come in small packages." That certainly turned out to be true when American General Life automated operations for thousands of their agents across dozens of states. Nashville-based AGLA has over 200 offices and nearly 5000 agents, and writes life insurance policies for more than 4 million customers across the country. In 1994, the company recognized the need to replace the paper-based, manual transfer of account data from field agents to headquarters. The existing system was slow, redundant, and seriously prone to error. "What we were looking for," says senior vice president of Information Technology Ed McClure, "was a mobile, electronic office."

AGLA determined that handheld computers, rather than laptops, were the answer. "We wanted something as close as possible to what the agents were used to," says McClure. "We were working with career insurance people, some with as much as 30 years experience. So, instead of forcing them to do a lot of keyboard input, we decided that the best approach would be pen entry."

The team met with half a dozen handheld computer vendors and set up an evaluation grid addressing factors such as cost, maintenance, and ease of use. After rigorous examination, they selected Fujitsu's 325 Point pen tablet PC. They've upgraded twice since then, and are now using Fujitsu's Stylistic pen tablet PC, but the elegance of the solution remains the same.

The handheld Stylistic pen tablet PC is the heart of a complete field kit designed by AGLA in cooperation with their agents. Along with the handheld pen tablet PC, the kit includes a fitted case to hold the pen tablet PC, a portable printer, and materials agents use in their day-to-day activities.