PRESS RELEASE

Slocum says real time is key to boost awareness,
hone competitive edge for independent agents

University Park, IL— June 14, 2007— Independent insurance agencies are poised for a major service breakthrough with the proliferation of real-time transactions, says a prominent participant in the industry-wide push to double real-time transaction volume in a year.

“We need to drive the implementation of real time,” says Robert G. Slocum, chair of the Agents Council for Technology (ACT), an affiliate of the Independent Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA). “There’s no technological reason we can’t do what needs to be done to provide the level of service and information that our customers require.”

Slocum’s remarks come in a podcast interview posted today on iTunes and at www.appliedsystems.com as part of the Leadership Series produced by insurance technology vendor Applied Systems, Inc. ACT and Applied Systems are among participants in the industry-wide Real Time/Download Campaign (www.getrealtime.org) launched in April. The campaign aims to increase implementation of real time and download interface technology to dramatically improve customer service and keep independent agents competitive.

“[Real time] is going to save a lot of time, and time is money,” says Slocum, whose Slocum Insurance Agency is in Warwick, Rhode Island. “As anyone who owns an agency knows, we’re squeezed to do more with less. We need to find ways to free up more time so our highly skilled professional people can really be better advisors to the client and less task- and process-oriented.”

Slocum observes that many agents are simply not using the interface capabilities already built into their agency management systems. “It doesn’t cost a penny more than you’re already spending on your agency management system,” Slocum says. “You’ve already made the investment. You have a management system. This is one more way you can take advantage of it.”

Applied Systems, Inc., develops and supports insurance agency management systems and provides services for accounting, customer, policy, claims management, and all related agency functions. More than 126,000 users in 11,000 agencies of every size and complexity level use Applied Systems technology and services. The company leads the industry in agency-carrier real-time and batch communication solutions. Applied Systems automates insurance transactions at every distribution level from consumer through carrier, providing technical support and professional services to maximize customers’ return on investment.