BOSTON, MA, April 25, 2007 After engaging with AgencyPort Insurance Services to provide front-end capabilities to a major corporate IT initiative, the Arbella Insurance Group has realized significant increases in the efficiency of the online processing of those submissions.

“Seeking a competitive advantage from technology, Arbella chose AgencyPort to help them enable their independent agents to transact business with Arbella seamlessly over the Internet,” says Steven Hauck, President of AgencyPort Insurance Services, a leading provider of agent portals and interface solutions to property and casualty insurers. “Arbella was able to use the unique combination of our AgencyPortal™ and AgencyConnect™ products to bridge the complex gap between their agents’ agency management systems and Arbella’s website, Arbella.com. Agents can now transfer policy data directly from several leading agency management systems to Arbella, where the AgencyConnect™ solution pre-populates and launches the AgencyPortal™ application framework within Arbella.com. This functionality allows Arbella’s agents to obtain quotes and electronically submit new business and endorsements quickly and easily.”

By leveraging AgencyPortal’s pre-built ACORD applications, Arbella launched its new capabilities on Arbella.com. The lines of business include Homeowners, Personal Umbrella, Dwelling Fire, Commercial Auto, Personal Auto, BOP and Workers Compensation. Given its initial success with the solution, Arbella plans to roll out additional lines in the near future.

“After relying on AgencyPort for assistance with the initial implementation, Arbella now feels confident to roll out future lines of business with only minimal services from AgencyPort,” notes Chris Steward, Arbella’s CIO. “With our agent portal, over 70% of our new business and endorsement transactions for our largest line of business are now electronically submitted by our agents and processed untouched by human hand. The net result is greatly improved effectiveness in terms of data quality, and also a much more efficient process --and hence lower expense – enjoyed by both our partner agents and Arbella.”

“Our agency staff has nothing but great things to say about the new process”, comments Gary Milliken, President of Harrington Insurance Agency, LLC. “This new process should definitely improve efficiency and data quality for both Arbella and its agencies. We sincerely appreciate the commitment that Arbella has made to improve their agency/carrier interface. This is another terrific tool for agents and makes it easier to do business with Arbella.”