The Allstate Corporation, the nation’s largest publicly held
personal lines insurer, made a statement at the Collision Industry Conference (CIC) meeting in November during a panel discussion devoted to two-way communication. The panel, compromised of several insurers and one representative from the collision repair industry, was moderated by the CIC Estimating Committee. The statement was in support of the industry’s efforts to establish two-way communication between like estimating systems. This entails asking the industry information providers to allow for the ability of one or more service providers—regardless of whether they are in a DRP relationship—to electronically transmit and receive estimate-related information. *
“The discussions that ensued at that panel were lively and fast-paced, and we thought the Allstate
position may have received less attention than it deserved,” explains Tom Moreland, SCRS Vice
Chairman. “It was a significant announcement by an industry partner and, therefore, should be noted.”
In order to ensure that the message is understood, Dan Risley, SCRS Executive Director, contacted Mike Condon, Senior Manager Property Casualty for Allstate Insurance Company. Mike made the following points:
- Allstate supports this capability subject to legal, privacy and security issues being resolved.
- This capability is a necessary, evolutionary step towards electronic communications with all
trading partners, not just DRP partners.
- Allstate will likely require this capability in any future consideration of any estimating system.
SCRS commends Allstate for lending its’ voice to the advancement of non-exclusive, two-way communication, and expects that the company’s statement will help drive the development of fair, efficient solutions to meet this goal. “Allstate’s statement clearly indicates how tremendously important the ability to transfer this data is to all industry segments,” says Moreland. “We’re pleased to see
insurers and collision repairers uniting their efforts for the betterment of all, because ‘Working Together
Is The Most Important Work We Do.’”
