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Prudential Insurance is investing $100 mil to bring Toshiba laptop computers and advanced networking solutions to its agents through a program called Prudential Launch Pad, Prudential Insurance is investing $100 mil to bring Toshiba laptop computers and advanced networking solutions to its agents.

The move is meant to boost agent productivity and to standardize technology across the company. The move includes Toshiba laptop memory and will involve the firm's more than 12,000 agents and field representatives. Prudential took the first steps of this initiative in 5/97, along with consultant International Business Machines Corp. After a successful six-month pilot involving nearly 500 Prudential agents and managers, Prudential is rolling out the program over the next year to all of its agents and field representatives.

Prudential Launch Pad will enable agents to access Prudential systems for managing contact with clients, analyzing customer needs, sales illustrations, marketing brochures and other materials. Prudential is working closely with IBM in developing and rolling out the initiative, and IBM is providing most of the training. At least 30 trainers are involved in the project and more than 200 individuals had taken part in the overall project as of mid-6/98.

In a major effort to increase agent productivity and to standardize technology across the company, Prudential Insurance Co. of America Inc. is investing $100 million to bring laptop computers and advanced networking solutions, including Internet technology, to its more than 12,000 agents and field representatives. Plagued by disparate hardware and software standards, limited agent access to key information and lack of communication between agents and management, the Newark, N.J.-based insurance giant took the first steps of this initiative last May, along with consultant International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.

Following a successful six-month pilot involving nearly 500 Prudential agents and managers, Prudential is rolling out the program over the next year to all of its agents and field representatives.

"This is the first time agents will be able to access information," says vice president, field technology, Prudential. "It will make a huge difference in the way they do business."

The program, dubbed Prudential LaunchPad, will enable agents to access Prudential systems for managing contact with clients, analyzing customer needs, sales illustrations, marketing brochures and other materials. The technology will also give agents access to insurance forms and information, such as an encyclopedia of insurance terms, in various Prudential databases.Agents will also have access to e-mail and will be able to complete policy applications at the point of sale.

Among the benefits Prudential hopes to achieve with the initiative are increased agent sales and productivity, improved customer service and a streamlined insurance writing process. "We're really getting to transaction-oriented architecture," says practice leader for systems management and network services, consulting practice, the IBM Global Network.

The Prudential field project began more than a year ago when the insurer determined it needed to streamline the hodgepodge of hardware and software its agents use to transact business. At the time, Prudential agents were essentially on their own when it came to the kind of computer equipment they used, says the practice leader.

Although Prudential's home office suggested hardware and software standards to agents, the agents often ignored those suggestions. Moreover, because agents paid for their own computer equipment and were often technologically unsophisticated, technology upgrading often took a back seat.