Patent Issued for Agency business planning tool (USPTO 11954632): Allstate Insurance Company

2024 MAY 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Price, Mark (Chicago, IL, US), Zic, Dennis (Wood Dale, IL, US), filed on November 12, 2020, was published online on April 9, 2024.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11954632 is Allstate Insurance Company (Northbrook, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Businesses and agencies are continuously searching for ways to operate more efficiently. Agencies, such as insurance agencies, want to maximize their resources while keeping costs low. However, these agencies lack the tools able to efficiently monitor financial data and offer areas where they may operate more efficiently. This disclosure describes various aspects of a tool to help agencies optimize their resources.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The following presents a simplified summary of the present disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the disclosure. This summary is not an extensive overview of the disclosure. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements of the disclosure or to delineate the scope of the disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.

“Certain aspects disclose a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform steps comprising: calculating a total number of leads generated by an agency; determining a total producer capacity, wherein the determining takes into account a monthly capacity per producer and a total number of producers; analyzing the total producer capacity and the total number of leads generated to determine a total number of leads utilized; calculating a new business commission earned based on the total number of leads utilized and a plurality of conversion factors, wherein the conversion factors comprise a quote ratio, a close ratio, average items per policy, average premiums per policy and a commission rate

“Certain other aspects disclose a method comprising: calculating, by a processor, a total number of leads generated by an agency; determining, by the processor, a total producer capacity, wherein the determining takes into account a monthly capacity per producer and a total number of producers; analyzing, by the processor, the total producer capacity and the total number of leads generated to determine a total number of leads utilized; calculating, the processor, a new business commission earned based on the total number of leads utilized and various conversion factors, wherein the conversion factors comprise a quote ratio, a close ratio, average items per policy, average premiums per policy and a commission rate.

“Further aspects of the disclosure may be provided in a computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer, user terminal, or other apparatus to at least perform one or more of the processes described herein.

“The details of these and other embodiments of the disclosure are set forth in the accompanying drawings and description below. Other features and advantages of aspects of the disclosure will be apparent from the description, drawings, and claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method, comprising: generating an electronic, interactive roadmap interface comprising a plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces, each of the plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces corresponding to a different part of an agency planning process; receiving a selection of a first sub-interface of the plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces; in response to the selection of the first sub-interface, generating a first user input display comprising at least one field; modifying at least one field in a second user input display different from the first user input display, based on input into the at least one field of the first user input display; determining a plurality of agency planning attributes based on the input in the at least one field, wherein the determining the plurality of agency planning attributes comprises: calculating a current financial trajectory based on stored financial data input in the at least one field of the first user input display, wherein the current financial trajectory comprises a projection of future financial data over time; identifying other similar agencies based on gross revenue, number of employees, annual expenses, or annual growth; benchmarking owner agency performance against the other similar agencies, wherein benchmarking owner agency performance comprises comparing, against the other similar agencies, agency owner time commitment, operating expenses, acquisition expenses, retention costs, debt, or total expenses over revenue; and calculating an optimal state for each of the plurality of agency planning attributes based on the current financial trajectory and the benchmarking; displaying a new investment opportunity sub-interface, the new investment opportunity sub-interface indicating one or more business investment options identified based on the optimal state calculated for each of the plurality of agency planning attributes; and displaying a deep dive sub-interface, the deep dive sub-interface comprising a graphical variance analysis of selected expenses of an owner□s agency as compared to other similar agencies.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the new investment opportunity sub-interface includes displaying an investment overview screen portion that includes a display of investment opportunities and retention opportunities.

“3. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the new investment opportunity sub-interface includes displaying an investment overview screen portion that includes a selectable acquisition tab configured to cause display of a marketing investment sub-interface, and wherein the marketing investment sub-interface includes information relating to financial investment impacts, a current state of an agency, a staffing investment, and post-investment information.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: indicating whether the future financial data is within an expected range.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying a progress tracker configured to track completion of each of the plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces.

“6. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the new investment opportunity sub-interface includes displaying an investment retention screen portion that includes a display of retention investment information determined based on at least one of: key agency metrics, content resource commitment, or level of investment needed.

“7. The method of claim 6, wherein displaying the investment retention screen portion includes displaying a trajectory screen portion including projected retention investments based on investments currently made and suggested additional areas of new investment.

“8. An apparatus, comprising: a processor; and memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed, cause the processor to perform steps comprising: generating an electronic, interactive roadmap interface comprising a plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces, each of the plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces corresponding to a different part of an agency planning process; receiving a selection of a first sub-interface of the plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces; in response to the selection of the first sub-interface, generating a first user input display comprising at least one field; modifying at least one field in a second user input display different from the first user input display, based on input into the at least one field of the first user input display; determining a plurality of agency planning attributes based on the input in the at least one field of the first user input display, wherein the determining the plurality of agency planning attributes comprises: calculating a current financial trajectory based on stored financial data input in the at least one field of the first user input display, wherein the current financial trajectory comprises a projection of future financial data over time; identifying other similar agencies based on gross revenue, number of employees, annual expenses, or annual growth; benchmarking owner agency performance against the other similar agencies, wherein benchmarking owner agency performance comprises comparing agency owner time commitment, operating expenses, acquisition expenses, retention costs, debt, or total expenses over revenue; and calculating an optimal state for each of the plurality of agency planning attributes based on the current financial trajectory and the benchmarking; displaying a new business opportunity sub-interface in at least one other field of the second user input display, the new business opportunity sub-interface indicating one or more business investment options identified based on the optimal state calculated for each of the plurality of agency planning attributes; and displaying a deep dive sub-interface, the deep dive sub-interface comprising a graphical variance analysis of selected expenses of an owner□s agency as compared to other similar agencies.

“9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform steps comprising: displaying an investment overview screen portion that includes a display of investment opportunities and retention opportunities.

“10. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform steps comprising: displaying an investment overview screen portion that includes a selectable acquisition tab configured to cause display of a marketing investment sub-interface, wherein the marketing investment sub-interface includes information relating to financial investment impacts, a current state of an agency, a staffing investment, and post-investment information.

“11. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform steps comprising: indicating whether the future financial data is within an expected range.

“12. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform steps comprising: displaying a progress tracker configured to track completion of each of the plurality of separately-selectable sub-interfaces.

“13. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform steps comprising: displaying an investment retention screen portion that includes retention investment information determined based on at least one of: key agency metrics, content resource commitment, or level of investment needed.

“14. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to further perform steps comprising: displaying a trajectory screen portion including projected retention investments based on investments currently made and suggested additional areas of new investment.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: Price, Mark. Agency business planning tool. U.S. Patent Number 11954632, filed November 12, 2020, and published online on April 9, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11954632)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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