Technology Gives Erie Insurance Eyes In The Field

June 18--ERIE, Pa. -- As a senior risk control consultant with Erie Insurance, it's part of Ron Dietrich's job to visit potential commercial clients to decide if they're suitable to insure.

He's looking for fire hazards, faulty wiring or unsafe conditions of most any kind.

Despite a career that's spanned more than 30 years, he's quick to admit he hasn't seen everything and knows more about some types of businesses than he does others.

That simple reality is one of the reasons Erie-based Erie Insurance has become the first insurance company in the United States to deploy Google Glass to help make quick decisions about who to insure.

But it's not the only reason.

The retirement of millions of baby boomers is expected to leave many industries with jobs to fill. But the insurance industry is expected to be hit harder than most.

Erie Insurance, one of Erie County's two largest employers with about 2,900 Erie-based employees, cites findings from The Institutes, an insurance training provider, that show the share of employees 55 or older is higher in insurance than in any other industry.

What's more, at least 40 percent of high school students say they won't consider a career in the insurance industry.

That reality helped the company decide to buy 10 pairs of Google Glass, a piece of wearable technology, and to begin deploying them across the company's 12-state footprint.

The glasses are being worn by employees like Dietrich, who make field visits to determine if a potential customer can be insured, said Jayashree Ishwar, the company's chief underwriting officer.

"Google Glass wearable technology coupled with you-see-what-I-see video streaming software enables supervisors to provide remote, real-time guidance without having to be physically present at the business," she said.

It's a move that should save time and money, she said.

"If I have the glasses on and I am looking at the plant, you are using a laptop, you see what I see," she said. "You are speaking in my ear. You can give me advice as I walk around."

Dietrich was part of a team that's already tested the concept. In one test, he visited a wood products manufacturer, guided each step of the way by a manager with more knowledge of that industry.

"It's difficult for one person to be an expert on everything," Ishwar said, explaining that it can be expensive and time consuming to deploy the company's top expert in any given situation.

The program was designed to protect the privacy and the proprietary interests of potential customers, she said.

"We do not keep the video feed," she said. "It is destroyed immediately. We want our customers to feel comfortable that we are not going to give away any of their trade secrets."

This initiative is in line with the company's stated intention in recent years to find ways to use technology to reach more people, more efficiently -- without sacrificing human interactions.

When Terry Cavanaugh was named chief executive in 2008, Erie Insurance was a company publicly struggling with its use and adaptation of technology.

In a recent interview, Cavanaugh said those days are behind the company, which has announced pioneering efforts in recent months to deploy both Google Glass and flight drones.

Company officials, including Timothy NeCastro, the company's newly designated CEO, talk frequently about the company's "high-touch" approach to customers that refers to its insistence on human interaction.

The use of Google Glass doesn't change any of that, Ishwar said.

"Google Glass allows us to maintain our high-touch (approach)," she said. "We are not using Google Glass to replace people, we are using it to enable people."

JIM MARTIN can be reached at 870-1668 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNmartin.

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