An independent agent’s value proposition is simple: providing trusted advice and dedicated customer service within a community. At its best, technology expands consumer connection to that advice, as well as the definition of “community.”

But at the average independent agency, not everything on the tech wish list is always within financial reach.

IA asked three independent agents what they wish they could afford if they had more wiggle room in their tech budget. Here’s what they had to say:

Greater speed. “Pie in the sky, I would say we would be able to devote unlimited funds to fixing everything, having the best of the best and having such a large staff that we could process any incoming tickets within minutes vs. hours and days and weeks,” says Tania Bengtsson, principal and director of marketing and innovation at Gibson, headquartered in South Bend, Indiana.

Separate accounting system. “Right now, we utilize our agency management system as our accounting software,” says Ron Turpin, principal and CFO of Gibson. “It’s OK, but we’re growing rapidly and it’s not the best solution for us. Financial software’s not cheap, but it’s also not broken, so there are other things we have to devote resources to right now.”

“When you ask what the ROI on something like that might be, it’s pretty hard to calculate because there’s not a sale attached to it,” Bengtsson adds. “But there is efficiency, and that comes back to how are you making your decisions and how are you prioritizing?”

Workflow tracking. “I would love to have the ability to track the workflow of the agents in the office and know when a document comes in, how long it takes from entry to completion,” says George Robertson, principal at Rockingham Insurance in Eden, North Carolina. “It would really be advantageous to be able to track that through the carriers as well, so if you did a change request you could track exactly where it was in the process. There are systems out there that do that today, but they’re outside our budget.”

Online coverage binding—through the agency. “I would love to build a site for our clients where they could bind their coverage online for automobile,” Robertson says. “When somebody comes in, they rate with 8-12 different carriers and pick the one they want, and when we go to bind it, we have to bridge over to the carrier side. Now I have to train all five staff on 12 different interfaces. Why not create one interface and let the back end do all the work?”

Jacquelyn Connelly is IA senior editor.