BOSTON (AP) ? Customers in search of cheap airfare, antiques or a stock trade can scan the Web for good deals. But when it comes time for companies to buy group insurance policies, they've largely been beholden to brokers using fax, e-mail and the telephone to track down the best bargain.

Some industry analysts say an ongoing insurance bid-rigging scandal ? combined with rising health care costs ? will build demand for online bidding on insurance policies.

"This is really about putting the tools into the hands of decision-makers and returning the broker to the role of a trusted adviser, rather than someone who's just placing the money or making the purchase order for you," said Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research, which advises companies on financial and technology issues.

A recent investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has drawn scrutiny of traditional methods corporate clients use to select insurance coverage and renew policies.

Typically, companies entrust brokers who use e-mail, phone calls and faxes to secure bids from insurance carriers, negotiate changes, report back to their customers on the bids and complete deals.

Spitzer accuses brokers of keeping clients in the dark and steering them to carriers who pay brokers the highest fees ? in addition to their commissions ? instead of representing only the clients' interests.

While much of the push for change focuses on how commissions and fees are assessed, industry newcomers who began promoting automated bidding over the past five years say their technology can bypass many of the potential abuses alleged by Spitzer.

Companies like Waltham, Massachusetts-based IE-Engine and San Francisco-based BenefitPoint say their software brings greater efficiency and transparency to the process, enabling corporate clients to track which carriers receive and respond to requests for proposals.

Clients can compare insurance bids side-by-side and track the online process as bids drop in price. Bidding is conducted through secure electronic communications, and the client can record each step of the negotiating process for auditing purposes.

The head of the nation's largest insurance industry group cautiously embraces online bidding.

"Conceptually, it seems to make sense to me," said Robert Rusbuldt, chief executive officer of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. "If you can make the process between the client, the broker and the carrier more efficient, that seems to be good for everybody involved, particularly the consumer."

But technology is not always rapidly embraced.

"Sometimes, industries are slow to adopt technological solutions because so many companies have been burned on systems that ultimately don't prove to be more cost-efficient," Rusbuldt said. "But the industry may naturally gravitate to any system that can show it can create efficiencies."

Creators of online bidding software say they're providing a needed push to a tradition-bound industry.

"We think the only way the industry will get more efficient is if the carriers use this technology, rather than relying on phones, fax machines and paper," said John Randazzo, BenefitPoint's chief executive.

If the industry eliminates some fees and "contingent commissions" ? upfront payments from insurance companies in exchange for having business steered their way ? brokers will lose some revenue and be forced to reduce expenses by becoming more efficient, Rusbuldt said.

But Rusbuldt and executives at IE-Engine and BenefitPoint concede online bidding may never eliminate the need for brokers. Professional advice can help clients sort through variables that make group insurance more complex than individual coverage.

"They need a trusted adviser to help them through that," said Brent Bannerman, a former insurance salesman who founded IE-Engine in 1999.

Wettemann said: "Rather then spending time crunching a lot of numbers, brokers can focus on how various policies fit a client's employee base, the quality of service and health issues. Smart brokers will recognise that this (online bidding) is a way to focus on the higher-margin, more value-added part of their business."

IE-Engine counts nearly 40 of the nation's biggest 1,000 companies on its client list, including Ford, Staples, General Dynamics and Lucent. The 55-employee company also has partnerships with large brokers such as Hilb, Rogal & Hobbs and big consultants such as Watson Wyatt.

BenefitPoint, with 65 employees, says its Aptus program, which helps brokers automate the bidding process, is used by about ten percent of the nation's biggest brokerages. One of those clients, Marsh Inc., is a member of BenefitPoint's broker advisory board and is the risk and insurance services unit of Marsh & McLennan Cos., the brokerage that was the first and primary target of Spitzer's probe.

BenefitPoint's Randazzo takes Marsh's support as a sign that the industry is slowly shifting toward online bidding.

"Our biggest competitor is paper, faxes, e-mail, and phones," Randazzo said. "That's where the industry is still at for the most part. This is an industry that is so ripe for change."

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