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— Maureen Boeing
7 Front End Scanning.
How paper is routed is becoming less important. Almost all of the agencies I speak with are no longer maintaining non-electronic files. The superiority of capturing incoming items electronically early is being recognized and adopted by a majority of agencies. — Todd Arnold
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Accounting Tools.
Agencies use their agency management system as an effective accounting tool. This is the basis for the beginnings of these systems. Agencies have had many years of practice using this portion of their systems.
Create Agency Value.
The information we record and maintain within our systems is invaluable. It not only helps answer the question, “How much are you worth?” but also, “How much are you worth to someone else?”
Create Efficiencies. Improve their internal processes to increase efficiencies. This includes a tremendous growth in the number of agencies that are using front-end imaging to achieve the long elusive goal of a paper “less” (not paper free) environment. This can reduce the amount of time that staff spends doing tasks that do not have a perceived client value, allowing them more time to spend with clients.
— Patricia Alexander
— Angela Adams
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Give Friendly, Conscientious Service. Manage-
ment systems are the hub of good client service; nearly all agency employees tap the functionality to support client-focused interactions. Some use system database information to help them be proactive, offer alternatives, and ask (and record answers to) more probing questions, including why someone leaves or cancels. — Kitty Ambers
Claims Download. Save
considerable time in accounting departments with direct bill commission statement download. Also, claims departments are more efficient with claims download, particularly following natural disasters. — Jeff Yates
N8 | INSURANCE JOURNAL-NATIONAL REGION July 2, 2012
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Personal Lines Download. Implement
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personal lines download and save a huge amount of time with it. Because their systems synchronize with their carriers’, agency staff can provide clients more accurate and complete information, which means better service and reduced E&O exposure. — Jeff Yates
Create Workflows. Every agency system has a pre-defined way to process various transactions. Agencies have been successful in using these processes to build agency procedures. Efficiencies — as well as errors and omissions protections — are maximized when everyone in the agency uses consistent procedures for processing daily activities. — Steve Anderson
Client Relationships.
Agencies manage their client relationships through their agency management systems. One further step would be to improve their prospect management through their agency management systems. This will reduce their errors and omissions exposure and make new sales more efficient. — Chris Burand
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Cloud Computing.
Software as a Service (SaaS). A trend has been the move from managing internal computing platforms to outsourcing to the cloud. Moving network management, data backup, version upgrades and user issues to an outside firm frees up agency resources for more productive projects. — Steve Anderson
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