2001 Best Practices Study

Analysis of Agencies with Revenues Less Than $500,000

T ECHNOLOGY U TILIZATION

“Our employees are motivated by being a part of a new breed of agencies that focus on automation, which ultimately benefits the client and creates great pride from the support staff’s feeling about their job.” “We use our agency management system to do everything -- our billings, claims, Certificates of Insurance. You know, all of those things that take so much time. Without automation, we couldn’t do them as quickly and accurately. It saves us a lot of time and time is money.”

In many ways, the smaller agencies make better use of technology than many larger agencies. This is driven by their need to compete effectively by achieving significantly more with their limited staffs and resources. Most use upload and download with as many of their carriers as possible. To access internet-based products and services many of the agencies in this group have high-speed T1 or DSL connections to the internet, which is also used for communicating with carriers and with a growing number of clients. They try to continuously upgrade their agency management systems, although budgeting for hardware and software upgrades remains a challenge. These agencies usually point to their ability to grow and do more without the need to hire additional people as the biggest return on their technology investment and consider the salary savings when planning technology purchases. Like other agencies of any size, most struggle to stay current with technology trends and developments and rely on their vendor user groups and industry trade magazines as major information sources on the topic. E FFECTIVE P ROCEDURES /P ROCESSES The agencies in this study group typically have developed efficient, effective procedures for conducting business, again driven by the need to do more with less. The top agencies in this study group are fairly rigid in that they have standardized their workflows and the use of their automation to make sure nothing is lost in the process. They continuously look for ways to improve those workflows; and they make use of form letters, checklists, and other time-saving devices that also help in reducing errors. Other strategies mentioned to improve efficiencies and effectiveness include seminar selling, staying within the agency’s own underwriting guidelines, and sending applications only to those companies that have an appetite for that particular business.

“I find that if we improve a workflow that saves even a few minutes each time we do it, that can translate into something significant over a year’s time.”

17