2001 Best Practices Study

Analysis of Agencies with Revenues

Less Than $500,000

ECHNOLOGY

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.

FFECTIVE

ROCEDURES

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.”