Agency Goes Paperless Almost There is anongoing war within every insurance agency to control and store thepaperwork that flows into its offices. With the advent oftechnology, however, more than a few have envisioned the paperlessoffice.

In this vision, faxes are ferried directly into the agencyscomputer system and forms are filled out, signed and e-mailedthrough the computer with the aid of the Internet. Gone would bethe visits to the post office and metal cabinets filled with papersfor all the client files. Instead, filing is kept neatly inelectronic folders that do not take up valuable office space.

In reality, the march to the paperless office has had mixedresults.

For a broker in Ontario, Canada, the embrace of a computerizeddocument solution means better tracking and quicker access toclients files. However, the countrys insurance regulations havekept the broker from creating a paperless office. Instead, the firmfinds it must rent storage space for the volumes of paper documentsit is still required to keep for years.

Algoma Insurance Group in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, isa full-service property-casualty, life, health and employeebenefits regional insurance broker that generates $16 millionCanadian [less than $11 million U.S.] in premium volume per year,said Ross Weatherby, technical administrator for the firm.

When James Horbatuk, president of Algoma, took over from hisfather six years ago, Mr. Weatherby said, he began the process ofturning to technology to find answers to improve efficiency.

About three years ago, he said, the firms commercial departmentfound itself lost in paper and it was determined then thatsomething needed to be done to keep better track of documents. Themost efficient system, Algoma determined, was a digital imagingsystem that would electronically image and store its growing stockof documents.

Algoma soon discovered that the price for such a system wasprohibitive, about $16,000 Canadian [$10,000 U.S.] for 10workstations, Mr. Weatherby said.

It was then that Algoma invited Xerox to demonstrate itsDocuShare technology.

“It did all we needed it to do,” said Mr. Weatherby.

The agency found it could do the imaging, document retrieval andaccess to the documents it needed, he said. It also easilyintegrated with Microsoft Office.

“Painless integration,” noted Mr. Weatherby.

And the price was right at $10,000 Canadian [less than $7,000U.S.] for 50 workstations.

After seeing the effectiveness of the system for its commerciallines, Algoma began finding more and more ways to use the system,expanding its use to personal lines, insurance inspections,appraisals and a host of other documents that needed to be managedwithin the firm.

What is unique about the DocuShare service, explained ColmanMurphy, product-marketing manager for Stamford, Conn.-based Xerox,is that access to documents with the software system isWeb-based.

Besides getting to the documents, another feature of DocuShareis inputting and accessing information using “FlowPort,” aninformation template sheet with predefined programming that tellsthe software where the document goes in the computer for searchinglater. This is especially important for photographs, where theremay be no text information for the computer to search.

The template is set up to provide all the information a userwould need in order to locate that photo, or any other documentthat does not have sufficient text for easy identification andsearch, he said.

The template, Mr. Murphy explained, can be used repeatedly forall documents.

With DocuShare, instead of hunting down folders for theinformation, all the user needs to do is input search informationfor a scanned document. It is then located through the programscall-up system, he said.

Mr. Murphy added that no additional software or hardware isneeded to run the program. Users will need additional storage spaceon the server.

Buyers, he noted, see a quick return on investment from improvedefficiency, sometimes as soon as within six months.

Today, Algoma not only keeps its clients documents on DocuShare,but also stores internal company documents, such as performancereviews, on the system. Because it is a Web-based system, thedocuments can be accessed either at home or in the office.

One major problem right now for the Canadian broker, however, isthat they still have not gotten rid of their papers.

Mr. Weatherby explained that despite having an accurate imagingsystem, the firm cannot discard its old documents. Under Canadianlaw, insurance agencies and brokers must keep hard copies of theirdocuments for seven years, including any notes.

Because of this, the firm has a total of 3,500 square feet ofspace to store documents, including extra space the firm had torent. The irony is that those stored documents are rarely lookedat, said Mr. Weatherby. And if older paper documents are needed,when retrieved they are also scanned into Algomas imaging system,so that no one ever has to go back for them again.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, April 14, 2003.Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.