Contact Management Need Drives Switch In Agency Management Systems

There are times when waiting for technologys advancements can be an independent agencys best strategy. One case in point is the insurance broker Seitlin, an Assurex Global Partner, with offices in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Since 1986, the firm has used the same agency management system, according to Beth Harris, Seitlins chief information officer. Over the years, she said, the firm has had to bring in a lot of third-party software to keep that system up and running. But while other agencies had to abandon their technology in 2000 because it was not Y2K compliant, Seitlins system was. Since Seitlin could overcome that hurdle, they decided not to jump ship with what they had and continued using it, patches and all.

“The reason we stayed with this for as long as we have is because we have not found newer technology that was for us,” Ms. Harris explained. “We needed something that both offices could use.”

While there are plenty of systems out there that can deal with the back end of the insurance transaction, they found nothing satisfying on the front end for prospecting, she said.

“In the last couple of years we started looking at different types of contact management systems,” said Ms. Harris. A contact management system involves a database of producer client prospects and contacts. “With the systems we were looking at, we would have been required to put a whole lot of additional money into it to make it an insurance-related system,” she noted. “They are all very generic. To make it operate the way we [wanted] would have required a substantial amount of money for something that was third party, was not going to integrate into [our agency management system], and would have been another one of those third-party patches.”

The concern had become more acute since the organization had grown to 140 employees with a lot of producers out on the road. Due to the lack of up-to-date prospecting information, some of the problems agents run into amount to some embarrassing situations, Ms. Harris explained. Without a centralized system for producers to check and see who is working on what clients, they literally run into one another at the same prospect account. One agent writing one line for a customer might not be aware of another agent handling a different line.

Currently, agents can keep information on potential clients on either the agency management system or Lotus Notes. But the systems are so inefficient that in most cases producers keep the information in their own notebooks, said Ms. Harris.

This lack of communication also extends itself to situations where the firm is unable to ascertain if different divisions have the same customer for different lines or how much business a customer is doing with the firm, she noted.

Another headache is that new employees need weeks to learn the current computer system, which Ms. Harris admitted has at times proven to be very frustrating for both new and current employees.

Recognizing the need to coordinate the prospecting end, Ms. Harris began research into a contact system. During this period, going back nearly two years, Ms. Harris kept hearing about XDimensionals Nexsure agency management system.

“I was only thinking about contact management system. I was not thinking about overall change of our agency management system at that time,” Ms. Harris said.

She saw a demonstration of the system and realized the potential for changing the entire agency management system with Nexsure. She brought in representatives from Nexsure and a group of 13 people from different divisions of Seitlin for a demonstration of the contact management system, not telling them about her own opinion that this system could replace their entire agency management system.

“I didnt want it to be just my decision alone,” said Ms. Harris. “I wanted other people to see its capabilities as well.”

After witnessing the demonstration, she said there was an “overall agreement” that this was the technology to replace their existing system. “Everyone said, Oh my gosh, this could actually be the system we have been waiting for,” she noted. The contact management portion is scheduled to go live in February. The remainder will be up and running in April.

Nexsure is Web-based, which means no new software or hardware is required, said Ms. Harris. Training is easy, she noted, requiring three hours for each person. She added that another advantage is that whatever changes they have needed to make in the system as it comes together have been easily assimilated.

“We have a tremendous buy-in into this system,” Ms. Harris explained about the firms confidence in Nexsure delivering on its promise. “We have had multiple demos done of this system in multiple departments, and there is not one person who has seen those demos who is not thrilled with this system. We cannot wait for this. There is no one in this office who is not excited about this.”

As far as security is concerned, since it is a Web-based system, Ms. Harris said she and the firm are very comfortable with it. “The level of their security is much [higher] than you would think,” she commented.

When asked about making sure producers use the system the way they should, she told a story about one agent who could care less about the new system and felt he could still continue with his notebook.

When she explained to him that by using this system it would keep the producers from accidentally running into one another at the same client or inadvertently taking one anothers business, he understood why it would be to his advantage to use it.

“He said, I just needed a good reason and you gave me one,” Ms. Harris said.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, January 2, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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Contact Management Need Drives Switch In Agency Management Systems

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