(The following article was derived from Ms. Nettles'presentation at the AMS Users' Group 32nd National Conference, heldlast March at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, Fla.) Iwould like to approach this article the same way I approach theproblems my consulting clients bring to me. Frequently, theirworkflow difficulties can be represented by one of three fictionalcase studies–although they aren't that far from real life.

1) The We're Really Big Agency: Because of our size,nothing we try to implement will work for us.
2) The Time to Combine Departments Agency: If personal andselect lines are together, somebody wants to separate them. Ifthey're separated, somebody wants to combine them.
3) The Marketing's Out of Control Agency: This is strictlya commercial lines phenomenon.
In this article, I'll diagnose the symptoms of constricted workflowfor each of these agencies and offer solutions for clearing out theobstructions. Fixing workflow problems sounds like a tall order,but it's actually quite simple. You just have to get started.
The We're Really Big Agency
The No. 1 symptomis unmanageable e-mail. Paper and policies are everywhere. Peopleare complaining. The staff is working overtime. No one can catch upand everyone is screaming, “Hire more people!”
Is hiring more people really a solution? Even if you do need morepeople, hiring them won't solve the workflow problem. That'streating the symptom. We're after the disease.
The first thing to do is to run audits to determine two things:what the backlog actually consists of, and the volume oftransactions flowing through your agency management system. Youcan't get rid of a backlog until you know what's stacking up, andyou can't balance the workload among your staff until you knowwho's doing what and how often.
Start with measuring backlog by service provider. Give your CSRs orprocessors a chart on which to write down the number ofendorsements, policies, submissions, cancellations, audits, e-mailinquiries, etc., currently pending on their desks. It shouldn'ttake them more than 15 minutes to count them up. After you key theinformation into a spreadsheet and make a chart of it, you can seewhat your backlog really looks like. Much of the data likely willrepresent past-due activities. If you eliminate those items, themain problem will probably be policy checking–and we'll deal withthat momentarily. But now you know what your backlog actuallyis, and that's the first step to dealing with it. Bydefining it, you take away its power.
You must devise an action plan for dealing with past-dueactivities. Find out when the suspenses are being set. I still findagencies that diary endorsement requests for 30 days. Theendorsements don't come in and get processed within 30 days, so thediaries become “pass-through” items that are simply left hangingout in space. You need to evaluate every suspense date and makesure it's reasonable. You need to make sure there is time in everysuspense to receive the item and process it.
Also, you need to check policies as they come in. When I visitagencies, I may see CSRs with 40 or more policies on theirdesks–but 10 of them are for one client. They've been there twoweeks, while the CSRs wait for a D&O policy or other policy tocome in.
Is that backlog? No! I tell the CSRs: “You're not allowed to dothat anymore. You need to check the policies as they come in andput them aside. Call the pile the 'checked stack, waiting to goout.' Better yet, go ahead and send the policies to the client witha letter saying, 'We're still awaiting that D&O policy. Itshould be here in four to six weeks. As soon as it comes in, we'llcheck it and forward it to you.'”
Occasionally I run into an agency that is really out of control.For example, it has 400 outstanding e-mails awaiting response. Inthese cases, all bets are off. I have to look at each workflowprocess to see what's actually going on at the desks. That bringsus to the next step, which is doing a “transaction” audit. This isnothing but a dump of your activities from your agency managementsystem.
Your staff must log all transactions they perform into your agencymanagement system. (If they aren't, have them start immediately.)Then you will know how many transactions each CSR processes in agiven time frame. Let's say a CSR processed only 70 items inDecember. There are 18 working days that month, so that's less thanfour transactions a day. No wonder she's backlogged! Granted, sometransactions take longer than others, so create a chart that breaksthem down by renewal, endorsement, cancellation, etc. A CSR's lowvolume in a certain time period might be explained by a lot ofrenewals she's been processing.
Of course, CSRs may be processing comparatively few transactionsbecause they are not following company procedures. That's a problemyou can do something about–if you know it exists. Again, monitoringthese transactions helps you pinpoint problems and take correctiveaction.
The volume audit also will help with workflow distribution. You cananalyze workflow by the agency's various teams or units. CSRs atcorresponding levels on the different teams should be handling thesame number of transactions. If they're not, examine the workflowdistribution at that level to see if you need to adjust it. You mayneed to eliminate some tasks, or move them to a differentlevel.
After setting up your auditing system, implement all thetransaction-processing features of your agency management system.Typically, I find that the system's basic features are not wellimplemented in the We're Really Big Agency. For example, thecertificate master screen is improperly used. They don't use thearchive feature, so they have certificate masters going back foryears and nobody can find the right one. Another common problem isthat management doesn't require the use of the agency managementsystem's policy memo or the change request feature. Instead, peoplejust bounce outside the system and do a quick e-mail to a carrier.Maybe they use a carrier's “real-time” transaction capability.Real-time is great–but you have to know the workflow for eachcarrier. With some carriers, a real-time transaction alsoautomatically updates your agency management system; with others,it doesn't. You must make sure that your agency management systemalways is updated.
Are you using your agency management system's submission-trackingfeature? Many systems will track quotes as they come in fromcarriers. You can see if a quote has been received and the nextfollow-up date. Or do you have people going through piles of paperto discover what quotes are out there? Implementing all thesystem's features (which you paid for) can solve a world ofproblems.
Next, standardize the workflow. Automate as many manual controls aspossible. If there are still “hard copy” binder logs, invoice logsor expiration-tracking lists that people are maintaining, thoseneed to go.
In larger agencies, there is a clear delineation between those whoservice the customer and those who process the transactions. Ibelieve those two roles are equally important. Many large agencieshave an account manager and technical assistant, or an accountmanager and a CSR. When I run audits, I try to make sure the roleof processor (whatever title that person has) is standardizedthroughout the agency. One thing that creates the “we're too big”mentality is allowing the account manager to define the workflowfor the assistant. That means the assistant's role differs fromteam to team. That decreases efficiency. Managers of agencies thathave chaos and backlog often wonder why processors can't seem tocheck those policies, VIN numbers, etc. and get everything out thedoor on time. They can-if they're properly trained and their rolesare standardized.
The Time to Combine Depts. Agency
Here's a typical scenario: Personal lines are in great shape. Thestaff is T-filing, downloading, using service centers, etc., butbecause the workflows were streamlined, the personal-linesdepartment now has more people than it needs. Meanwhile, managementwants to grow the select (small commercial lines) unit, so thesolution is obvious: Combine the two departments. Unfortunately,the staff has made one thing perfectly clear: They're totallyopposed to any kind of merger.
If you want to proceed anyway, you must end producers' involvementin the renewal of select-unit accounts. What I find–and this is whymerging these two units often doesn't work–is there are stillproducers with assigned select-unit accounts. Producers are makingcalls and saying, “I want that renewal kit. We'll take this accountto market and get six quotes for it.” But it's a select account.You're not supposed to be treating it that way. So producers haveto be dedicated to bringing in new business in that unit ordifferent types of accounts, but not dealing with renewals in theselect-account unit.
Also, you'll need to provide cross-training. The personal-linespeople have never worked on a BOP. The commercial lines CSRs don'tknow an HO-2 from an HO-3 from an HO-82. They'll need to betrained.
If you're going to combine the personal-lines and selectdepartments, make as much use as possible of service centers. Thatwill take some of the workload off the staff, which makes thebuy-in much easier.
You can “semi-implement” a service center–use it and then stilltake calls. You must write workflows for this approach, however,because there are E&O issues. Whatever happens at the servicecenter today does not show up on your staff's computer screensuntil tomorrow.
Incorporate your carriers' real-time transaction capabilities intoyour procedures, because real time is the workflow of thefuture–particularly in personal and small-commercial lines.Depending on the carrier, real time can be used for quoting,billing inquiries, claims inquiries, policy endorsements orinformation requests. Don't let your competition get ahead of youby using the same tools you can be using.
The Marketing's Out of Control Agency
At this agency, the commercial-lines operation is fully automated,and the agency management system is integrated with a documentmanagement system–yet, the marketing department is buried in paper.This is amazing, because marketing–the people who handlesubmissions and otherwise interact with underwriters–was the firstgroup to embrace the PC revolution. They were the spreadsheetgurus. So they're not afraid of computers–but they simply refuse totouch the agency management system, especially in the larger shops.They store the marketing information outside the agency managementsystem, because they claim it doesn't “fit” that system. E-mailsare everywhere. They're in Outlook, they're sitting in folders onthe network drives. Things are as messed up as they can be.
Where to begin? First and foremost, make submission tracking areality. Tools are available on your agency management system forthis purpose. At a minimum, you need to be able to use your systemto ascertain such basic information as to which carriers you'vemade submissions, what quotes have come in and who's beendeclined.
Then implement document management in the marketing department,just as you have in the rest of the commercial-lines department.Stress that using this tool to organize and keep track of allmarketing material is “non-optional behavior.”
Next, evaluate third-party solutions that provide carriers withonline access to agency submissions. A common objection frommarketing is: “Our submissions are so big. The carriers balk atthem and their security blocks them,” etc. Well, products areavailable that enable you to put your submissions online and attachall your documents. Then the carriers grab them off the site. Youknow how underwriters sometimes say they never got certainsubmissions? Well, these products tell you when they have.
To evaluate these third-party products, use the task forceapproach. Be sure to let the marketing people have a say in all ofthis. Allowing them to design their own procedures to automate thedepartment guarantees success.
Now, you may say, “But they may not do a good job. They don't knowa lot about technology.” If that's a concern, bring in a technologyconsultant to guide them. Workflow implementation is a process, nota project. It never stops. When they're done, you can look at itand say: “Hey, that's pretty good. Let's implement it. And thennext month, let's look at a better way of handling what paper wehave left.”
You can't improve workflow in the marketing department withoutlooking at e-mail. Probably 85% to 90% of marketing transactionsare handled electronically–usually via e-mail. You want to avoidover-documenting your system with what I call “content and routinge-mails.” You have tons of these in marketing, where thee-conversations go on and on.
You must develop guidelines for dealing with e-mail. There are nowrong guidelines, only undocumented ones. Without guidelines,everyone will devise his or her own system. For example, yourguideline could be, “We're going to document and store, as anattachment, all our marketing e-mails, using a marketing actioncode.” That will work–as long as everyone follows the guideline.Then it becomes a question of what's left. When are you going tostore these e-mails? Are you going to store every one? This iswhere the task force comes in.
Step back-but monitor
The key–in fact, the key to everything discussed in this article–isto let the people who do the work define the guidelines. Managementcannot successfully lead the workflow procedures overhaul. Rather,management must let staff work it out for itself. Managementdefines the parameters and says where they want the agency to endup, but let the staff find the way there. They need to decide whatthe follow-up and turnaround times should be. When they define theguidelines, they'll be much more likely to adhere to them.
Last but not least–monitor, monitor, monitor. Whatever you decideto do, you must make sure staff is actually doing it. If you allowyour people to say, “This is a great idea–but not for me,” you'regetting into the “we're too big” mentality. So set your guidelines,and then verify that everyone is following them. Laura Nettlesis founder of the Nettles Consulting Network. Her career in theinsurance industry includes more than 15 years of hands-onexperience in all aspects of agency operations. Her forte isanalyzing and creating independent agency workflows that integratetechnology into everyday activities. Ms. Nettles has published morethan 20 articles in industry journals and on Web sites. Recently,she developed the Best Practices Guide to Agency Business Processesand Workflows in conjunction with the Agents Council forTechnology. She can be reached at [email protected].