By Aaron Weiss, directorof marketing, LaserJet and enterprise solutions,HP

According to a nationalsurvey, 46 percent of small business owners confirmed that theyoften fill three to four employee roles on a given day. It's nosurprise that insurance agents find themselves wearing manyhats—from small business owner to appointment scheduler—as theyoften work independently and may have limited access to additionalstaff.

Unfortunately, you can't add extra hours to the day. However, by using technology to eliminate commondistractions, insurance professionals can maximize time toefficiently manage their business operations. Below are some of themost common timewasters that insurance agents face and how they canbe conquered with cloud-based technology:

Read related: “GotProcess Pain Points? These 4 Tech Strategies CanHelp.”

1. Domore with less (clutter)

For an insurance agent, multitasking is a daily occurrence andcan lead to miscellaneous documents strewn around your home andoffice. In fact, desk clutter is such a distraction that it isultimately one of the biggest timewasters that employees face.According to a study by IDC, on average, a worker spendsabout 2.5 hours of the workday searching for information, includingpaper documents, files and emails. This adds up to roughly 30percent of the work week.

You can easily de-clutter your desk by storing and organizingyour office documents via cloud-based document managementtechnology. Uploading document files to the cloud helpsyou clear the clutter and work more efficiently, regardless oflocation.

Many cloud-based document management solutions include powerfulsearch tools that dramatically simplify and reduce the timeassociated with finding key information. Because insurance agentscan spend a great deal of time traveling, staying organized andbeing able to access information while on the road is key.

Smaller offices looking to clear electronic clutter andstreamline office processes can improve efficiency by eliminatingmultiple devices including printers, scanners and fax machines. Amultifunction printer reduces the amount of space used in theoffice and enables businesses to print, scan, copy and fax using asingle device.

2. Don'tlose (version) control

The Society forHuman Resource Management (SHRM) recently found that 46 percentof U.S. businesses use virtual teams in their workplace.Approximately 32 percent of those businesses named distribution ofwork as one of the top challenges of successfully managing avirtual team.

For small businesses with multiple teams working on the sameaccount, maintaining and updating documents through version controlcan often be a time-wasting task. When various edits need to bemade to the same document, it is common for teams to share updatedversions of the same documents through email. This can easily leadto overlapping versions and an overwhelming amount of emails. Whilerevisions and edits are often necessary, managing multiple versionscan be stressful.

Cloud-based document management solutions enhance officecollaboration and take the stress out of the editing process. Thistechnology allows agents to capture, store and share editeddocuments without the added stress of version control. Agents canmanage paper and digital documents more efficiently, collaboratewith other offices and have a quote edited, sent or shared with anunderwriter in a matter of minutes.

3. Takenote of mobile technology

Note-taking during meetings helps agents remember keyinformation that is important to a client's specific policy needs.Transferring handwritten notes to digital files after meetings isnot only tedious and time-consuming, but can also result in theloss of important information. Whether handling the note transferpersonally or delegating it to another team member, details areoften lost in the shuffle. Using cloud-connected tablets allowsbusiness teams to share their notes and access them from anywhereat any time.

Businesses of all sizes that are shifting to cloud-baseddocument management solutions are utilizing tablets to furtherstreamline their workflow. A recent Forrester study found that 60 percent of businesses employbring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs for smartphones and 47percent for tablets and laptops. Whether you are an independentagent or lead a team of agents, tablets are among the top devicesfacilitating the shift to the digitized mobile office. In additionto serving as a solution to working effectively on the road,tablets also allow you the ability to easily provide customers withinsurance quotes in a timely manner.

Read related: “Slideshow:Finding Value Through Mobility.”

Agents are continually on the move and working with clients inthe field, which makes it challenging to digitize and process paperdocuments in a timely manner. With cloud-connected mobile apps,agents can use their smartphone or tablet to capture businessdocuments or photos and upload them to the cloud for immediateprocessing, helping agents to be 100 percent productive with theirmobile devices.

As consumer expectations in today's landscape continue to grow,insurance agents face the challenge of meeting client needs andstandards around the clock. In order to meet these standards,agents must being to adopt technology that can best help them keepup with consumers living and working in a mobile society.