New Agency Management Software May Boost Efficiency, Reduced Stress

While the agency has kept pace with the latest equipment, from flat screen monitors to ergonomic office equipment for more than 80 employees, the software was left lacking.

How long lacking?

Ms. Mack said the firms current system is the 1980s Redshaw agency management system, "with a lot of different patches," which she admits is the "hard way" of trying to keep a system current with its business needs.

Redshaw was the agency management system offered by software provider Delphi Information Systems Inc., which later became Atlanta-based Ebix.com Inc.

The current workflow does not allow information to flow easily throughout the firm, Ms. Mack explained. For example, a typical commercial property-casualty proposal involves gathering information and writing it up on ACORD applications. That data is then inputted into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The firm uses that information to create coverage specification. A proposal is then put together separately using a word-processing program.

While the firm uses these software programs for its p-c accounts, the employee benefits department uses Microsoft Access for all its record keeping, she noted.

Everyone has access to Microsoft Outlook, but there is no universal internal sharing of communication, such as the setup of appointment schedules, she said. All of these different systems, working independently of one another, make sharing information difficult.

In handling all the accounts, ranging from employee benefits, commercial p-c, workers compensation accounts and financial services, Ms. Mack continued, there is no one data storehouse for accounts. Each department keeps its own separate account information. The most complete universal records anyone has access to are paper files.

And, she noted, as accounts get larger, the complexity of information gets ever more difficult, and that can be pretty complicated for a firm handling average size accounts of $50,000 or higher in annual premium, totaling more than $100 million in premium volume per year.

"Its remarkable that we are as effective as we are, but its pretty amazing for us to be where we are now," said Ms. Mack. "I cant wait to see what we look like in five years when we have streamlined our system."

This convoluted system also led to another problemgetting good people on the team as the firm continues to expand. While the agency has many long-term veterans on its staff, there are some positions that JBL&K is finding difficult to fill, especially customer service representatives and account administrator roles.

"Our system is a definite detriment to getting key people," Ms. Mack observed. "I dont know if anyone left because of our system, but it is an added challenge in an already stressful job."

Ms. Mack was part of a 10-member search committee of JBL&K executives who decided on the agency management system from Brea, Calif.-based XDimensional.

Other agency management systems, she said, were really not integrated systems, but actually a series of patches to their old systems.

"We looked at all the agency management systems out there, and there was always one stopping point: It is old technology that gave the illusion it was working in the Windows environment," said Ms. Mack.

Besides integration of the agencys systems, Nexsure offers "unlimited" storage, since it is Web-based, she noted. And that is important to an agency that has grown used to having its files stored in many different locations. The storage feature will also help in keeping e-mail records, because they are stored on Nexsure.

Another concern JBL&K had was education. She said the learning curve for this system is "so small" that staff should have little problem picking it up.

The firm is planning full implementation of Nexsure by February of next year, and will begin the process after its July renewals.

"There is no question [the Nexsure program] will increase our employees job satisfaction," said Ms. Mack. "They will feel better about working in an environment that is easy to work in. It will not reduce the workload, but everyone will work better and get the job done."

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, May 12, 2003. Copyright 2003 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.