Communication Upgrades Keep Agency Up To Speed With High-Tech Clientele

But to accomplish that, the agency had to get up to speed technologically, and Mr. Monteith said he was brought in to make that happen. Among the first steps he took was to get rid of the firm's old management software and begin rebuilding.

One of the early goals, he said, was to create an information technology system that would be able to focus on developing and building new applications for clients, carriers and personnel, rather than simply helping to man a helpdesk and write reports.

"We got out of the report-writing business altogether," he said.

Mr. Monteith noted that while he came into the firm without an insurance background, as he worked for PS&F he learned what brokers were most often looking for from their software. "One of the things I kept hearing about was SEMCI," he said, adding that goal has served as a driving force ever since.

To meet that challenge, Mr. Monteith said he and his staff worked to create a system that would allow virtually any party in an insurance transaction to log into and work from their system.

For clients, Mr. Monteith noted, the firm offers the DigitaLINK system through which a client can obtain direct access to their information on a 24/7 basis. "This is not just a basic support center" for filing claims, posting documents or requesting certificates, Mr. Monteith noted, as it offers "full interaction" with the client's documentation stored in PS&F's files.

"A client can open policies as soon as they are received, access previous applications and carry over [electronically] the changes for the new policy period," Mr. Monteith said. "They can collaborate on projects within the same activity/project and [customer relationship management] tool used internally, and have those changes instantly show up on the producer's application that is extended to their BlackBerry device."

Additionally, clients are able to edit the information in their files and have it updated automatically within the system. They can also request that PS&F develop and program new applications for them, he noted.

PS&F's MarketLINK system has "main interaction" for the firm in its work with carriers, Mr. Monteith explained.

"MarketLINK is how we electronically manage our entire marketing process," he said. "Underwriters are selected from a database to receive the marketing, the coverages are selected for each person, and the information gets sent directly to the underwriter with the key information attached."

Recipient underwriters who receive the information are able to view all of the supporting documents and post a reply directly to the Web site, Mr. Monteith noted.

Additionally, the entire process is tracked, and PS&F can use that data to gauge carriers' interests for any number of factors.

"The entire renewal process is tracked in a database and can be renewed from one year to the next," he said. "Reports can be run on appetite, industry group, SIC code, influence group, policy type, and any other piece of data collected in any of our systems."

PS&F has also developed an internal system for its own people, allowing them to access and oversee virtually everything that goes on. Known as CommLINK, the system "tracks all client, prospect and suspect activity happening within our agency," Mr. Monteith noted. Like PS&F's other applications, it is linked directly to the agency management systems and its employees' BlackBerry devices, as well as the firm's Exchange server.

"Activities are entered from any device, and any follow-up associated with it is put into corresponding staff calendars, where they can electronically track all processes associated with that activity," Mr. Monteith explained. "The system allows us to, within seconds, create a stewardship report for a client, send a mailing to a group of contacts, find all construction prospects with no activity for 60 days, and develop an executive summary showing their report card and the detail associated with it (including actual revenue, new business, lost business and volume totals)."

The system creates efficiencies by allowing, for example, a contact to be entered once and then automatically listed for each broker in the firm. Mr. Monteith said it is also used with the system tracking carrier appetites to direct applicants to those markets most likely to seek their business.

The system largely operates off a Microsoft Sequel server, which Mr. Monteith called "the backbone of all this." On an ongoing basis, when he gets free time, "I have a laundry list" of applications that he would like to see built, he noted.

The ongoing creation and use of these applications has helped the firm's administrators work more efficiently. The applications save roughly one half-hour per administrator per day in Mr. Monteith's estimation.

While PS&F may have known what it wanted to be in 1999, getting there was not an overnight process, he added. As the old saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, and for the agency, the first step in their journey was determining how they would go about building their system.

"One of the biggest challenges was figuring out how we would approach it," Mr. Monteith said. "Our goal was that we wanted to enter information into the system once." The big step in that process was the Sequel server, which he again pointed to as the foundation for the firm's systems. "Building on top of that was actually fairly easy," he said.

Those applications are also built to minimize the amount of training the firm needs to do for employees to use the system. The firm accomplishes this goal, he said, because the applications it builds are designed, at least in terms of what they accomplish, by the end user.

"They say what they want," he noted, and the application is programmed to meet that specific need. "They design the product; it's up to me to program it."

ACORD standards play an important role, according to Mr. Monteith, who said that while many of the firm's applications and processes are internal by nature, the agency does factor standards in when programming.

Making certain that the programs match up with standards is a "focus," he said, because the agency wants to ensure it will be able to maintain its position at the forefront of the industry. "We don't want to be left behind" as the rest of the industry comes together, he added.