By Len Strazewski
Christina Herman is president and CEO of Colorado-based Silver Plume. Steve Hirsch (rear) is vice president; and Chris McMurray is director of marketing and strategic business development.
Where do you turn for Sage advice?
Most insurance buyers turn to their agent or broker. Most agents turn to whatever resources they have in the office--and hope they know where to look amid piles of manuals, binders and trade publications.
Craig Nelson, vice president and commercial lines producer at T.J. Adams Group in Oak Brook, Illinois, encounters tough questions and complex risks all the time--and he's supposed to be the expert on everything.
"We handle small to medium-sized commercial clients, but just because they aren't Fortune 500 companies doesn't mean they don't need sophisticated risk management. And they turn to me for answers," he says. "But no agent or broker can know everything about every kind of coverage. We have to do research--dig through manuals, read trade publications--anything we can."
Nelson also has another research option. His firm is one of 200 agencies that recently tested Sage, an online risk information resource developed by Silver Plume in Boulder, Colorado. Released in August, the new product is a research and analysis tool designed to support producers in growing and retaining their commercial lines book of business.
The new research product features a broad range of detailed risk and coverage analysis, available markets, industry profiles, special forms and general industry articles that can be delivered over a standard Internet connection and searched with a powerful Internet-based search engine.
Nelson tested the crime insurance information in Sage, a typical research question, he says. "Most commercial clients have some form of crime exposure, but the insurance needs and the endorsements can vary widely depending upon industry. A small financial company can have a big crime exposure. A retailer can also have an exposure, but not as big an overall risk.
"Unless you're a specialist, you can't possibly know all of the details, all of the alternative endorsements and markets for the coverage. Most producers need some sort of resource," he explains.
Nelson says that Sage saved him hours of research time, refocusing the search as the search engine produced results. He found the information he needed faster than ever before.
Nancy Lance, a risk manage-ment specialist who works with construction contractor clients, also tested the product, searching for SIC industry classification codes and related risk information. "This is information I use all the time, but it takes a while to look it up--even if I have the right manuals handy. The Sage product is user friendly and fast. It certainly has value in our office."
The agency tests provided the kind of feedback Silver Plume was looking for as it released an early version of the new product, says Silver Plume President and Chief Executive Officer Christina Herman.
"We came to the realization some time last year that we were not fully meeting the needs of the insurance industry in terms of providing all the right information," she says. "With our traditional Silver Plume data product, we have done a good job with information about rating, policy issuance, rules and forms. With Sage, we're providing information to agents that will help them better serve their customers by understanding their unique business needs.
"The information needs of the industry have evolved. And while we were meeting some key needs in terms of helping agencies process business, we weren't meeting the overall demand for detailed coverage and market information. Further, the use of technology in the industry was changing and as a result, there was an opportunity to expand what we could deliver--to move away from rules, rates and forms toward coverage analysis and market information."
The original Silver Plume library product was first released on CD and then migrated to the Internet on a subscription-access basis. Herman says the company's experience with Internet delivery revealed a growing preference for the fast and portable Internet access to information.
"Maturing insurance industry technology also helped create the need for the new product," she adds. "The proliferation of rating systems and proprietary transactional carrier sites has eliminated much of an agency's need for manual rating. Rules, rates and forms from the various bureaus are used to drive manual rating. This content was central in the original Silver Plume library product but is not the information that will give an agency the advantage over their competition. Having the information that builds understanding of a customer is.
Christina Herman points out that Sage, Silver Plume's new online risk information resource, acts as a simple-to-use search engine that provides agents with detailed coverage and market information.
"We have a great delivery system in Sage technology and access to the most useful content for a producer. The right content plus the right delivery system equals the right answer for our customers," she says.
Chris McMurray, director of marketing and new business development for Silver Plume, agrees. He says that Sage was developed in response to very practical agency needs, based on conversations with both Silver Plume client agencies and non-clients. "When we go into an agency and talk to producers, we try to ascertain what they feel they need right now, but we also focus on what they need in order to do their jobs more efficiently as they move their agency to the next level. Effectively serving both the insured and the underwriter is critical to an agent's success and to do that well, the agent needs the right information," he says. That's where Sage can help.
"Increasingly, agents are targeting commercial lines as a way to grow their agency," he continues. "However, successful commercial lines marketing requires a high degree of detailed information, including knowledge of coverage requirements, industry profiles, and market information. With market conditions becoming increasingly tight, agents have to focus on doing more than selling policies. They have to provide more comprehensive service and address the many risk management concerns of their customers. Customers faced with 'sticker shock' on rising premiums may tend to shop their coverage but will likely stay with the agency that serves all their risk-related needs.
"Accordingly, this first release of Sage focuses on commercial lines information and provides producers with a central source of information that is simple, searchable and portable," McMurray explains.
McMurray says the no-tech approach to Sage and the reasonable price make the product particularly valuable. "Unlike many 'productivity enhancing' insurance technology solutions, there's no software to load. That means there's no distraction by training and implementation. Agents simply log on and get what they need.
"We tried to eliminate any sort of compromise that users make in using the technology that's supposed to be making their lives easier. As a result we don't force agents to learn a new process, but rather allow Sage to enhance the process that already exists--whatever that might be.
"Producers on sales calls can access Sage from any computer, including laptop computers with Internet connections and standard Internet browsers, and retrieve the most current information," he notes. "By having complete information when dealing with an account, the agent can eliminate much of the back and forth between client and underwriter. That time savings and efficiency translates to sales effectiveness. Couple that with an average price roughly equivalent to what you'd spend on lunch and your favorite frozen-caramel-cookie-almost-coffee-drink daily, and Sage presents tangible value to your agency."
Once an agent connects to Silver Plume Online, presently accessible through the Silver Plume Web site (www.silverplume.com), the agent enters a User ID and password. The Sage Web site introduces a simple search box to access the Sage content.
The real heart of Sage is its proprietary search engine, designed by Silver Plume Vice President
Steve Hirsch. Hirsch says that he developed the search engine specifically for the insurance industry, building in an ability to rank results by relevance with an intuitive understanding of the connections between insurance terms.
"We selected pieces of content from the most well-respected sources used by the industry today to build Sage. But all of the right content is virtually useless unless you can get it when you need it. Sage's powerful search engine means one or two words in a search box are all you need to find the right information."
Sage is divided into four separate information categories with several subsections.
1) Sage Advice, a risk information resource that includes:
--ACORD forms and instructions.
--Commercial Sage: coverage analysis and checklists, industry profiles, classifications, checklists of recommended coverages by industry and business type, and sample letters, brochures, and proposals.
--Expanded Sage: additional insurance publications and directories by subscription with Silver Plume.
2) Sage Markets: a specialty lines market finder providing coverage detail and descriptions of more than 6,500 active markets representing 400 providers and 30 insurance carriers. Also:
--Market news, comprehensive coverage of programs and market activity updated weekly.
--Program descriptions and guidelines for leading carriers and alternative markets.
3) Sage Extras: a comprehensive dictionary of commonly used insurance and risk management terms, NAIC codes, and a ZIP Code directory.
4) More Sage available: a category of all content available by subscription through Silver Plume. Users can sample content and add the full database online after they locate the content they need.
The search engine returns results in each of the four Sage categories, beginning with Sage Advice. Users can move between the results in each of the categories by using a navigation toolbar. This allows the user to focus on search results for specific types of information.
The results are listed according to relevance, displaying the best matches higher in the results list. Relevance is the key issue, according to Hirsch, and the search engine should produce more accurate and relevant information than the general search engines that are used by most commercial Web sites.
In addition to searching, users can scan the content of each category manually and browse lists of content. For example, the coverage analysis content pages list coverage areas alphabetically, ranging from automobile to workers compensation and including new lines such as employment practices liability insurance. The content lists also include helpful advice documents such as checklists and survey data.
"When it comes to information, more is not better. You want the best information, not a lot of clutter," Hirsch says. "Targeted content that's easy to find--that's what Sage is." *
The author
Len Strazewski is a Chicago-based freelance writer specializing in marketing, management and technology topics. In addition to contributing to Rough Notes, he has written on insurance for Business Insurance, the Chicago Tribune and Human Resource Executive, among other publications.
For more information:
Phone: (800) 677-4442
E-mail: marketing@silverplume.com
Web site: www.silverplume.com