TECHNOLOGY
If you're going to change your agency management system,
you need to manage that change effectively
By Nancy Doucette
Telamon Insurance Network executives pictured with the agency's old (left) and new logos. From left are Dominic Sestito, President/Chief Operating Officer; Michael J. Susco, Chairman/CEO; and Gregory M. Susco, Director of IT Strategy.
Students of change management agree that managing change requires a planned and systematic approach. Typically, an organization transitions from being reactive to being proactive when it's in a change mode. In an agency setting, discussions relating to change management frequently occur when the agency begins investigating either a significant upgrade or a complete change in its agency management system.
When Greg Susco joined his father Mike's agency, The Telamon Insurance Network, as a producer in 2001, he found the agency in a reactive mode. Like many other insurance professionals, Greg had taken a circuitous route into the insurance business. In college he studied business administration with a concentration in marketing, information management systems, and entrepreneurship. He says that technology was always a love, but he didn't see himself as being well suited for programming, given that he also loves "to talk to people, to sell, and to be creative." So, once he graduated, Greg pursued the non-stop opportunities he saw in software sales, and spent several years going after those opportunities. From time to time, though, Mike reminded Greg of the non-stop opportunities that insurance sales offered. It wasn't long before Greg found himself doing the thing he never envisioned himself doing: joining the family agency.
Once on board, Greg found that he wasn't able to manage his sales contacts as effectively as he knew he could. Other producers in the agency took varied approaches to managing their contacts--anything from Outlook to Palm Desktop. At the heart of the problem, Greg soon discovered, was the agency management system. It was sorely out of date. Policy detail was virtually nonexistent in the system. "Work-arounds" were essential and, as a result, workflows were inconsistent. And where there's inconsistency, there's wasted time and money. Consistency, on the other hand, would bring about improved productivity and, thus, increased profits. With some 50 employees and a second location in New York, the Newton, Massachusetts-based Telamon Insurance Network needed to bring law and order to the "Wild West" approach to technology that producers and CSRs were using.
Always one to focus on the "opportunity" rather than the "problem," Greg knew this situation required some action, but he wasn't sure what the appropriate action was. One of his clients was an outsource vendor that specializes in the development and implementation of technology solutions. So it made sense to work with them in an effort to assess what the agency's technology status really was. For starters, the firm performed an audit of Telamon's hardware. Given that the hardware was as old as the agency management system, Greg wasn't surprised when the outsource vendor recommended replacing all the hardware--the servers, the back-end networking, the desktop computers, and printers. By taking that significant--not to mention expensive--first step, Greg notes that the agency had moved from a reactive to a proactive mode.
James R. Hickey, Telamon's IT Engineer, will handle the technology nuts and bolts in addition to being the "go-to" person for the organization's new agency management system.
That still left the agency limping along on its aged agency management system, so Greg began evaluating agency management systems. Managing a system in-house is demanding at best and even with the right people on staff, Greg didn't want a Telamon staff member to have to shoulder that responsibility. His experience in software sales had convinced him that an ASP-based system would serve this aspect of Telamon's needs the best. At the same time, he wanted a "tried and true" solution that was based on current technology. And, recalling what put Greg on this path in the first place, he wanted a system that had a well-developed sales management system. The decision process included input from an automation team that included individuals from management as well as individuals from the organization's four divisions: retail, wholesale, financial services, and loss control. Ultimately, Telamon decided on AMS 360 because, in addition to being an ASP and based on current technology, it could support the agency's divisions. (See Rough Notes' June 2003 issue for an overview of AMS 360.)
Change management experts point out that analytical skills are essential to the success of a change agent--which is what Greg had become since he began looking at the inefficiencies within the Telamon organization. Key among those analytical skills is the ability to analyze workflows and systems. And that's what Greg helped the automation team do in its quest for a new agency management system. With that solution in place, Greg says Telamon is well positioned to achieve its goal of doubling in size in five years.
Reinvent yourself
The change management process often requires that the design of the organization itself change. At Telamon, new staff positions were created to take into consideration the strides the agency was making with respect to technology and workflows. Greg became director of IT (although he still works as a producer as time permits) and represents the organization's technology needs on the management team as well as on the board of directors. Initially, that meant he would guide the agency toward a new agency management system. Now that the system is up and running, he's taken on a slightly different role. In some circles, it's referred to as MBWA: managing by walking around. "I'm prepared to walk around the office and answer questions to help people get their jobs done. And I intend to do that for as long as it takes to get everyone in the organization comfortable with the new agency management system."
Greg anticipates there will be an important byproduct of that MBWA approach. He'll be able to identify those staff members who have the stronger technology skills. They, in turn, can assist coworkers when questions arise about how to do what in the new system.
Earlier this year, Greg hired Jim Hickey as the organization's IT engineer. Greg notes that Jim will handle the technology nuts and bolts--everything from installing a new server, should the need arise, to addressing issues at the desktop level. "Generally, insurance people don't like to spend money on technology. They don't see that it really brings money in the door. And to hire somebody to manage that technology--that's pretty far-fetched, too. But we've made a big investment in both hardware and software," Greg notes, "so we need to secure that investment." And given the breadth of the investment, he says Telamon needed to redesign itself in this way.
The position of chief operations officer was also added to the Telamon organizational chart and Dominic Sestito was hired recently to fill that position. In this position, Dominic is examining Telamon's internal operation--the technology, workflows, and customer service. Earlier this year, Greg says he and Dominic wrote down all the agency procedures because there was no such record with the old agency management system. This workflow document will serve as Telamon's version of Technology Best Practices. Greg says staff members will be required to adhere to the prescribed workflows. In fact, Dominic is working with the management team to restructure the incentive plan so that a piece of the plan will monitor how closely each person follows the Telamon Technology Best Practices. However, Greg observes, people aren't motivated by money alone. The motivation needs to be recognition-based as well. "We need to figure out what that recognition is going to be," he says, "especially for those individuals who go above and beyond in learning the system and helping co-workers.
"We're moving from the dark ages of technology to the new age of technology," Greg continues. "Everybody--management, CSRs, producers, accounting--is going to tie into the success of the new agency management system. He notes that the new system is intuitive, given that it's browser-based. Nonetheless, Telamon purchased 14 days of on-site training from AMS. The training will be parceled out incrementally. Two days have already been devoted to the Effective Implementation Class which teaches organizations that are preparing to go live how to do the accounting and customer service setup. Four days of training occurred in March at the time Telamon went live on AMS 360. Greg anticipates the remaining eight days of training will be apportioned in two four-day blocks before June. This approach will give people time to get comfortable with what they've learned and will not bombard them with too much information.
Change management experts point out that strong people skills--those communication and interpersonal capabilities--are the skills that are needed most when an organization is undergoing significant changes. Greg says Telamon will keep the lines of communication open to help everyone get the most from the new system and in the process help Telamon Insurance Network achieve the goals set out in its business plan. "Technology touches every piece of the business plan in some way and, for each division to achieve its goals, everybody needs to be pulling in the same direction," he points out.
Changing management systems is an enormous undertaking, as anyone who's been through it will tell you. And as The Telamon Insurance Network has discovered, managing that change is as much about leadership as it is about management skill. *
For more information:
The Telamon Insurance Network
Web site: www.telamonins.com