TECHNOLOGY

TURNING INFORMATION INTO ANSWERS

SilverPlume enhances its Sage product
to provide better access to information

By Len Strazewski

Christina Nelson, President and CEO of SilverPlume.

As insurance markets change, so does an agency's need for risk management and underwriting forms and information--and Sage, the multipurpose information tool from SilverPlume in Boulder, Colorado, is evolving again to meet those changing needs, says SilverPlume President Christina Nelson.

When insurance markets are competitive and underwriters are hungry for premium volume, risk information isn't a high priority and a broker's proposal preparation may be less extensive, Nelson explains.

But when markets continue to be rock hard and head into their third year of rate increases, information is power and a good insurance information tool can make a critical difference, she says.

The newest version of Sage, which became available to all subscribers in January 2004, features a new look that gives agents and brokers more efficient access to the comprehensive information library, Nelson says.

Introduced in 2001 as a new development in the evolution of SilverPlume's CD-ROM-based subscription library, Sage introduced agents, brokers and underwriters to comprehensive online data searching and a library of dozens of news, education, and industry sources as well as hundreds of insurance markets.

Throughout 2002, the company added new online information sources, including more markets, Insurance Services Office manuals and National Council on Compensation Insurance content.

In 2003, the company focused on improving its online interface and responding to the needs of its 30,000 individual registered users who were facing continued challenges in the present market, Nelson says. The Sage user base includes agents, brokers, risk managers and employees of many of the largest insurance companies.

"We listened to customers and understood that they had access to a tremendous amount of information, but we needed to help them find answers more quickly. Lots of information was available, but it wasn't always easy to find," Nelson points out.

SilverPlume applied its long-term slogan to Sage: "Turning Information into Answers" and enhanced the product with the user's needs for answers in mind, she says.

The new interface was redesigned to make more information accessible through menus and tables of contents and was available for user testing in late 2003.

Among the newest features is a reorganized home page which groups a subscriber's chosen content sources according to type rather than product name. Sage provides a core set of information for all insurance professionals, including:

--ACORD forms

--Business and industries profiles

--Recommended coverage checklists

--Commercial lines coverage analysis

--Comprehensive general liability/workers compensation classification cross references

--Exposure analysis checklists

--International information

--Insurance dictionary

--SIC and NAIC codes

The company also provides additional content packaged for the specific industry needs of agents and brokers, underwriters and risk managers, as well as custom designs.

The packages also include expanded loss control information--particularly useful in the contemporary market, executives say.

The new enhanced version organizes information sources into key categories in the upper half of the home page for easier access, notes Nelson. The categories include: ACORD forms, Class Tables, Company Content, ISO and Related, Markets, NCCI and Related, Publishers, Reference, Risk Analysis, and Sample Proposals and Letters.

The middle of the home page features insurance news headlines from Insurance Journal and the lower half of the page provides access to Web resources and tools, including links to a wide variety of associations and online resources. They include the American Association of Insurance Services, Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, National Flood Insurance Program, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and state government Web sites.

The lower half also features links to state insurance department Web sites, the UL certification Web site, A.M. Best ratings search, the ISO-specific property information site, and a short rate and prorate calculator.

Less obvious to users is a reconstructed search result display that provides more effective "grouped" search results, says SilverPlume Vice President Steve Hirsch. The search results are grouped according to individual book, publisher or category to improve the user's prospect of getting the right information faster, Hirsch says. The earlier version of the Sage search engine required users to enter words that would be used to search for content from the subscriber information sources and then delivered the search results according to "relevance" or rank, based on the choice of search words.

Hirsch says the reorganized interface allows users to "drill down" more effectively into their favorite content sources to access the information they seek directly from the home page. He points out that users can still search the old way, but now they can search within a category, or a single book or publisher to find the information they want. "We have embedded new functions into the search engine FOR that group and then answer more efficiently. As a result, the user can choose search results from menus that indicate information type and sources," he says.

Agency testers appreciate the redesign

Lawley Genesee, LLC in Batavia, New York, one of eight offices of the Lawley Service Insurance Group of Companies based in Buffalo, warns its clients that insurance premiums are on the rise and that they can expect increases at renewal--perhaps as much as 15% to 20%.

Harry Lown, a producer at Lawley Genesee, uses Sage to help him prepare for commercial renewals and the increasing demands for accurate risk information from underwriters. He says the new interface and search engine improves his own efficiency with the online tool.

"I've always been a big fan of Sage and the new interface is so much better for accurate searching," he says. "Not every user searches properly, with just the right keywords for the content they want. Now I can select the way I want to search.

"The new method allows me to search very simply with a single word like 'crime' and follow the menus that result to the information I want."

Lown also likes the new home page and the more immediate access to all the content sources and tools. "Whenever you finish your information search, you can easily return to the home page and get faster access to the list of content, including the Web tools, which had been less accessible in the earlier version," he says.

The SilverPlume management team includes (from left), Christopher

Fred A. Moreton Co. in Salt Lake City, Utah, also tested the new Sage interface from several user perspectives, notes Quality Control Coordinator Marilyn Allred. The agency separates inside account representatives and outside producers who use the Sage information in different ways. Both sides of the house were pleased with the new access to information, Allred says.

"I tend to use Sage whenever I need information to help classify a risk," explains Account Representative Helen Irwin. "The interface gets me to the classification information faster and allows me to work through the related information more easily."

Irwin also uses the database's market listings for shopping among insurers and the home page groupings accelerate the process, she says.

Sage has replaced dozens of ISO manuals that were scattered around the office, adds producer Marcia Wing. "I used to have to dig through all the ISO manuals and all the other written documentation from our resources. Not only is all the information available through Sage, the new home page organizes it so I can find what I need easily, even without using the search function," she says.

Wing has used the previous Sage database for risk information and sample letters and brochures, but she now finds the service particularly useful in developing client education programs on advanced risk management topics, such as self-funding designs for workers compensation, she adds.

As market conditions continue to be difficult for workers compensation and other lines of coverage, clients continue to pepper her with more sophisticated questions. "It's not Insurance 101 anymore; it's more like Insurance 501--the advanced course. Sage helps me pull the information together easily," she says. *

For more information:

SilverPlume
Contact: Shaun McNeill
Phone: (800) 677-4442, Ext. 329
E-mail: smcneill@silverplume.com
Web site: www.silverplume.com