I got some great feed back on my blog Reflecting On User Group Meetings. Thanks to all that commented at this blog, on facebook and via twitter. I used a picture in the previous post that showed the audience bored and asleep. I have attended many user group meetings where, while no one had their head on a table they were dosing or not paying attention. In order to get a different result you must plan what and who should attend.

This is how I plan for any user group meeting that I am planning to attend. I also used this plan when I owned an agency and when I supervised staff that would be attending these meetings.

1.  Review the agenda thoroughly as soon as it is published.

2.  Map out sessions that are:

• Critical – must attend
• Interesting – would like to attend if time allows

3.  Who needs to attend?

• Think about this very carefully. The CEO of the agency attending a session on how to structure a word merge template is probably not the correct individual for this type of session. Select the the staff members in the agency that will be interested and engaged in the sessions.
• Verify with these individuals that they are available and get these dates booked on their schedules immediately.

4.  Register early

• Early Bird registration is a good value. This is especially important when several people will be attending.
• Some meetings required that each attendee register for their chosen sessions on line. It is very important to do this as early as possible so that you secure the sessions that are important to your firm.
• Make appointments with those individuals you might need to meet with from the vendor, exhibitors or in the user group. Pre-arranging these meetings will assure you of a time. Waiting until you arrive may find you out-in-the-cold.

5.  Make hotel and plane reservations well in advance. I find that staff is more comfortable if they know all the plans sooner than later. They usually need to share this information with their family. Often, they need to make arrangements for child and/or pet care.

6.  Make a plan for how the office will function in the absence of those attending the meeting. Today’s technology allows for instant/constant communication. However, it is important that those attending the meeting be as detached from the office as possible. Attendees cannot learn if they are not in the session because they are in the hallway on a call or sending emails during the meeting.

7.  Have a plan for how each attendee is going to capture what they hear and learn in the sessions.

• Many meetings today put meeting handouts online for download prior to arrival at the meeting. Downloading these to make notes on may be the way that works best for some attendees.
• Some meetings have tables available and attendees are welcome to bring their laptops for taking notes.
• Some meetings sell recordings of some sessions.

8.  How is this wealth of knowledge going to be shared back at the office?

• There may be some sessions that the agency decides to purchase the recording(s) for. In this case, the staff that would benefit would listen individually or as a group.
• A plan needs to be in place for the formal sharing of written notes in electronic or printed form. These should also be discussed in group sessions so the real flavor of what the session was about can be shared.

9.  What is the reward for those that remain at the office. In large corporations this is usually not a consideration. However, in a small to mid-size agency it might be an important consideration. If you are going to a user group meeting to achieve real business you will be very busy and usually tired at the end of each day. But let’s face it, we all know there is fun time also. You might consider a half day off for each of those that carried the load for those attending the meeting. Everyone always appreciates some extra time off.

I am sure I have overlooked an important point here. Please chime in via comments anything else that you think is important when planning to attend a user group meeting. These are expensive. You should get the most for your money.

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Insurance Agency processes, insurance agency workflows, insurance agency user group meetings, facebook, twitter

I am on my way to a user group meeting. I have been to many of these over the years. User groups vary in size and the structure of their meetings. Generally they are structured on the premise of providing information and training to their user base. Some user groups do a better job at this than other do. Does this picture look familiar.? Have you ever felt like this during a session or several sessions?

So what is your pan for attending the next user group meeting for one of your agency’s products?

• Who will attend?

• What sessions will each person be attending?

• How will information learned at the meeting be shared with the rest of the agency?

I would like your feed back on how your agency would answer these questions. I would also like to hear what you and your agency expect your user group to do for you.

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Insurance Agency management system, technology, technology user group meetings.

Last week I attended my first Apple school session. My One-On-One session was great. Rachel, my instructor, was knowledgeable, had great teaching skills and was fully engaged in our session. However, it was a challenge to keep my people watching habit under control and pay attention to why I was there.

This picture is not exactly representative of the two different groups I saw that morning. The 8AM group was entirely made up of over 65 students. One couple had brought in their desktop Mac and were working together with their instructor. Now sharing a computer is just not in my thought process. For a number of years Gene and I shared my laptop when we traveled together, but we rarely do that any longer. We usually travel with two laptops. I am not sure how you would negotiate who gets to use the computer when.

In the 9AM group which I was attending there was a father and his teenage daughter who is being home schooled. However, I was the youngest of the other attendees. Again in this group there was a retired couple with their desktop Mac. There was more than one occasion when there seemed to be some dispute within the couple as to how they were going to set up different areas of their system.

I have to say this may have been the quickest hour ever. I thinking I’m booking back-to-back sessions next time. There is still much to learn and master.

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technology, macbookpro, apple school, learning

I have been thinking about a new laptop for awhile. My current one is 4 years old and giving me a good deal of grief. When we visited with our granddaughter in September she had acquired a MacBook Pro. She is studying graphic arts and the classes require that she use Mac software. I enjoyed using her MacBook and added this to my list of considerations. I have spent a great deal of time researching what I want. I am tied to a windows computer in order to work with certain programs used by my clients. So who says I can’t have two laptops? Here she is all dressed up and ready for the party(ies).

Most people consider a change in technology as difficult. When I have mentioned to some of my friends and business associates, my thought of getting a Mac they have just rolled their eyes. However, there are others that think it is an awesome idea. So a few days ago I took the plunge. It arrived Friday while I was at a meeting in Dallas. When I arrived home there was other mail and packages waiting for me on the kitchen table. One of them was the new skin I purchased for the laptop. Check out skins at Decalgirl.com. My comment was, “all the parts are going to arrive before the laptop”. Some other parts and software had arrived earlier in the week. My husband laughed about it and we went to dinner.

We went to dinner. When we returned and I was through opening all of the mail and packages on the kitchen table, he went to the dining room and brought in the box containing the MacBook. He said he was afraid I wouldn’t want to go to dinner if he let me know it had come earlier than expected. He knows what he is talking about. I just can’t wait to get my hands on new technology when it arrives in the house.

I no longer even know how many windows laptops and desktops I have setup. I usually schedule time in each day to spend time loading software, updating drivers and setting up preferences until a new machine is ready to go. I have probably spent a total of 4 hours learning and setting up the MacBook. I’m off and running. It is intuitive and just fun to use. Now lets see how productive I can be.

One of the big issues I find that every agency I work with has is how to capture conversations the producer has with clients, underwriters, etc.  In some agencies producers aren’t allowed to log into the agency management system to enter their documentation into an activity.  Other agencies that do have producers logging into their system don’t get better results.  Unless a producer has a laptop configured for access to the agency management system, the chances of them to entering this information is nil to none.  Even for those producers with laptops and access to the agency management system, only a minority of them will update the system.

At Aartrijk Brand Camp Nibby Priest of Vaughn Insurance Agency, Henderson, KY asked me why agency management system vendors haven’t developed a way to capture voice – converted text in an activity.  His example is that he currently uses a product PhoneTag which converts voice mails into text.  So why can’t this same concept be used for capturing information into an agency management system activity?

The answer goes back to some of my recent posts about the lack of innovation on the part of agency management system vendors.  I have always believed that if we can think of something a technology should do that there is someone that can make it happen.  But alas agents do not have all the technology tools that they need to be effective in today’s world.

What are other ideas you have about technology you would like to see in your agency management system?

I have previously outlined what I think are a number of issues relating to agency management system vendors not taking proper care of the software and not being future thinking.  I also covered what I think are the issues agencies have in resolving issues with their agency management system.

I promised in my last post that I would share with you some ideas I think will help you achieve better results with your system and with getting results from  your vendor.

1st Steps when there is a problem:

• Have you checked out help to be sure that the system is being used as intended by the vendor?
• Have you checked with the vendor to determine if this is a known problem?  Do they have a resolution?  If so, when is that resolution expected to be implemented.
• If it is not already a know problem, it needs to be reported.  Instead of just telling the vendor it doesn’t work, you need to be specific about what is happening.  Some issues are specific to your installation of the system, some apply in all installations of the system.

So what if it is a known issue and there doesn’t seem to be a resolution date?  What if the vendor says they are not going to do anything about the issue in question?  What if you have a new idea and the vendor is resistant?  Some points you should consider:

• Are you a member of the user’s group? – This is a must.
• Are you active in the user’s group? – This means attending every meeting and keeping up with what is going on.
• Does your agency have representation on the user group’s product development committee? – If you want a voice, either have a representative on this committee or communicate with one or more of the members on this committee.
• Do you offer solutions to the issues or just complain?
• Does your issue apply to more than one user or is it something just your agency wants?
• What is the priority of your issue in the list of bugs and enhancements overall?

I learned a long time ago that complaining does not achieve anything expect mark you as a complainer.  When there is an issue, it is best to take one or two solutions with you to the discussion.  If the issue is too technical, find someone else in the user group that can assist you with crafting and understanding some solutions.  Think about where in the overall priority list this specific issue should fit.  If you are looking for an enhancement that applies to your agency only, you will probably be looking at custom work and that normally takes some time to fit into the vendors schedule.

Get your thinking cap on.  Think of solutions.  Network and work with others in the user group.  Become part of the solution instead of the complainer.

For the past few days I have been talking about the blind spots of the agency management system vendors.  While I feel that they haven’t moved far enough fast enough.

Agencies spend thousands of hard dollars on agency management systems.  They waste thousands of dollars in using them inefficiently or not using them to their maximum potential.  What leads to this waste?

Poor or lack of definition of standards, procedures and workflows.  Thus everyone one uses the system differently or does not use it in some instances.  So when someone else needs to find information about the client, it may or may not be easily accessible in the system.  While these are huge problems in agencies, I want to concentrate here on the agency’s interaction with their agency management system vendors.

As I previously said, every visit with an agency involves at least one conversation about an issue with their agency management system.  I am often asked to discuss the issue with the vendor.  While every vendor listens, answers questions and thanks me for the input, I have no power and nothing gets done.  Users are going to need to band together and put “REAL” pressure on vendors in order to get things done.

I am not aware of one agency management system that does not have at least one area that is used daily that doesn’t need a “work-around”.  In some systems, agencies tell me that there are one or more of these situations that have existed for one or more years.  Why in this period of time does such an issue get resolved by the vendor.  Sometimes there is not pressure from the users to get the issue fixed.  I find that agencies can’t always effectively communicate the problem to the vendor.  Also, they can’t always communicate how the functionality should work.  Or the vendor is getting conflicting information from various users.

Monday I will talk about some ideas on how to get your message to your vendors.  Please share this blog with others in the insurance industry and add your comments.

For the past two days I have beaten up on you pretty badly.  I know that some of you are making progress, but it seems so very slow and it seems like no innovation is happening.  What I do find is that when a vendor does have something new is that vendors struggle to get the information to their client base in a meaningful way.

I know that usually the information is sent to them prior to release and again at the time of the release.  I know that in some cases the user group also communicates as well.  However, often there are many items in the release notes and the agency is usually just looking to see what has been fixed or an item they are interested in.

Also, it is not always clear to the agency what a new enhancement does or what it will do for them.  This may also apply to functionalities that were in the system at the time the agency implemented system.  You ask, if it was there when the agency implemented the system, why don’t they know about it?  Learning an entire system and all of its functions at the time an agency implements a system is impossible.

I know that some of your are doubting my comments here.  I was at a user group meeting several months ago.  In a session with around 40 people, the presenter answered a user’s question by asking if they had considered using the “x” functionality.  The user just looked at the presenter with a blank look.  The presenter asked how many in the room knew what the “x” functionality was?  Three people out of 40 raised their hands.  I know each of these agencies so I know this functionality was a part of the system when each of them implemented.  While it is a great functionality and is great for what it does, it is not a necessary functionality to get your work processed.  I feel confident that these users were trained on this functionality, however, in getting your work done on a new system you focus on the basic and not always the cool stuff; even if the cool stuff could make it easier. I have implemented new systems and managed the training over a period of months.  Each of us can only absorb so much at a time.  A user must learn new functions and then understand how they work in their workflows before it is totally understood and implemented.

Do you see the challenge here?  I don’t know the best answer for getting user’s in touch with all the functionalities and the new innovations, but I’m thinking about it.  I am talking to agencies about how they would like to receive this type of information.  I’ll be back with the information when I have it compiled.

While I have put a lot of blame on the vendors the users play a part in this slowness in progress as well.  I will talk about that beginning in tomorrow’s post.  Please comment on these posts and join in the conversation.

As promised in yesterday’s post today I am going to talk about Real Time and future enhancements.  I recently read a blog that said if you are just keeping up with technology you are behind.  You must be looking to the future and anticipating what your clients will need and want.

At a recent industry event they asked each of us to tell them what we wanted to hear about and get out of the event.  I said that I wanted to hear their thoughts and planning on the use of touch screen technology. 

Their response was "interesting" and they continued to move around the room for other’s comments.  In the two days we were there this particular subject was never discussed.  However, somewhere in the discussions another subject was raised about future technology trends and  the essence of the response was; We can’t get the users to learn the system they have today, how are we going to deal with more technology or why would we want to.  Not every vendor has this approach but I find that at least 50% do.

I believe that it has taken far too long to have the functionalities needed for Real Time.  What I heard in the meeting cited seems to always have been the attitude of both the agency management system vendors and the insurance carriers as well.  Microsoft Word does things I haven’t even thought of.  But Microsoft doesn’t write the program to my level.  They write the program to the desires and needs of their most advanced users.

Agencies need better Real Time now.  Where are their client portals?  How difficult can this be?  I’ve been banking online for how many years?  If they can give us our information securely why can’t agency management systems?  Why isn’t there two way communication between the agency managements system and Smart Phones?  Some struggle to do one way communication correctly.  My personal pet peeve, why can’t we do drag-and-drop with our attachments that are outside the system that need to be inside the system?  Some systems don’t allow the attachment of voice (.wav) files.  What’s up with this?

I don’t really consider these functions of the future.  These should all be functionalities that are working now.  Then we could be talking about touch screen, Smart Phone applications and a wealth of other ideas.  Tomorrow the subject will be data and ACORD forms.

In the past few weeks I have been asked by two different sources for information and opinions on issues with agency management systems.  One of these inquires was about Real Time, client portals and new functionalities.  The other was about systems being current with ACORD forms.  My response to each spurred me on to write about this issue.

This will take more than one post.  Your clients have a lot they want me to discuss with you.

Every visit with an agency involves at least one conversation about an issue with their agency management system.  I am often asked to discuss the issue with the vendor.  While every vendor listens, answers questions and thanks me for the input, I have no power and nothing gets done.  Users are going to need to band together and put “REAL” pressure on vendors in order to get things done.

I was told many years ago by a very insightful agency owner to never, never trust the vendor.  This was long before agency management systems.  I thought he meant the salesperson.  And in that day and time that was mostly the case.  However, today it goes beyond sales.  More than once in my career, I have been the consultant that got to deliver the news to an agency that their system did not do some function as promised.  In response to this I have heard bad words (not directed at me), seen tears and had individuals leave the room to be physically ill.

Many of my past conversations with vendors and their programmers and even programmers of private systems tell me that they have no idea of the impact of non working functions in systems.  They don’t even understand the issues with extra clicks in getting a process accomplished.

Tomorrow I will discuss Real Time and future enhancements.  I will be attending the ACT Meeting in New Orleans this week.  Agents, please feel free to discuss your issues with me.  They will be held in confidence.  Vendors I would love to have meaningful conversations with you as well.  To my friends, if you see it getting ugly, please come to my rescue.