Is an intranet the answer your agency has been looking for?
By Jennifer Lien
Technology Representative – Northern Plains Region
Independent insurance agents are facing an interesting predicament these days – keeping track of all their user Ids and passwords for carriers’ Web sites, especially when some passwords must be changed regularly. Some agencies have adopted a time-saving solution – making one person responsible for tracking and updating passwords and then communicating them to all staff via an agency intranet.
Mark Ohling does this for his coworkers at Boen and Associates in Sioux Falls, S.D. "Our intranet is a great place to centrally place usernames and passwords," he says. "I go in once a week or so to change passwords so that no one else in the agency has to take care of this or keep track of where they keep this information."
An agency intranet can have countless benefits. As an internal Web site that only members of a private network can access, it offers a powerful tool for communication and collaboration, presenting data and information in one easily accessible location.
The advantages of an agency intranet are obvious:
- Save time and a tree
. You can post a document once on the intranet instead of making multiple copies and distributing them.
- Ease of use
. Intranets provide user-friendly interfaces for people to find information and centralized data storage.
- Dynamic information.
The document you’re viewing is always the most up-to-date version.
Some of the documents and processes that agencies have moved to an intranet platform include:
- employee handbooks
- benefits information
- employee surveys
- newsletters
- telephone and e-mail directory
- Information Systems user documentation
- useful Internet links, including all carriers’ sites
- Company and/or department announcements
- meeting minutes
- expense reports
- time sheets
- group schedules/calendars
- important agency measures
An online directory is especially useful for storing individuals’ names and their most recent contact information, accessible with a quick search function. The list could be organized into groups like employees, vendors, clients, and carriers.
A group calendar allows the staff to view an updated version of all employees’ schedules, which you and others could continually access, update and change.
Another possible feature is an intranet "dashboard," which visually displays success measures that are important to agency employees. The dashboard could track agency loss ratios, written premium, United Way contributions, employee recognition programs, or new customers.
An intranet is surprisingly inexpensive to implement. If your agency already has a network in place, chances are you won’t need to upgrade your hardware, since intranet software will run on most any network "plumbing." You’ll need Web layout software, and employees must have desktop Web access. For security, firewalls must be installed to protect from potential hackers on the Internet.
Depending on the complexity of the site, one employee could maintain the agency intranet, possibly spending only a few hours each month. Needless to say, the initial concept and creation would take longer. Merry Koch from RJF Agencies, Inc., in Minneapolis, is in the beginning stages of creating her agency’s intranet, which she expects will be a two-month project.
"The decision to implement an intranet was driven by the need for a central location for various documents and forms. Our agency is growing so fast that we need one location for everything," Merry says. "This will be so much nicer – nobody needs all of this paper!"
For more information about agency intranets, contact your region’s technology representative.
About the author: Jennifer Lien holds a Bachelor of Science degree in risk management and insurance, an Associate in Risk Management designation and is working toward an Associate in Insurance Technology designation. Jennifer has experience as an account manager in a national carrier’s underwriting department and agency experience. She joined General Casualty in 2001 when the Company created the technology representative position to serve as technology consultants, advocates, trainers and problem-solvers for its independent agency force.
For more information please contact Anne M. Smith.