August 28, 2007 by Steve.

Outsourcing. Just saying the word out loud raises questions and emotions. During several recent presentations, I have started talking about outsourcing as an option that agencies should consider. In fact, a few agencies have already started hiring staff from another country to work for them. That said, many agency owners and staff react negatively to the thought of outsourcing. They ask: “Why would we take a job and move it overseas? What would my clients think?” These are valid concerns.

While outsourcing is not a good option for every agency, I do believe it is something that agency owners should at least consider. Thinking about outsourcing strategically allows you to select functions or specific tasks that can be done less expensively — and often more accurately — by someone not located in your agency.

As an example, I recently received a phone call from a person at a small agency in South Carolina who asked if I knew of any resources they could utilize to hire remote staff. The agency owner explained that he was very frustrated with the problems he had encountered trying to hire staff locally. When he did hire someone, he spent a significant amount of time and resources training that individual. Inevitably, the person left the agency just when he or she was becoming productive. This particular agency had already outsourced all of its accounting functions to a US-based firm that specializes in insurance agency accounting. The agency owner was very happy with the arrangement and wanted to explore a similar arrangement for other positions in the agency.

Where to outsource

Specific transactions: Review transactions that are completed in the agency that don’t add value, such as issuing standard certificates of insurance, or as described above, accounting functions.

A staff person: There is a growing list of agencies that have hired people located in China or India to work full-time for the agency. These people access the agency systems using a remote connection. The cost advantage is significant.

A virtual assistant: A growing number of people are hiring assistants to complete time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks. A friend of mine, who is a CEO of a large publishing company in Nashville, requires his direct reports to hire a virtual assistant for personal or business tasks. He gives them a $500 budget. He told me that he requires this so his staff will gain practical experience in how outsourcing can work.

Simple data entry: I’m currently working with an agency that is changing to a new management system. They have determined they are not going to convert any data from the old system. To reduce the amount of keystrokes necessary to get data into the new system, we have come up with three strategies. First, we will do initial downloads from their carriers. Then we will use the import function on the new system to import large schedules. Finally, we will hire (i.e., outsource) data entry for any items that are left. This allows staff to concentrate on their strengths and not waste time on simple data entry.

Outsourcing raises many questions. How do you find someone? What about security? What tasks can be assigned? How do you monitor quality? Be sure to consider each of these questions before you even think about outsourcing.
 
In my experience, using outsourcing strategically in an agency can build your competitive advantage. What’s your opinion?

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August 21, 2007 by Steve.

Most people only use Microsoft Word. There are some occasions, however, when you might need a simple word processor to create a quick letter or make quick notes. Google has created a new package of services called Google Docs and Spreadsheets. Anyone can sign up for this service by registering at http://docs.google.com.

With this service, you can create documents or worksheets online without installing software on a local machine. You can then save the documents either in a private storage space on Google’s servers or on your own computer. Basic formatting tools, such as bulleted lists, fonts, and Excel-compatible formulas are included. Most notably, several people can work on the same document or worksheet at the same time – and edits appear in real time. There is also a chat / IM feature so you can have a side conversation while working on a document. This can be very helpful if you have people in different offices who need to work on the same document (e.g. a proposal). You can also grant people ‘read only’ access so they can see a document or worksheet online.

Document formats supported are the current MS Office formats (.doc, .xls, etc.) and OpenDoc formats (.odt, .ods, etc.). Interestingly, you can also save in PDF format as well as HTML Web pages. The HTML option enables you to create Web pages via Google Docs to be viewed as standard Web pages. Files less than 500k can be imported in HTML, plain text, .doc, or .rtf formats. Note: .xls is not listed as a format that can be imported.

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August 6, 2007 by Steve.

Communicating with someone used to be easy. You could simply pick up the phone and give them a call, or sit down and write a note. Fast forward a few years and you now have the Internet making it easy to type an electronic message from your computer or your cell phone. This massive change in how we communicate with others has taken place in a relatively short period of time. Many agents now tell me that e-mail is their primary means of communicating with most clients.

Yet this new communication option has introduced problems into the agency workflow. In fact, I believe that sending and receiving e-mail is currently the biggest drain on productivity for many, if not most, agencies. People are surprised when I make this comment. They contend that e-mail has made it quicker and easier, and takes less time than other forms of communication. I agree with them, but only up to a point.

The problem, as I see it, is that we are allowing e-mail to manage us instead of learning to proactively manage the e-mail that we deal with every day. Like any new form of communication, we need to learn how to use it as an effective tool. Some of the problems I see with e-mail include responding to e-mail as soon as it comes into your Outlook inbox and reading an e-mail but, because we don’t know what to do with it, we leave it in our inbox.

Because paper and fax have been around as communication options for some time we have learned how to manage them well. We can take some of those same principles and apply them to e-mail. Here are some ideas you can use to help everyone start learning to manage e-mail like any other communication.

1) Turn off all notifications for when you receive a new e-mail. There are very few e-mails that are received by staff in an agency that have to be answered immediately. With alerts turned on every time a new e-mail arrives the natural tendency is to switch over to your e-mail client and read the new e-mail. If you’re in the middle of a difficult task your concentration is broken and it will take a few minutes for you to figure out where you were and get started again.

2) Train yourself to review e-mails on a consistent basis. If you’re not being notified when new e-mails arrive, you need to make sure you go to your inbox on a consistent basis to review the new e-mail received. A friend of mine, a CEO of a large corporation, recently decided that he would only answer e-mail twice a day, late in the morning and before he leaves for work at night.

3) David Allen, author of the book ”Getting Things Done” (highly recommended), suggests that when you are processing your new e-mails you follow this rule. If you can answer the e-mail, or take other action required in two minutes or less, go ahead and answer the e-mail immediately. If it will take longer than two minutes then move the e-mail to a pending folder to work on later. You then review the pending folder at a predetermined time to complete the work. This allows you to complete easy e-mail and concentrate on more difficult tasks when you have the time.

I have followed this advice to try and better manage the large volume of e-mails I receive. I strongly recommend that you begin experimenting with ways to better manage e-mail communications, both for yourself and your staff. You’ll be less frustrated and your clients will experience better service.

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August 1, 2007 by Steve.

For quite some time I have wanted to use a postage meter but, because of the small volume of mail I send, could just not justify the monthly rental expense. I looked into using an Internet postage account but was put off by the monthly fee. When visiting an agency recently I went to a small (15 people) satellite location that used a solution which I ended up purchasing.

Endicia DYMO Stamps allows you to print official U.S. Postal Service postage labels using the provided software and a DYMO label printer. When printed on DYMO Stamps labels, this postage can be used just like the stamps you buy from the Post Office. Using the included scale (connected to your computer via a USB cable) you can weigh any envelope or package up to 5 pounds. Once your mailpiece has the appropriate postage applied and is ready to go, simply hand it to your mail carrier or drop it off at your local Post Office.

Your no-monthly-fee Endicia DYMO Stamps account is simply a bank account for postage. You buy postage over the Internet and the purchase amount is added to your account. Each time you print postage, the postage amount is deducted, with no per-stamp fee or monthly service charge.

Postage must be printed on USPS-approved DYMO Stamps labels (30915). These labels are specially treated to be recognized by the US Postal Service scanners. Postage printed with DYMO Stamps is not date sensitive. You can print postage today and use it any time in the future. If the postal rates change, just print an additional postage label to bring the total postage to that required for your mailpiece. At present, refunds are not available for DYMO Stamps postage printed in error. Before printing postage, you should make sure the amount of postage for each label is correct and that DYMO Stamps will print to the label printer with DYMO Stamps labels loaded.

The total cost will depend on what you purchase. This is a great postage solution for a small office or home office that wants to use something other than regular stamps.

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