Savoy Associates is pleased to introduce Ellen Huber, our Director of Management Information Systems, and our resident webmaster and programming expert.

Ellen joined Savoy Associates in January of 2005, at which time we had undertaken an intensive initiative to redesign our website.  Ellen’s guidance was critical even during the initial design stages, as she was able to direct the committee’s brainstorming sessions and clearly indicate which ideas would indeed be feasible – or impossible – to implement on the new site.  With 20 years of programming, project management, and application development experience, Ellen has greatly broadened the scope of Savoy Associates’ online services.  She is currently working on the next release of www.savoyassociates.com, where she can continue to showcase her talent for turning abstract ideas (i.e. our technology dreams!) into real online functionalities that can benefit both Savoy Associates and our broker partners.

Ellen has also enabled our organization to achieve an amazing new level of efficiency through the automation of many administrative processes.  This newly applied computer technology saves valuable employee time – and can obviously perform at a much greater level of accuracy than human beings can; specifically at numerical and/or repetitive tasks.  Ellen and her MIS teammate, Beth Fell, have quickly become home-town heroes in our offices, because they love to say: “Yes, that can be done. “Yes, you can have that report.” “Yes, we can track those results.” “Yes, we can automate that!”

Indeed, most of the time, it is possible to reorganize data into meaningful reports, or to completely automate a process…things that may seem like overwhelming undertakings to us non-technical insurance professionals.  However, with proper guidance or advice from an experienced, business-savvy I.T. professional, you may find that your office-automation dreams are not only possible to achieve, but they are also more affordable than first thought as well.  With a growing repertoire of off-the-shelf programs now available to I.T. professionals, time spent actually programming (i.e. writing code) can be greatly decreased as they may be able to simply customize an off-the-shelf reporting, accounting, customer relationship management, or intranet program to interface effectively with your existing agency management software.  And, these shortcuts could save you a significant amount of money, by both lowering your immediate programming costs and by gaining in office efficiency and reporting functions.

The key to success is to start with a solid foundation.  Investing in your organization’s technology infrastructure - powerful computers with sufficient memory, a secure network, high-speed Internet access, etc. – creates the “backbone” necessary to support a wide array of software applications.  These can be sophisticated, custom developed applications written specifically for your business, or they can be off-the-shelf programs that you purchase.  Many commercial software packages today are built on industry-standard platforms, making them customizable and capable of interfacing effectively with other applications in your systems environment.  This scenario offers the best of both worlds: you can purchase a relatively low cost software package which provides most of the basic functionality you need, and then only pay for a small amount of customization to achieve your complete solution.  Just be sure to only purchase software packages that use non-proprietary data formats, and that come from reputable vendors who are going to stay in business long enough to answer your questions!

That being said, a lot of programming, automation and/or reporting shortcuts can be had through that old, multi-functional, grossly under-utilized standby: Microsoft Excel.  Whether you’re an independent producer or the owner of a large brokerage agency, chances are that you may use Excel quite regularly, yet remain unaware of the program’s more advanced capabilities.

According to Ellen, “Microsoft Excel is a broker's best tool for managing, organizing, and presenting business data.”  Some quick tips from Ellen and Beth include the following:

• Did you know that Excel can easily import data from databases like Microsoft Access or SQL Server?  If you already use an agency management program to manage your business data, chances are that you can use Microsoft Excel to pull data out of that system for building spreadsheets and reports.  No double-entry of data required!
• If you are presenting lots of information to clients, consider using charts! Excel’s Chart Wizard is quick and easy – even for a novice.  The standard chart types include bar, column and pie, all allowing for a three-dimensional effect.   Charts may be annotated with titles, labels and legends so that the viewer can absorb the data within seconds.  And lastly, the best part about charts is that they are linked directly to the data, so that when the numbers change, so does your chart!
• Pivot tables are infinitely useful when it comes to analyzing multi-dimensional data.  Want to see how many contracts you wrote in 2006 by carrier and plan design?  It’s easy with a pivot table.  Want to change your report to show commission earned in addition to contract count?  No problem!  Want to see all of this broken down by individual producer within your agency?  By month?  By state?   With pivot tables, you can do all this and more.  Just drag, drop, and you’re done!  And the best part is that no programming is required!

To learn much more, and to pose your own questions to Ellen Huber and Beth Fell, please check our Events Calendar for the following periodic CE courses, “Excel for the Insurance Professional”, and “Advanced Excel for the Insurance Professional”, or feel free to contact us if you have any special requirements that we can assist with.  And, please remember: feedback regarding savoyassociates.com is essential to its future development, and is always welcome!