In one agency I worked in for a number of years I saw two things happen that so defines such differences and discussions. The time period 1970 – 1974. A lifetime ago right? I think you will recognize that similar issues exist today.

The Nonconformist Son – The owner’s middle son joined the firm after returning from his time in the military. The middle son had a great education, life experiences, a wide range of connections and many friends. Actually not so different from the Dad. Yet their work visions and habits were very different. The three of us actually shared a workspace so I heard almost all of their conversations. Many were very uncomfortable. The Dad was very successful. A diligent task master. Ethics beyond reproach. A great teacher. A really great mentor to his staff. However, not all of that transferred to his son. He somehow expected his son to understand how things were done and just get too it.

The son’s approach was much more his own style. Having lunch with his prospects and clients. Playing golf and tennis with them, etc. I’ve learned over the years that some of these great differences come from the Dad being influenced by the Great Depression and WWII and the son being living in a much different time period. Ultimately, the son left the firm and moved onto a very successful career outside the insurance industry.

The Loss of a Major Account – Same agency owner here. Of course the agency owner was personal friends with the owners of his major accounts. In the early 70s most of the business in our area were family owned instead of being corporations with boards of directors and owners located elsewhere. This particular account had many family members involved in the ownership and daily operation of the business. We also wrote the personal lines business of almost this entire family along with numerous employees of the firm.

The senior member and personal friend of my boss passed away after a short illness. The line of succession in the firm had been decided a number of years and the Dad of that firm had been grooming the son so that such a transition would mean no interruption in the business. About three months after the passing of the firm’s owner the son walked into the agency with all of their firm’s insurance policies in his hand. He sat at my boss’s desk and signed the front of each policy with his name, a request to cancel and the date. It was a very somber day in our office.

A few weeks later when I was processing the return premium invoices my boss and I had a conversation about this. I asked what he thought had happened. We had always made sure that anyone connected with the firm was well taken care of. There had been no negative claim issues. No apparent problems. His reply to me was that he had not taken the time or thought it necessary to build a relationship with the son that was now in the senior position. He thought that would automatically transfer from Dad to Son.

The Son had a friend also in the insurance agency business. The friend had solicited their business for several years. Once the Son was in the senior position he found that he preferred doing business with his peer and friend instead of someone he didn’t know all that well.

Senior agency owners and managers. Take note here. While these examples are from the 70s, I think there are many similar stories today. The only difference, more tools with which to engage prospects and clients. Maybe the young people in your firm should be your mentors.

Help them set goals, be sure they know your agency’s core beliefs and ethics and get out of their way.

What challenges are you facing one either side of this issue?

The only issue I have with OnLive Desktop is that I must select which documents I want to upload to the cloud provided to me online. Updates to a file on your iPad will sync with your cloud upload. However, my experience with this and uploading revised versions of a document to the cloud were not quick and seamless. Your free cloud storage amount is 2GB.

In contrast the CloudOn app will sync with my DropBox account where I store all of my documents; along with automated backups from my website using a WordPress Plugin, my NeatReceipts backup, etc. I can also sync a number of my other iPad apps with my DropBox and have access to all of my document through a number of different resources.

Any app that has DropBox sync gets automatic consideration. The app does have to meet my needs and perform, but if two apps are equal or really close, the one that syncs with DropBox wins. For those of you that might not know, when I make a change to a document in the app it updates to the dropbox and the current version available on my Mac or anywhere else I want to retrieve it and visa versa.

If you must access and use Microsoft Office documents I encourage you to try these two apps. They are both free. Do you know of other Microsoft friendly apps for the iPad? Please share with us.

• iPad2
• ZaggKeys Solo Keyboard
• LiveScribe Pen
• Samsung Android Phone
• Verizon MiFi

This was the very 1st time I have gone to a client’s office without my laptop. I have been preparing for this for several months. I have traveled a couple of times on personal business and one conference with these tools in order to become comfortable with relying on these tools. It also has taken a good deal of research and testing to find the Apps that allow me to do this.

I put off buying an iPad for a very long time. I didn’t think I would find enough of a use for it to justify the cost. Was I wrong on this call. It has become my constant companion. So, if you are going to fully embrace such a tool then it should be properly equipped to answer as many of your needs as possible. As most of my friends and business associates know I am a software junkie. I am always trying new programs to see how they improve my productivity as well as that of my clients.

While I love my MacBook Pro and I have access to a lot of Mac software, my clients all use Microsoft products as that is what their agency management systems integrate with and support. Thus, I have a virtual PC on my MacBook Pro to facilitate this. In the last few weeks two new apps have been released that aid in editing Microsoft documents. These are CloudOn and OnLive Desktop. I have downloaded both and am working with them to see which functions the best. I will keep you posted on this.

But I hear a whole bunch of you asking what is a LiveScribe Pen and why. A LiveScribe pen is a tool for capturing your notes by writing, drawing, etc. on special paper. The pen also has a recorder function. As to the why? Years ago when I started consulting I was taught and required by my employer to take notes while talking to an agency’s employees by typing them on my laptop during the interview process. An open laptop is actually a barrier between you and the individual or group that you are wanting to have an interactive conversation with.

To combat this problem for a number of years I used a tablet laptop so that I could write my notes on the laptop in its tablet configuration. Not only was this an icebreaker, but it solved the problem with an open laptop. But when it had to be replaced there was not a similar laptop in the market place that was reliable. So I invested in the LiveScribe Pen. Not only does the pen and its paper take care of my note taking, the recorder had proven invaluable.

No matter how good a note taker your are, when working with a group sometimes multiple people are talking and you miss something. I have found some really important points made while listening to the recording of a session.

So why don’t I ditch the pen and just take notes on the iPad? I have identified three great note Apps. However, I have yet to find a really good stylus for note taking. All that I have found are too fat on the tip and are not responsive enough. However, I believe that one is on the horizon. I will report back on that soon.

I am always researching and moving forward with my technology and in being able to advise my clients in their options?

What are your best tools? What questions can I answer about the tools I use?

• Shrinking businesses in their town and surrounding area = less clients and prospects.
• Businesses and families struggling to make ends meet. Insurance needs my come last and be bare bones.
• Insurance carriers cutting agencies that can’t meet production standards.
• The continuing soft market.
• Difficulty finding qualified employees.

Frequently I often find everyone from the owner to the receptionist depressed or pessimistic or both.

So how does an agency remain above the fray, survive, thrive and keep up that positive, optimistic attitude?

I can usually tell within a few minutes of entering an office if there is a positive vibe or not. I always really happy when it is positive. It is such a struggle to work with a firm that doesn’t have this. So I was very pleased to find that everyone seemed to be happy or even excited that I was there.

This agency as most agencies has their challenges. But this agency really knows most of their challenges and are rolling out a plan to address and eliminate those challenges. Everyone I met with has an upbeat attitude and in addition to talking about problems also put forth some great ideas and solutions. This group is truly a team.

Our plate is overflowing as we move forward over the next few months. They have more than one initiative going on simultaneously. We had really honest discussions about the time needed to work through each of this initiatives and the time commitment required. There were a few deep breaths but the response was “We trust you to keep us on track and moving forward”.

Oh my! I rarely work with a firm with this much commitment. Their great positive attitudes will serve them greatly in getting through many changes throughout this year.

What is the culture in your agency? How can it be improved or is everyone on the same positive wavelength?

• Budget constraints.
• We need to work and write business and not make improvements or changes.
• Nothing new happening with our systems so no updates or changes needed.

I get the budget constraints. But the other “reasons” are not valid in my opinion. If you are sitting still you are falling behind.

I find that often in agencies that do a budget, update the marketing plan for the new year and plan for other capital expenditures, updates in operations is frequently given the boot. I remember a time with systems didn’t change very often or the changes were so small that revisions to processes didn’t seem as important. But in today’s world this just isn’t the case.

I follow several agency management system vendors on social media and work directly with others. I see changes posted by one system or another every day. Such things as:

• A new carrier that is doing download with a particular system or a new line of business.
• The addition of claims downloads.
• The addition of accounting downloads.
• The states and or lines of business added to rating systems.
• Improvements to functionalities in one or more systems that you might be using.

Most vendors do at least one major update release to their system each year. A number of vendors do two or more a year.

If you are not looking at your operations standards, procedures and workflows throughout each year and updating, you are falling behind.

Your staff is not as efficient as they could be and you are losing money. Wasted time is wasted money.

What has changed that you have overlooked and not updated?

This is my first post using only Blogsy. I am still learning what all can be done, but I do think it is possible that this can be the best tool to available to manage my blogs while moving about. My previous process was very involved which was frustrating. It seemed better to just wait until I was back at my laptop.

However, as many of you know I am a software junkie. If you have other suggestions I all ears. How are you using your iPad to improve your mobile business life?

On this particular Friday morning the only thing I need from the produce department is mushrooms. However, while getting my plastic bag for the mushrooms I see fresh okra out of the corner of my eyes. WooHoo!!! It is way past fresh okra season so this is a pleasant surprise.

While I am putting okra in my plastic bag my mind is immediately busy deciding what we are having with it for dinner. I had left the house mulling over the “what to have for dinner” question and I was coming up totally blank. Oh wow, fresh okra! I need blackeyed peas. The freezer case of fresh frozen beans hand none. But there were cream peas. Okay, we’ll give these a try. Make meatloaf and cornbread and you will have a great meal.

It has been cold and rainy for two days and this will fit the bill.

So how many of us use an instant inspiration? Do we think through how to use something we find unexpectedly; or do we just jump off and do something in haste because it is new and different. Inspiration is a great tool. It is what you do with it that matters.

Oh and by the way, the meal was really good and perfect for a cold, rainy, dreary night.

What do you do with inspiration?

Now you might be wondering as a public person with a blog, twitter account, personal and business facebook pages, etc, etc, etc. why would she be worried about Klout.

The privacy issues Pam Moore outlines in her post really made it clear to me I didn’t want to participate in this product. My biggest concern in this area is the privacy of those people I interact with on Facebook. I have a number of friends that are minors. They and their parents trust the people that they are friends with on Facebook to remember this and treat their posts and information in a more protected way than we might with the more social media savvy adults using Twitter.

I can’t explain it any better than Pam did in her post, so I encourage you to read her article and take the action that is appropriate for you.

I find that the subject of changing/updating current process puts a look of terror on many faces. The subject of new processes such as adding a true web presence and social media to the mix actually paralyzes. Today I would like to share some experiences where the agency was not reluctant and how they handled their business renovations.

Agency I

This agency had implemented a new agency management system and a new document management system. One day during our meetings on process re-design it was explained by one of the staff that even though you could see the documents attached in the document management system, those documents could not be sent to anyone via the delivery process in the agency management system.

She proceeded to explain the intricate process that had to be used to be sure the agency management system was documented correctly and still deliver the document(s) to the insurance carrier or client. This was a “game changer”.

All meeting for the remainder of the day with other committees were cancelled. The document management team rolled up their sleeves and we set about re-thinking and implementing new processes to make the work more sensible and efficient.

Agency II

This agency was about 3 months into a process re-design project. The COO came to me and asked if we could talk about what areas we were addressing. He said I know we have included the major areas of what an agency does such as certificates, endorsements, renewals, etc. However, we have processes we need help with, such as how are service center phone calls handled, how the mail is distributed, how is a document handled when it walks in the front door with a client or producer.

So we made a list of exactly what additional areas needed to be evaluated and re-designed. We took our list and figured out how to work this into the overall project. We ended up tearing every process in the agency apart and putting it back together.

This agency has a plan in place which keeps them evaluating processes and updating where needed. Since I completed my project with them I know that they took on the project of the “email zero in box”.

As I have said many times before, re engineering business process is not a once & done project. It is a continual evolution. The world around you is moving at warp speed. You must be thinking and working in an investigative mode to determine what needs to be looked at next.

What are your success stories? What are your questions about how to get started?