New CE offering to blend insurance, technology training
By John Chivvis
In a day and age where budgets are already tight, trying to fit in both training on technology products and continuing education for producers and CSRs can be a headache. However, a new joint venture, called PolicyTec, may ease some of the pressure by blending academic-based insurance education with focused technology training. The end results for agents could be not only savings of money but also time, productivity, and efficiency.
"I think we've discovered a niche," says PolicyTec course author, Fred Macy, CPCU, AAI, AU, CIC. PolicyTec's program coordinator Rich Boudreau agrees, adding that the need is one that has been evident for a while. "PolicyTec comes out of a marketplace that has a real need for this type of training and has had that need for years."
For Macy, recalling over 25 years in the insurance agency arena and in continuing education as developer of the Gray Wolf Insurance Seminars, it's not just years, but decades. Many state-approved continuing education programs are 20 to 30 years old. One problem, Macy says, is that many continuing education programs provide almost the same material, with older seminars being recycled into newer electronic formats.
"The evolution of continuing education has been that every four to six years people are cycling through the same stuff," says Macy. He adds that many producers and CSRs tend to view this continuing education as "rarely worth the cost," especially those who have been through several cycles. "Let's face it," says Macy, "people are ready for something that they haven't done in the past."
Boudreau, who hails from the insurance industry-focused Pinnacle Training and Consulting, points to another problem--changing workflows due to the pervasiveness of technology in an agency. Agency management systems and similar technology components, says Boudreau, "are more than events; they are processes." Whether it is the result of adding new staff or from a merger with or acquisition of another agency, proficiency in these processes requires professional technology training.
As if echoing past experience, Boudreau brings to light the main struggle that brought PolicyTec into being. "We'd provide an agency with an analysis, including results and measurable components for training on the management system, and they'd say, 'That's great, but I've got to re-up my CSRs,'" says Boudreau. The real dilemma for agencies, according to Macy and Boudreau, is deciding how get the most out of an education/training budget that satisfies both the needs of the business as well as the professional requirements of the agent or CSR.
What Boudreau and Macy have done with PolicyTec is to develop a series of courses for both personal and commercial lines that takes the academic instruction on insurance coverages and products and integrates it with training on automation systems.
Each PolicyTec course piggybacks two separate "modules" that complement each other. The first is an academic module or element that focuses on enhancing the agent's or CSR's knowledge of markets, products and coverages within the industry. Macy says that with the need for documentation in accounts, tying the academic element to the requirements of technology is beneficial. "We can use the specific database fields to help agents see opportunities for coverage, endorsements and for reducing errors and omissions," he says.
However, while the academic elements are technology-focused, they are not product-focused. The second half of the course, the technology training module, is a more "hands-on" technology element that is customized for a specific automation system. According to Boudreau, "We take what is learned in the morning, and then apply that with system-specific training." He notes that these courses are taught not just by training or computer professionals, but by insurance professionals. "We've developed these courses from the eyes of the end user," he says, "and they're taught by people with insurance experience, including CICs and CPCUs."
Macy and Boudreau say that going to or sending a member of the staff to a PolicyTec course can yield threefold benefits for agency principals. The most obvious benefit is time savings. "Now agencies won't have to send people out to technology training and then turn around and send them back out for continuing education training," says Macy. "The expense of time translates into lost opportunities."
Second, as Boudreau says, PolicyTec's modular design gives agencies "more bang for their buck." Education dollars can be better allocated, says Macy, allowing continuing education requirements to be met and reinforced with technology training. The combining of academic instruction and technology training with seminar-style presentations also allows the program to be more mobile--meaning more locations and greater range for instruction--as well as more more affordable to conduct and less costly (travel-wise) for agents.
Third, and possibly most important, is the reduction in errors and omissions. Macy acknowledges that agencies rely heavily on the data that's entered into their management systems, so developing courses around technology helps reinforce in-depth policy knowledge. "PolicyTec," he says, "is designed to enhance the effectiveness of the technology as a tool to better understand coverages and recommendations to protect
the insured."
PolicyTec courses are presented in both four- and six-hour formats with continuing education credits varying from three to six hours. Currently, courses are being filed in a select number of states and will be available by May 2002. Additional states will follow shortly thereafter. PolicyTec courses encompass both personal and commercial lines studies.
Guidelines differ, however, from state to state as to what constitutes continuing education, and the lack of acceptance of traditional technology training for continuing education credit means that PolicyTec is charting new territory. "We have to deal with issues for each state individually," says Macy.
Obviously, one of the main goals is to show state insurance departments, as well as agency principals, that these seemingly disparate types of training are beginning to overlap. From his experience, Macy has seen a growing focus on data entry as agents and CSRs begin to rely more on their database screens and data fields to correct, reduce and remove errors. Therefore, the technology becomes an instrument of academic instruction for better processing of an insurance transaction. "It's more than just about licensing," says Macy. "It's about increasing the exposure of the academic side of the technology products we, as an industry, buy, sell and use."
Surveying the history of insurance continuing education, Macy notes that innovative continuing education providers have pushed the envelope with the states. "In developing PolicyTec courses we've been careful to make sure we maintain the academic standards set by the state," says Macy. "Just because we wrap ourselves around a framework of technology, though, doesn't mean that we are any less academic."
Besides working with the states to get PolicyTec courses filed, automation system user groups are expressing interest in PolicyTec as well. As management system vendors add new features, enhance old ones, and adapt features in their products to deal with changing policy requirements and technologies, PolicyTec sees the opportunity to add value to user groups and their members. "Because our material is modular, it is easily customizable," says Macy. Boudreau adds, "In some cases, we would be able to provide insurance-based, system-specific instruction as these features are rolled out."
So in a time where agents and agencies are being forced to consolidate, PolicyTec introduces consolidated insurance continuing education and technology training. In a single seminar or presentation, PolicyTec is able to integrate not only traditional academic instruction but automation training as well. Attendees earn both state continuing education credits that can be applied towards the renewal of their license, and at the same time they enhance their effectiveness in using their specific management system.
Beyond the continuing education credits, Boudreau believes that PolicyTec offers more complete training. "Instead of giving people the same thing over and over," says Boudreau, "we now have the opportunity to really make a difference." *
The author
John Chivvis is a Texas-based writer who specializes in topics of technology implementation. His work has appeared in a number of national and regional publications.
For more information:
Web site: www.policytec.com
E-mail: info@policytec.com
Phone: (800) 366-7131