Background
Founded in 1962, Saunders Insurance Ltd. is one of the more tech-savvy brokerages in Canada. With only 11 employees, this Taber, Alberta, brokerage handles over $5 million in premium volume, with 60 percent in commercial-lines.
Commercial-Lines Challenge
Saunders Insurance has a substantial book of commercial business, with specialization, not surprisingly, in small oil sands and agriculture. But two years ago, Saunders Insurance was looking for a better way to market, process and bind business accounts.
Solution
�When we saw what Policy Works had available, it didn�t take long for us to purchase it,� says Mike Saunders, President. �We knew it was going to make a huge difference and it really has.�
�Policy Works pays off very quickly in terms of efficiencies,� he notes. �One of the main benefits is the ability to see everything on screen without having to drag out paper files. We never have customer files on the desks here; we scan everything. Policy Works has been very helpful in marketing � whether that is in soft or hard market conditions. And when we make changes or endorsements, we email it directly to underwriters at the click of a button. We are definitely well along the path to the paperless office.�
That is just one of the many efficiencies Policy Works offers in handling commercial business. �It really is a good system for managing your workflow,� says Saunders. �First, you can see all of the coverages much quicker, and it is easier to add or delete coverages on the customer screen. Second, when you do endorsements it calculates the additional premiums for you, and we have found that the insurers really like that. And third, when we send our policy changes to insurers, we use Policy Works documents. They are much cleaner and easier to read, and our underwriters really seem to like working with these documents.�
But for Saunders, the biggest benefit may be on the customer service side of the brokerage equation. �What I like about it best is making a presentation to a customer. The Policy Works proposal helps sell the business because it is so professionally done and is in a nice, easy-to-read format.�
As a long-time TAM brokerage, Saunders says one of the appealing aspects of Policy Works to him was the smooth integration between the two systems. �We just click on a button and it gets us right from Policy Works into Agency Manger. When we are doing updates or renewals on the system, we can actually invoice it right out of Policy Works into Agency Manager. It will also apply an activity, such as policy change, automatically into Agency Manager.�
As far as the price of Policy Works, Saunders prefers to talk about value. �I think it is fairly priced, but really cost is only relative to value,� he concludes. �Before we bought Policy Works we asked ourselves: �Is this going to be worth the money to put it in?� We have answered that question many times over in realizing how it has helped our commercial operations.�
For more information, please visit www.policyworks.com.
