We recently came across an article in which Jack Salzwedel, chairman and CEO of American Family, was quoted as having said this:

We’ve made the comment that it took COVID and physical distancing to bring us closer as an organization. And I think there’s a lot of truth in that.

We don’t know if that will come to constitute anything like the new normal that’s become so popular to talk about since the pandemic affected us all. But we do know the truth of Mr. Salzwedel’s statement is reflected in our relationships with our employees and our customers. And we also know the pandemic has caused us to re-examine our notions of connections — from professional to personal, from the office to home and family.

What’s Old is New

There might not be any method of connecting or communicating older than personal conversation. But a few others are right up there:

• Phone. We were tempted to write telephone. But that would have taken us back to dinosaurs, and people weren’t even conversing that long ago. Nevertheless, being able to pick up the phone has become increasingly handy as the pandemic has stretched on. We don’t text with our customers. But texting is a great way to connect and share quick messages with friends and family.
• Email. This technology’s been around for a while; although, it post-dates the phone by a hundred years or so. If you don’t count the phone invented by the Italian inventor, Antonio Meucci, in 1849 — or the phone invented by the French inventor, Charles Bourseul, in 1854 — Alexander Graham Bell won the first U.S. patent for the telephone in 1876. Ray Tomlinson didn’t get around to creating email for the ARPANET until 1971. But it turned out to be, and remains, an effective means of communicating and retaining dated documentation of that communication.
• Collaboration platforms. While they pre-date the coronavirus, collaboration platforms like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and smaller platforms like Slack, Happeo, Jostle, Flock, Asana, and others have proliferated during the pandemic. They may not be for everyone. But they’re there. And they fill a need we may not have seen coming.

We don’t know if Mr. Salzwedel intended any or all of that. But we’re grateful he prompted us think about all of the means by which we create and maintain connections … old and new.

Maybe we’re closer to a new normal than we thought we were.

As human beings and business owners, many changes have been precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic. In contending with everything from restricted travel to social distancing, from working at home to wearing masks in public, we’ve found we’re able to adapt and conform. We’ve also found we’ve been able to learn. In all the lessons available to us thanks to COVID-19, these are among the most important:

Relationships

One of the definitions of commerce is this: “social relations, especially the exchange of views, attitudes, etc.” In that context, all of us engage in commerce, whether it be personal or professional. The success we desire, personally and professionally, depends on building and maintaining that commerce. It’s the responsibility of each of us to initiate it — to make contact with the people in our lives to assure them we’re here. We care. We support. We’ll do everything we can to help.

Responsibility

Now, more than ever, we are our brothers’ keepers. We’re responsible for ourselves and each other. Whether looking out for family members, friends, customers, or random strangers who might need a helping hand, each of us bears the responsibility to do what we can. It doesn’t have to be much. Whenever we ask one particular person we know what he needs, he always responds, “A few kind words.” Most of us can do more. But don’t underestimate the power of a few kind words.

Responsiveness

One of the peculiar challenges of the coronavirus pandemic is that it’s created senses of urgency. That makes it all the more important for us, in our interactions with each other, to discern the real from the reflexive, the actual from the perceived. Since it isn’t possible for all things to exist or transpire on the same level of priority at all times, we just need to stop for a moment. Breathe. Assess. Respond accordingly and appropriately. It may take a little practice, but we’ve gotten this far, haven’t we?

The Good News

Fortunately, we don’t have to go back to school to learn any of these lessons. All we really need to do is pay attention and do what we likely would have done anyway. Among the positive aspects of the coronavirus pandemic is that we’ve shown we’re capable of practicing The New Three Rs, even without being told we should.

For those new to the insurance industry, the length and complexity of the system-purchasing process must seem overwhelming and, at times, unnecessary. Overkill might come to mind, but the much-maligned request for proposal (RFP) process drives technology selecting and purchasing in the risk-averse insurance industry. For core administration systems (policy, billing, and claims), RFPs can provide an organized approach to working through and scoring dozens of seemingly viable alternatives. But three vitally important things are often neglected in the RFP process, all of which should be primary considerations for a long-term partnership with a system vendor:

1. Consider how well the base system meets the needs of the organization. Most systems have out-of-the-box entry screens, workflows, reports, and processes that can speed implementation and production. While some level of customization is almost always requested, remember: More customization means longer timelines, higher costs, tougher upgrades, and more complicated maintenance. Weigh what’s available vs. what’s possible.
2. Pay attention to the ways configuration tools work and how such tools will be used during implementation and for ongoing system and product maintenance. The capabilities of configuration tools are frequently overlooked because vendors typically set up the first few lines of business. So, configuration tools aren’t given the same scrutiny as policy, claims, or billing functionality. Consequently, post-implementation, insurers rely on vendors to make changes and updates or give those responsibilities to IT staff members. Either way, the capabilities of the configuration tools will affect time to market for future changes or new lines of business.
3. Sending an RFP to a number of prospective vendor partners is like speed dating in the hope of finding a few good candidates. But technology aside, don’t overlook cultural and philosophical rapport. Differences in work ethic and responsiveness have caused many projects to fail in discord and dysfunction, especially if communication is reduced to procurement or consulting channels, rather than direct interaction between stakeholders and vendors. After contracts are signed and the project kicks off, two companies will aspire to be long-term partners. That only happens through cultural compatibility and alignment of goals. That compatibility and alignment of goals can only be achieved through extensive, open communication. And that communication, ideally, should be conducted face to face.

Take the Time, Not the Headache

A popular corporate axiom says, “There’s never time to do it right. But there’s always time to do it over.” When it comes to core system replacements and implementations, that’s a recipe for disaster. Insurers may never recover from the time and money lost to a bad vendor relationship. That’s why underwriters, claims examiners, accountants, executives, and IT staff member have to be comfortable with the vendors and the systems they select.

Conducted conscientiously, the RFP process can ensure appropriate compatibilities between insurers, vendors, and systems. If you take the time to do it right, you’ll save yourself the headache later.

One of our professional colleagues who shall remain unnamed shared an email with us the other day that qualified as the written equivalent of a cold call, and an inappropriate one at that. This is what it said:

Dear Sir,

I tried to call you, but you didn’t pick up. Because I didn’t want you to miss out, I’m sending you a transcript of how our call would have gone.

You: Hello.

Me: Hi. I’m calling from Cirrus MegaSystems, developer of thinware for insurance. Can I steal 2 minutes?

You: What do you want?

Me: We replace aging and inadequate core systems to modernize operations and improve the policyholder experience.

You: Well, we’re in the middle of implementing another system.

Me: Since you’re a customer of Amerisurica Worldwide, I thought their bad reputation might compel you to jump ship.

You: Things haven’t yet gotten ….

Me: A lot of Amerisurica customers are in the same boat. Cirrus MegaSystems would be a perfect fit for you.

You: I’m not ready to begin looking at other alternatives yet.

Me: Let’s schedule a demo anyway. It’s never to early to begin developing another plan in case things don’t work out.

Say what you want about the guy who wrote that email, but he was persistent. And he definitely put the cold in cold call.

Numbers Don’t Lie

We know the reality. Almost 40 percent of our new customers over the past four years came to us after failed or failing implementations. There are reasons for those failures, of course — a lack of defined goals, under-estimations of the effort, the resources, and the time required, and many more. And those reasons suggest there needs to be higher degrees of cognizance and vigilance about whether and when to find another vendor before more good time and money gets thrown after bad, before you burn through your budgets and the patience of your Board, and before heads start rolling.

You can’t allow vendors to stuff themselves down your throat. But at the point at which you start to sense trouble with an implementation, start preparing to pull the plug. And make sure you have a Plan B.

The company or the job you save may be your own.

The outbreak of the coronavirus constitutes a profound test for the insurance industry. More pointedly, it’s a test of your company’s ability to continue operations without staff members being in the office. The fact is, now more than ever, insurers will have to rely on the contingency plans they put in place and the software they use to ensure disaster recovery and business continuity. And now more than ever, insurance is essential, from the strategic complexities of assessing risks to the tactical simplicity of printing documents.

In anticipation of operational interruptions of any sort, more than 10 years ago we developed the capabilities for entities to act as virtual insurers. There’s no need for bricks and mortar, other than a mailing address for legal purposes. All processes and transactions could be completely conducted online. All printing and check issuance could be outsourced. As a result, and because the Finys Suite is an online system, your employees can do their jobs without coming into the office. Print still goes out. Checks still go out. Claims still get processed. And for most of our customers, we  manage all the hardware and software they need to run their core systems.

There’s More

Because of the capabilities we’ve developed, all our employees are now working from home. All implementation and development work is being completed without significant interruption. We’ve developed some new management-reporting protocols. We’re gathering specifications for two new implementations that will begin this month. And our sales efforts continue apace, albeit without travel.

It’s not our intent to exploit the difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Rather, it’s our intent to take responsibility for doing what we can to help the industry we love and serve weather this storm and serve its constituents as comprehensively as possible. Yes. We’re a software company. Yes. We did prepare ourselves and our customers for an eventuality such as this. But it’s not our intent to take advantage of it.

We’re all in this together. And if we pull together, we’ll move more weight across the finish line of this pandemic.

The coronavirus is now. We can’t know what might be next. But we’re ready for it, by design.

Please let us know how we can help you be ready now and for the future.