nuServe Allows Agents to Identify Risks Quickly

In today’s fast-paced business world, technology is an invaluable tool to agents and brokers who want to compete. And to compete well means knowing all of the options that are available. Most agents and brokers are well aware of and are most likely utilizing agency management systems such as AMS and Applied Systems. Beyond traditional agency management systems is a tool designed to assist agents in identifying a comprehensive list of what coverages a client might need, available from San Francisco-based nuServe.

The nuServeSM software is a risk management tool allowing the agent to minimize the time it takes to quote and bind a policy by allowing the agent to determine multiple coverages to offer the client. Kai Tamara Hare, president and CEO of nuServe, refers to the program as a “producer doubler.”

nuServe offers a series of tools to the agent and CSR to identify risks quickly. RiskProfilerTM is the first stop for the agent—in just 15 minutes, the agent can enter specifics for a particular client needing coverage and the result is a detailed list of coverages the agent can offer the client. All of the information can be accessed via the Web at anytime, using secure socket layer (SSL) technology, and is password protected. Certain information is encrypted for additional security.

“In one stop, you know what this client is about,” Hare said. “It pulls up the insurance portfolio and client details—for example, the SIC code, how many employees they have, how many buildings and where they are, and what coverages are due for renewal or have been submitted for.

“It’s all accessible in one place, anytime, anywhere,” Hare added, allowing the agent to view client information either in their own office or at the clients’.

Currently, nuServe offers risk profiling for over 36 commercial coverages including: Property, Boiler & Machinery, General Liability, Workers’ Compensation, Automobile, Umbrella, Foreign Liability, Crime/Fiduciary, Earthquake & Flood, Environmental Impairment Liability, Intellectual Property Infringement, Employment Prac-tices, Directors & Officers, Product Recall, and Credit Risk.

Once a profile is created, agents can move on to iSolveTM. “iSolve is a coverage identifier,” Hare said. “It identifies a specific coverage for that type of risk. Most Web-based insurance companies and other software tools will allow you to, once you know the coverage, submit and bind the coverage. But none of them will tell you what coverages will match a risk.”

Once the information is submitted on a particular client, the nuServe software retains that information as “meta data” in support of SEMCI. This saves the agent, CSR, or another employee from having to rekey information to service the client for future submissions.

nuServe also allows for users to create a list of preferred insurance companies, allowing the agent or broker to specifically select the companies with which he or she wants to bind that policy. It also allows for loss control, the filing of loss notices, renewals, endorsements and more.

Additionally, all of the questions on the software program are easily integrated into ACORD standard forms and designated insurance carrier forms. The software pulls the information from the data already entered and applies it to the ACORD form, which opens up in a PDF file. The form can then be faxed or e-mailed to the appropriate party. One of the unique features of the nuServe software is that it won’t allow the forms to be generated if it does not have all of the required information, thus ensuring that the submissions are complete. As Hare pointed out, a good majority of submissions are denied based on the fact that they are simply incomplete. With the nuServe system, all of the questions must be answered before the agent can move forward.

Other features include QSolveTM, which allows expert agents to fast track to specific coverages they want to submit; nsPortfolioTM, which stores the history of the client’s quotes, policies bound online; loss notices and endorsements; nsDataTM, which provides real time market activity data; and SmartQPTM, which generates any or all forms and applications automatically, eliminating the need to rekey information. Task ManagerTM is a new feature that allows the agent to maintain a daily to-do list that generates any remaining tasks from the day before into a new list. Daily e-mail reminders can also be set up to remind the agent of his or her tasks.

nuServe offers its products one of two ways: for larger agencies, the software can be installed. Smaller agencies can access the software securely through nuServe.

Finally, nuServe offers resources to the agents, such as built-in building valuations, as well as a variety of references to which an agent would normally have to subscribe. Online training and CE credits are also available.

For more information on nuServe, visit www.nuServe.com.