Is an Insurance Broker Also an Agent?

A professional indemnity insurance broker or agent is one who is familiar with financial planning and receives a commission for guiding you as you seek the best professional indemnity insurance coverage for your needs. Most individuals get a bit confused when they have so many options to consider. They prefer using the expertise of someone knowledgeable in the field. For assistance in choosing the right agent or broker, one can use the Internet to get a list of reliable agencies or professional indemnity insurance brokers in the area.

An insurance broker generally does not work for the insurance companies. They take up individual case studies, make surveys, bring back the best options, and guide you as to the one most suited to your needs. For this, the broker expects a commission. Brokers receive a commission on every sale they make. An insurance agent, on the other hand, works for a company or many companies and receives a commission for every client he or she brings in for the insurance company. Therefore, they try to sell you the product of the companies they work for and can provide up to date information for you regarding those companies.

Since brokers link themselves to multiple companies, they can provide a wealth of useful information as intermediaries in the financial sector. Some insurance brokers belong to big commercial business establishments where they involve themselves in specialized fields to cater to clients with specific needs in a particular area. If they choose to work in a small area, then they take on the job of personally filling in the forms and delivering it to the insurance agency and the client who gives them business.

The work of a broker does not stop with getting a client. The insurance broker has to be available for the client when a situation arises, especially if there is an accident or damage to property due to theft or vandalism. A good insurance broker will make sure his or her services to the client in order to have their continuous business. By having a broker who is always working diligently, the client feels his or her investment is secure and recommends that broker to their family and friends. The broker makes sure that premiums reach the insurance office regularly and on time and keeps the client updated on new policies when it is time for renewal, and informs the client when they can change to a better plan.

Whether they work as a professional indemnity insurance broker or independent agent, a broker's trustworthiness and capability ensures a quick rise to success. An insurance broker ideally is a sales person with good communication and verbal skills. A successful broker is persuasive and positive in their approach. If their disposition is pleasant and they display patience, the insurance broker can go a long way towards ensuring client service and obtaining referrals to pave the way on the road to success.

Custom Software Development Makes Economical Sense For Extranets - Asian Paints Case Study

Twenty years back most companies the world over had no choice but to use custom developed software. Custom Software developed for self use provided the only means of mapping and automating the business processes within. Large IT teams typically were hard at work developing customized software for business users. These were well before the days of software outsourcing.

Then came the wave of out of box enterprise solutions like SAP, Peoplesoft, Baan, Oracle and corporate IT lapped them up in a big way. Centralized databases and real-time view of data were the buzz words and any company worth its salt did not want to be left behind. Legacy custom developed softwares were quickly consigned to the dustbins (oh OK Recycle bins!) and the long and painful implementations (not to miss on the lighter wallets) began. We will not get into the debate on Custom Software versus Enterprise Apps as that is not the subject of this article.

Instead we would like to explore why it makes sense to look at custom software solutions in the current context specially for extending the enterprise to channel partners like distributors, dealers, service centers etc. the example used is of Asian Paints. Asian Paints has always been at the cutting edge of technology implementation

I will take the example of MySAP Call Centre implementation replacing the legacy software at Asian Paints a leading corporate in India. Asian Paints was operating a 12 seater distributed call centre with a custom software solution. At that time, the software at Asian Paints was made by a single member team and met all the requirements of Asian Paints. The only problem was that the custom software used by Asian Paints made use of distributed databases. In the year 2002 Asian Paints (an existing SAP customer) wanted to explore the feasibility of shifting to MySAP to manage the Call Centre. We are not sure what level of evaluation was undertaken by Asian Paints besides - "It's from SAP so it must be worth it!". Certainly no usability study and impact on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was undertaken by the team at Asian Paints.

Nonetheless, MySAP was rolled out swiftly to the Asian Paints Mumbai Call Centre by the Asian Paints IT team (thankfully saving the fat implementation bill at least). Our familiar Custom Software lay firmly in the bin!

But just a few months on when we (at Asian Paints) looked at the effectiveness and cost benefit we were in for a surprise. Why? Read on...

• For a simple call that needed very few data fields to be captured in the Custom Software solution, Asian Paints agents now had to fill many more data fields as dictated by MySAP leading to longer call handling times
• The training required to learn to use the software increased many fold leading to higher induction time and cost for Asian Paints.
• The call centre needed leased line connectivity to the Asian Paints servers so add a connectivity cost into the equation
• If there was a power failure or link failure the Asian Paints Helpline would stop working - so add the backup power, and backup connectivity cost
• The screen was so cluttered that the Asian Paints Helpline agents needed bigger monitors so add the cost of new workstations
• Some of the reports specifically required by the Asian Paints Call Center were not available or configurable easily
• We are of course not going to talk about the license costs etc. that Asian Paints had to bear. So we end up with significantly greater costs (the increase in costs are too embarrassing for me to share) for one great achievement - Real time data!

And that too for a 10 odd seater Call Centre that Asian Paints had to operate! What's the alternative? Maybe a simple custom software solution using xml web services based synchronization could have saved Asian Paints thousands of dollars every year. Is it possible? Of course and quite effective. Read this article for more on distributed solutions.

One last question is bound to come up. What if we want to have data synchronize with SAP? Well we just write some ABAP code and expose some methods to consume data from third party applications.

The technology landscape has changed and it is now possible to extend corporate ERPs to partners through third party custom Software quite easily without incurring the heavy overheads thus significantly reducing TCO.

Food for thought?

Landscape Edging Stones - A Great Way to Spruce Up Your Garden

Now that the harsh winter of 2009-2010 is just a memory it may be the right time to get outside and make some of those landscape improvements that will allow the days spent on the lawn a more pleasant experience. Of course, the reason people spend time outside is to enjoy nature so why not make those improvements with a natural landscape edging stones.

Natural stone lends itself to a variety of aesthetic applications, such as edging around a flower bed to add to the natural feel of the plants growing there or to create a walkway to make it easier to go from place to place. Natural stone can even be used as a retaining wall to protect the earth that is being held back from erosion. Unlike wood or plastic, stone will last forever and needs little to no upkeep once it has been installed.

Stone has been used in a great many ways in the past and many of the structures it has been used to create are still standing centuries after their first application. It is not unusual to see stone structures built centuries ago throughout the world that are living on and being used by modern day man. This is not only a testament to the builders of those structures but to the quality of the material itself. For those wishing to leave a legacy for future generations, natural stone is the way to go.

When using natural landscape edging stones for a do it yourself project a few techniques should be considered. Remember that it will be necessary to displace some of the earth and sod from the spot that will receive the edging. By laying a plastic barrier down before placing the stones weeds and grass will have no place to grow and pop up in the cracks between the stones. That means a little digging and a bit of extra work, but the effect will be worth it.