Third Quarter 2005   Volume 12 Number 2

PennAmerigram

News about new and enhanced Penn-America insurance products

Coming soon to a computer near you: An all-hands effort is underway in preparation for the first-quarter of 2006 release of Penn-America’s new, improved electronic agency manual. Randy Lennon, vice president of Information Technology, explains: “We’re taking a fresh approach by converting all of the elements of the manual, including rules, rates and forms, to a common database. The philosophy of the new manual is to bring the information to the underwriters so they don’t have to go to different places in the manual to find what they need.”

Three committees have contributed to the design of the new manual-in-progress. The groups then filtered their findings and recommendations through Tom Cannon, audit manager and Jay Hanuscin, underwriting auditor. Today, scores of Penn-Americans, from every department of the company, are contributing to the project.

Jon Hill, Penn-America’s new vice president of Underwriting and Product Management, added, “My role has been to bring my brokerage experience to the project, picture myself sitting there using the manual and asking, ‘How can we make this more user friendly?’” So what’s changing? Says Jon, “What drives the manual are the front line underwriters. They go to the manual for relevant underwriting information and nothing else. The new manual will recognize each underwriter who logs-in so she’ll see state-specific information. We’re also broadening authority by nearly 125 new classes. And everything an underwriter needs for a particular class will be on the same page, along with links to additional coverages and supplemental applications.”

Click the claim: The improved claim status report available through PennLINK has a handy new feature. Just click on the claim number to get a detailed snapshot of the claim. There are other useful improvements, all of which are described in the September 30 PennE~lert (ELRT-2005-46).

Just ask:  On October 3, the “snail-mail” letter that agency principals received about all claims settlements higher than $25,000 was replaced with an E-mail. The time- and cost-saving idea came from several agents.