Ensuring an efficient paperless office:
Sadler Insurance Agency

Overview

The Sadler Insurance Agency, established in 1924, is a full service independent agency offering insurance, risk management and financial services to families, business and industry. Its three service divisions specialize in commercial insurance, personal insurance and employee benefits, including individual and group life, accident and health. One of the largest independent agencies in New Hampshire offering local and international insurance and risk management services to businesses throughout northern New England, Sadler was selected as one of New Hampshire’s top 100 privately-held businesses in 2002.

Until 2001, Sadler was very much a paper-based business. Insurance policies and other supporting documents (reports, inspections, etc.) were filed into traditional file cabinets lined in rows in various places around their offices. This “transaction-based” filing system was how things had been done for many years. Technology had certainly provided important workplace improvements in previous decades, including software designed specifically for its insurance business, but in this competitive and highly-regulated industry, nothing was addressing the fact that they were dependent on excessive amounts of hardcopy paperwork.

Regulations require that insurance companies retain policy-related information for seven years. At Sadler, all currently-active files were then kept in file cabinets in their primary office space, while older files were stored in less-handy locations in the same building, typically in plastic file boxes rather than metal file cabinets. The files were organized by customer name, with no easy way to cross reference files using other criteria.

The Challenge

Endeavoring to transform a company to significantly different business processes comes with high risks – hopefully the rewards outweigh the risks. Sadler was not one of the early adopters of electronic document management (EDM) systems – these types of solutions had been available for years – so fortunately they could use the experience from those folks to help them make lower-risk decisions on how to roll out such a system. The key challenges facing the technical team at Sadler as they planned the transition to an EDM system were:

• getting users of the system rapidly proficient at using it
• achieving clear and immediate improvements
• long-term viability of system
• seamless integration into the existing environment
• minimizing the need for new equipment purchases

For Sadler, it was clear that paperwork was still a necessary evil of their industry. A wide variety of paperwork still needs to be conducted between insurance companies and their customers, and in many cases, the paperwork needs to be reproducible for many years after. The key was to minimize the presence of the hardcopy paperwork, without losing anything in the process. To do this, the first step was to get an incoming document immediately into a digital format easily reproducible on either paper or a computer screen.

The other half of the challenge was in addressing the demand for better disaster recovery systems and procedures. Paper files are susceptible to a wide variety of malicious, accidental, and naturally-caused attacks. Another key aspect of the evolution away from paper would ideally minimize the chances of such an attack from having any serious impact on Sadler’s ability to keep its operations running smoothly.

Solution

Sadler chose to integrate three products to help them minimize the impact of hardcopy paper on their business:

ImageRunner™ I-Series These are network capable, multi-function copiers that Sadler uses to scan/capture the documents into digital format.
eCopy ShareScan™ This subsystem is integrated with the ImageRunner copier and allows users working at the copier to scan documents directly into folders on a network file server.
EasyFile™ & DesktopMailman™ Desktop Mailman seamlessly integrates with the eCopy software, automatically notifying key personnel that newly-scanned documents have arrived and are ready to be added to the EDM (i.e. EasyFile). Before being stored in EasyFile, “indexing” information must be associated with each document. This data describes the key traits of the document, and is used subsequently for accessing it and organizing it with others. Once stored in EasyFile’s repository, the paper is no longer needed – all that’s necessary is a computer on Sadler’s network with the appropriate privileges.

Results

Pam Bennett, System Manager for Sadler, is uniformly thrilled at the performance of the three main components of the EDM. “We are far more efficient now with the EasyFile system in place. Our office space was usually cluttered with files in various states of process. Now, the only time we see the original documents is before they get scanned…” Soon enough, large numbers of file cabinets were made obsolete. “For a while, you could see the marks in the carpeting where file cabinets used to sit”. Not anymore though, because “We’ve turned that space into room for new employees, to help us grow our business without having to lease more space.”

Pam pointed to a number of other key improvements that the system brought to the business:

• Much faster access to current and non-current documents
• No misplaced or otherwise lost files
• Simultaneous access to a document by multiple users at multiple sites
• Having secure remote access to files (over the internet) when needed
• Better security against natural disaster, malicious attack, and mishandling
• More stringent safeguards against client privacy/confidentiality
• Streamlined workflow: direct fax from EDM, direct email from EDM

Pam sums up the move to the EasyFile-based EDM in simple business terms: “Sadler has seen huge economic benefits by using EasyFile and eCopy. Everyone is working more efficiently now – it’s hard to imagine that Sadler or any other business like ours could remain competitive without a system like this.”