David talks about the findings of the BMS analysis of the 2011 data reported for the PIAA group of member companies.

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“Reprinted from the Second Quarter 2012 issue of Physician Insurer Magazine, Physician Insurers Association of America. Copyright, 2012.”

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They debated the necessity for modernisation in the London market and the drivers for change. This is a topic which has been debated numerous times over the last 20 years; however seems to be particularly relevant in the current market.

Immediately the main theme for the entire session emerged – that client service is the key reason to implement modernisation. Carl Beardmore set the tone of the discussion stating that in his opinion the key driver for modernisation were the need to ensure ongoing benefits to the clients that other markets cannot offer. Furthermore, he said that we should be using technology to make the market as low-cost, efficient and operationally easy to participate in that the clients and everyone who works within it feels those advantages. Carl added that ease of service is the only avenue to really grow business in the current climate.

Graham Clarke concurred that much had changed over the last few years in peoples’ attitudes to change, but they still ‘needed to be slightly braver’ in implementing change. He felt that ‘evolutionary’ change in ‘bite size’ chunks was easier for everyone to process than rapid, wholesale change, but this would guarantee that vital ‘one version of the truth’ that is so fundamental to the market. He said that brokers needed to ensure they were adding value in this changing market and acknowledge that their roles have and would continue to change.

Chris Croft added that the London market is no longer the captive market that it was in the past, clients have other choices and that cost should not be a reason to not implement modernisation of processes.

The question of inertia in the London market was raised and Carl commented that there is a range of appetites towards new technology. Graham agreed that many are often slow to embrace change and this; alongside the vastly different stages each company is at, means that it is hard to coordinate market-wide change. Chris highlighted that when you are trying to encourage stakeholders to work together, that usually compete with one another to one, there are always going to difficulties to overcome.

As a company with a large US platform, Carl agreed with Chris that London should modernise to ensure it utilises the leverage of its unique subscription market. It was acknowledged that technology is already engaging people in the market as the business use of risk modelling and analytics has become sophisticated.

Overall, the panel reiterated the themes that have been key to BMS’ recent corporate strategy, that investment in better service is key to growth and progress. With modernisation comes the possibility to eradicate duplication of effort and ensure that the London market continues to grow and offer the best service possible to its clients.

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We have been building our new Intranet for some time now, using social media technology and techniques. When we first put all the bits together, there was an air of disappointment amongst the team. We had done what we said we’d do, but it didn’t seem to deliver the innovative and exciting results we had anticipated. We weren’t downhearted though, because we know there is some allowance in our plans for things not going right first time. Some strong words, alongside a stringent review, mixed in with some input from image consultants led to the revised version. We saw this revised version for the first time last week. Wow! Now the product looks fantastic and does exactly what we planned at the start. And, what is more, the original problems resulted in a better final solution. We are now loading real content on, with a view to parallel running within the month. Great news!

I spent the latter part of last week in the US, talking to a company about a whole new innovation for BMS and their clients. This meeting allowed us to look these new partners in the eye and determine their professionalism, their knowledge, their techniques and their appetite for such an exciting product. Whilst I cannot give you any details, I can tell you that these guys were a great fit for BMS. They are interested in the commercial returns obviously, but their enjoyment in being involved in the project was very evident, and infectious. I like to deal with people I like, who give me lots of new ideas every time I deal with them, and who have fun every day they go to work (well, perhaps not every day…), and these new potential business partners certainly fit the bill.

So to everyone out there – have a fun day today!

Vision 2025 laid out Lloyd’s long-term strategy for growth. Lloyd’s Chairman John Nelson declared that they want to make London a ‘true global hub for specialist insurance and reinsurance’. The plan focuses both on emerging markets and growing premium income in established markets.

The strategy plan was greeted with general praise, including the Prime Minister David Cameron who said in a statement: “I welcome the drive and ambition with which Lloyd’s is pursuing plans for where it wants to be in 2025.”

Carl Beardmore featured, alongside other market commentators, in Business Insurance discussing his thoughts on the Vision. He felt that with this statement Lloyd’s have clearly expressed their intent, making it easier for companies who work closely with them to align their strategy plans with Lloyd’s. This will enhance the London market offering as a whole and ensure companies, like BMS, implement strategic plans that will benefit from and build upon these plans.

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The event was held at the Abbey Bar in the Minories and was attended by 25 teams totalling over 150 people. The teams were made up of staff from within BMS, our markets, IT companies, law firms; and teams from ELBA and the Lloyd’s Community Programme. Auction and raffle items were donated by teams and individuals within BMS; CMS Cameron McKenna; rugby clubs and local high street businesses.

A great night was had by all with the winning team, The InQuizables captained by Steve Ferns, beating Faraday’s team by just half a point! Each winning team member received a bottle of champagne. A fantastic amount of money was raised – almost £3,500 in total. The largest amounts raised on the night were £475 for a 3 night stay in a private villa in Portugal (a raffle prize donated by BMS Risk solutions and won by Hannah Payson from LCP); £250 for a sailing trip for the day including lunch for 4 people (an auction item donated by Pioneer Underwriting and won by Ben Churney from Sequel); and £110 for a case of 12 wines (an auction item donated by BMS Re and won by Liam Kane from ELBA).

CEO of the East London Business Alliance, Liane Kane said:

 …what was an outstanding fund raising evening. Everybody at Hackney Schools Mentoring Programme and at East London Business Alliance, was blown away by your success. It was the best quiz night I have ever attended and many people agreed with me on the night.

Well organised, professional and I still don’t know how you got 150 people to turn out on a wet Wednesday night. Many thanks to you and BMS from all of us at HSMP and my only question is – can we do it again?!”

A big thank you to all who contributed in making this such a successful night either by attending; buying raffle tickets or bidding on the auction items. In particular, thanks goes to Andy Jarrett (Quizmaster); Paul Clephane (who worked tirelessly collecting and scoring the answer sheets) and Deryl Walsh of HSMP (who did a brilliant job as an auctioneer).

To see all the items that were auctioned, click here.

Click here to learn more about the Hackney Schools Mentoring Programme

The Lloyd’s / BMS “Insure It” Challenge provided an incredible opportunity for the East London children to find out about the world of work, introducing them to the core concepts of insurance and allowing them to put their knowledge into practice through a series of fun interactive games and activities. They also had the opportunity of spending some time in The Old Library in Lloyd’s and having a tour of the underwriting room (“The Room”).

Jeff Martin, Project Director at BMS and a Governor at Old Ford Primary School said “Our volunteers had a fantastic time and enjoyed these workshops just as much as the children did. The programme was funded by the Lloyd’s Community Programme, supported by volunteers from the Lloyd’s market and developed by the Guy Fox History Project Ltd. It also couldn’t have been possible without the tremendous help and support from Bea Stevenson, Project Manager at Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership and Nadia Al Yafai, Community Affairs Executive at Lloyd’s, together with Kevin Jones, Old Ford Primary School Assistant headteacher UKS2/ extended services. I’d like to thank all of them for helping to make this such a wonderful success.”

Bea Stevenson, Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership (THEBP) Project Manager said “It was great to see all the children from across Year 6 engaging so fully in the workshops, building up a rapport with volunteers and asking perceptive questions about insurance and the world of work. The volunteers really threw themselves into working with and supporting the pupils and also seemed to be hugely enjoying themselves!”

Nadia Al Yafai, Lloyd’s Community Affairs Executive added “It was a delight to welcome so many children from Old Ford Primary School into Lloyd’s. They really engaged with the building and asked lots of questions about its interesting design and history, learning so much about business, finance and insurance in such a fun way.”

Kevin Jones, Old Ford Primary School Assistant Headteacher UKS2/ extended services commented “This was a tremendous experience for our children and we would now like to make this an annual event”. One of the pupils enthused “Thank you for this amazing experience you have given to year 6 at Old Ford Primary School. I enjoyed the tour of the fantastic building very much and I have now been inspired to work at a place like this one day.”

Click here for view the photographs from the event.

Volunteers

Jeff Martin  & his daughter Helena.

Adrian Hicks – BMS Wholesale, Risk Solutions

Amy Fu – Pioneer Underwriting

Andrew Dray – Pioneer Underwriting

Barry Garner – BMS Harris & Dixon Marine

Ben Kendall – BMS Wholesale, Risk Solutions

Georgina Glander – BMS Retro

Laura Cross – BMS HR

Matthew Haine – BMS Wholesale, Risk Solutions

Maureen Turnbull – Broker Replacement Services

Megan Lenny – BMS Wholesale, Risk Solutions

Melis Otmar – BMS Harris & Dixon Marine

Michael Loakman – BMS Harris & Dixon Marine

Richard Heywood-Waddington – BMS Property & Casualty

Finally a special thank you to Andy Lane for taking all the photographs of the event. http://www.andylane.com/

I had a lot of interest in my presentation, with several people asking for copies after the session. Most were interested in the aspect of the show related to useful software on the mobile device, so I thought I would summarize those points here.

1) Absolutely vital is that for home working the PC will always out trump the iPad. There are also some issues regarding good old Health and Safety. That said, the new keyboards, pens and vga connectors allow you to build a quite effective desktop machine – but not very mobile!

2) We use Citrix receiver to connect to our host systems, which works well unless the screen keyboard covers half the screen.

3) Web conferencing is one of the most effective uses of the mobile. Obviously Facetime works well (we use it almost every day for overseas calls), but the real star is Gotomeeting for the iPad. It is quite simply fantastic and much better than the PC version. Unfortunately, at least one participant has to be on a PC! You may be a Skype or Webex fan, and they work well, but we prefer the former two products.

4) We are becoming great fans of the iPad apps that support Sharepoint 2010. Fantastic, but don’t forget the security concerns once you start storing stuff on your iPad.

5) We use the Oracle CRM. The new mobile app, including offline usage looks like becoming our defacto method of access.

6) Once you are opening MS office files, you need something to edit those files. Quickoffice seems to work very well.

7) Don’t overlook social media. If nothing else Twitter will tell you how long you are going to be sitting on the train.

Of course if there are problems with communications, none of the above will work unless they have off-line functionality. If you haven’t got that, then I recommend Angry Birds to see those hours past by quickly!

Lets just think about this. If there is a chance that the Internet will collapse, or at least perform very badly, what if anything can we do about it? Home and mobile working will be dead. Email will be unpredictable at best. Internal networks will be swamped by video streaming and error management. What will be the impact on the phone networks? This is very reminiscent of the events of 7/7, where all of the comms systems became unavailable as a result of the tragic events underground. At the time, BMS’ offices looked over Aldgate Station and we were forced to invoke disaster recovery with little or no access to phones or blackberries. Perhaps this could be a good test for organisations to see how they would cope without mobile or Internet technology.

I also wonder about the use of Internet on the train – putting aside that this means we all work on the train – I am finding it is being killed by its own success. Once the train is full, it just doesn’t work, which is very frustrating. I cannot even complain to the train company on Twitter because Twitter wont work! Would this be better if they actually charged for it?

This has been an interesting week, with the implementation of the Sequel broking system for our Risk Solutions division and the build of our new Server farm. BMS are now trading with the new broker number 1284, which is being used for risks processed on the new system. All has gone well, although we quickly identified that if the new system is clever with Word processing (as the Sequel Product is), then some extra training wouldn’t go amiss. I wonder how many ‘ordinary’ users really know how to use rulers, indents and such like, especially within a complex document.

Our designers (RZed) came back with their designs for our new Intranet. As ever, three designs we didn’t like followed by the one they really thought was great, and of course it was! Certainly makes a big difference.

We are just starting to work out the transfer of documents from one document management system to another. Actually, the main work is finding all the documents that people filed away somewhere else! This is where the success or failure of a DMS can really be measured, and that success can only be achieved by passing ownership of the repository to the user base. I will let you know how it goes.

The first phase of the BMS CRM package went live today. It took a lot of time and detailed thinking to make the whole system as simple as possible.

The final pre-implementation teleconference training session took place today. It was chaired in Minneapolis with the main speaker in London and attendees from our Minneapolis, London, New York , Philadelphia and Chicago offices using a combination of GotoMeeting, iPads and our video conferencing suite – even the training session was a geeks paradise!

There are a lot of misconceptions about CRMs.

Firstly, if you bought a contact management system wanting it to be a CRM you will be disappointed with how little can be done. If you bought a CRM to manage your contacts, my guess is that you are pretty frustrated with all of the things it forces you to do, with no real return. To be successful, the CRM should be designed to manage the sales process, targeting enhanced service to the client, not just recording names and addresses. Opportunities, not contacts.

The second misconception is that the easy way to install a CRM for the enterprise (the company not the starship) is to bring in a set of clever consultants from one of the big companies, and they will show you how to do it. Don’t fall for this – my rule is that each consultant must introduce at least one mandatory field to justify their fees. Each one of these fields makes the system more difficult to use and certainly more time consuming. I believe we should cut out every field that can’t be fully justified under vigorous examination. If you work for another broker, you can use this rule to work out how many consultants were used on your system.

The third misconception is that there is only one system you should buy and you should follow your peers. BMS are the only one of the top ten Reinsurance brokers to ‘break the mould’ by taking the Oracle CRM, and I couldn’t be more pleased. I have some access to brokers formerly employed by the big broking houses and they are very complimentary about our new system.

I have been blown-away by the enthusiasm of the team working on this project and the guys from BPI onDemand who are working with us. The fourth misconception is that a project such as this is so open-ended in its aims and functionality that it never actually works – which is definitely is not true in this case. We move onto the next division in the next few weeks and expect equal success.

Next week: just the small matter of the new Broking system going live…

P.s. What is it about Chicago O’Hare that means it takes 2 hours to check-in EVERYTIME I LAND THERE. If I want delays, I have the trains at home for that!