Patra Corporation

As Patra continues to grow by adding new clients and expanding services for existing customers, it is important that we learn from our long-time client partners. Below is an excerpt from an interview with Stew Gibson, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at USI, one of the largest brokerages in the country.

Let's start by learning a little bit about USI. Tell me about your company and your client base.

The 50,000-foot view is that we're one of the ten largest insurance brokerage firms in the United States, with nearly 3,000 employees and 80 offices across 23 states. Our business is broken into two main segments, with about 2/3 of our business in retail brokerage services, and the other 1/3 are defined as specialty business, including benefits and affiliates. We're a large company and do a large volume of work with our clients, processing over 1 million certificates a year.

My role is Senior Vice President, CIO. I've been here in that role for almost 4 ½ years. A big part of my focus, and that of all of our C-level leaders, is giving our staff the tools that allow them to be their most efficient and effective, whether it's software and systems or remote-staffing solutions.

Tell me about your partnership with Patra.

We've partnered with Patra since Summer 2007, and it's been working well for us. We use Patra mainly for Proof-of-Insurance, Certificate Issuance and Evidence of Insurance issuance. Recently, we've begun working to expand that relationship to include loss run reporting and policy checking. We typically process more than 1 million certificates every year.

We've approached working with Patra with an attitude of "getting it right," meaning that we're focused on being certain that our internal clients and staff are satisfied with the results every step of the way as we expand the relationship. So far it's worked very well. After the first 18 months, we've migrated about 20% of our volume to Patra. Our goal is to be at 50% in January 2011 and reach 80% by early 2012. We're right on track.

How has using Patra changed your business?

As a company, we've definitely got some growth goals. Patra lets us manage that growth without adding staff or asking existing staff to take on a larger work-load burden. It lets the staff we have focus on the things that add value to our customers – customer-facing activities.

Like most companies in our industry, we do a lot of blueprinting for the future by analyzing the current situation, building metrics and setting goals. Revenue load is one of our leading measures. Patra has allowed us to see that number rise as we free our employees to spend time on more profitable tasks, including spending more time with clients, cross selling and up selling with products that fit the client's needs.

What have been the benefits for your account managers?

I'd say the biggest benefit our account managers get is more control over their day. When a certificate issuance request comes up in the middle of the day, it is an interruption. With Patra, we give our staff the ability to plan their day and the confidence of knowing that the work will get done on-time and without errors. Time management is a huge factor in productivity and quality of life. Patra really does give our employees more time.

The days of our account managers sitting around the kitchen table and stuffing envelopes are gone. No one is going to miss them.

The bottom line is that Patra gives our staff the time and flexibility to focus on our clients.

How was it received in the field?

Our staff was skeptical at first. Anyone would be. But as they've seen the results, where the quality has been high and the turnaround has been quick, they're more comfortable with the system. I'd say our teams have gone from an initial excitement, to being skeptical, and now they're pleased with the results we're getting.

The feedback I've gotten is that overwhelmingly, the account managers using Patra today would never go back.

What was the rollout process like? How was Patra introduced?

Patra proves itself to each account manager. We implement Patra on an account-by-account basis. We didn't just start mandating it.

Initially, it was voluntary; "Who wants to try this?" Some did, some didn't. We learned a lot from the initial groups that took part. Then we started providing training to everyone.

To encourage use, we've been seeding it. We're proactive, sending a list of accounts that could benefit from using Patra to account managers the month before a policy comes due. Prompting use like this has been very helpful in getting our folks to try it. It's one of those, "Didn't know I needed it until I tried it" sort of things. Again, once someone uses Patra, they'll not go back to the old system.

It's not always been smooth sailing. We've had some unexpected and unplanned challenges arise that have put some strain on the work we're doing. Patra took the lead in managing through the issues, though; they were on top of it immediately, on the phone offering solutions. They're the kind of partner I enjoy working with.

What sets Patra apart from some of the other remote staffing firms you've talked to?

Unlike a lot of other BPO's, Patra knows insurance. They're not an IT or software development firm that also "does certificate issuance." These guys are very knowledgeable about what it takes to process insurance work. That makes a huge difference. I know that if I pick up the phone and ask a question, I'll get an answer that's relevant to insurance and my business.

Have you seen an impact with your own Risk and E&O liability?

Reduced Risk? It can be hard to identify that. However, I'd say that in the past, when we've had E&O issues and track them back to the source, it's been issues with policy checking and certificates. I feel fairly confident that as we become more and more comfortable with Patra and as time passes, we'll see our E&O rates diminish.

Has it been a challenge, working with a partner that has a large production base in India?

Is India a challenge? Personally, I've been working with India for 20 years. The government has done a good job of recognizing the importance of business and building IT and infrastructure that promotes Intellectual Property rights, data security and privacy. And Patra has been proactive in addressing any issues that I have had. Frankly, I'd have a bigger concern with working in other countries, like China, but not India. As I said, our internal teams were skeptical until it became clear that Patra is a way to support them in their work, not to replace staff. As for external clients, it's not something we hide, but it rarely comes up. They're looking for the best value they can get. We're here to provide them value and service the best way we know how.

Tell me about an issue that's come up with Patra, something that had to be overcome.

At first, the time difference was a bit of a challenge, but the challenge is in a good way. It has actually helped us identify weak points in our systems. Instead of only working 12 hours a day, our technology systems are working almost 23 hours a day. We're getting the most out of our software and systems, that's for sure.

What challenges do you anticipate in working with Patra and as the relationship grows?

Well, I sure don't want everyone else to know our secret! But seriously, we've seen others in our industry make their own investments overseas and it hasn't always worked out. We believe we've found a way to make it work and it's been successful for us. I don't want to say it's a competitive advantage, but it's something we take advantage of.

That said, I do worry about Patra's ability to scale without losing their ability to service my company. When everyone realizes how nice a tool this is, Patra will need to grow pretty quickly. But I believe John, Dan, Dave and the rest of the team at Patra can handle this. I know they've been planning for growth.

Anything else?

We don't think of Patra as simply a tool that allows us to lower our headcount and reduce staffing costs. We have always believed that Patra will allow us to reallocate our existing staff to higher-value, client-facing tasks. That's been the real benefit- our current staff is much more focused on our clients, and that drives profitability, client retention and even reduces our turnover. Yes, we've reduced the size of our staff, but we've also changed the job descriptions of our account managers. In the end, it's allowed us the capacity, flexibility and time to grow.

The guys at Patra aren't just knowledgeable, they're accessible. They make it easy to do business with them. It's been a good partnership.