Broker success depends on IT skills

According to a survey undertaken by business consultancy Waterface on behalf of Aon, the majority of brokers are now doing business electronically, with 73% having increased their use of e-placement support tools over the past year. Because the majority of office-based broker employees use information technology for most of their working days, their IT savoir-faire is a significant factor in a business' success. Therefore, appropriate IT skills and knowledge are fundamental for staff at all levels.

Jonathan Davey, director at software house SSP, warned that broker managers need to keep employees' IT skills up to scratch: "Whatever the requirements of the staff, if they are not up to speed with the latest functionality within the broking system and office applications, they will not be trading as efficiently as they could. Although businesses might be able to get away with this in the short term, it will have a massive impact on their competitiveness the longer it goes on."

To help achieve this, IT training is an astute investment. It is available from a wide range of sources from local colleges to consultancies and can be delivered face-to-face or through online courses.

The Chartered Insurance Institute's Certificate in IT for Insurance Professionals offers a qualification designed to cover IT issues and responsibilities within the industry. Developed alongside the British Computer Society, the certificate provides evidence of understanding of the principles and use of IT in insurance rather than knowledge of any particular software or hardware platform.

Wide selection

Software houses offer a variety of training options for IT systems that cover broking systems and how they interact with different applications. Among the available courses are free workshops for major systems upgrades and refresher training courses tailored to a broker's individual requirements. Costs vary depending on the delivery method, the number of staff to be trained and the length of the course and start from around £200.

Simon Hughes, sales and marketing director at software house Open GI, noted: "Software houses are best placed to provide training on insurance systems, as they are more often than not responsible for the system's design."

Brokers that have an individual or team with the appropriate IT knowledge often handle training in-house. Towergate handles IT training as part of its business school through a dedicated business systems training team. Fiona Andrews, group head of people development and reward at Towergate, explained: "Our business systems training team works closely with the IT project managers and development consultants to determine the key learning requirements arising from new and enhanced business trading platforms and internal desktop information systems. They then work with each team to deliver training tailored exactly to the requirements of the people."

When looking at who is most appropriate to provide the training in-house, it is important not only to consider the objectives of the training but also if the person is appropriately qualified. However, Davey warned against relying too heavily on in-house training: "[It] can be a false economy, as the quality of the knowledge transferred will not be as good when compared to using training specialists. We come across many cases where bad habits and inefficient practices are passed on by staff through no fault of their own."