Training gets covered at US insurer

Citation

(2003), "Training gets covered at US insurer", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 35 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2003.03735gab.003

Training gets covered at US insurer

Training gets covered at US insurer

Marshall & Swift/Boeckh (MS/B), a US-based global player in the insurance world, is using a new learning-management system (LMS) to bring training to insurance agents, underwriters, claims adjusters and contractors across the US.

MS/B wanted to make technical education more convenient for its customers and to cut the overall cost of training. Using Pathlore’s LMS, the company is delivering training via the Internet to its customers in the insurance industry.

The LMS reports on what the insurance-industry professionals learn. For example, when an MS/B customer passes a course, the LMS records a score and generates a certification to prove the fact. In this way, managers know if their employees understand how to use their product’s features. In addition, MS/B can give its customers the chance to access training materials over several months, so that their customers can brush up on their know-how as required.

According to MS/B president Bob Crine, with the LMS in place, his company’s customers can learn at their own pace and on their own terms. He said: “The LMS knows what users have learned, stores that knowledge, and certifies the subject has been mastered.”

Classroom training still plays an important role for MS/B but the company sees the LMS as a way to instruct hundreds of customers – who are spread throughout the USA – at the same time. MS/B expects to trim the cost of instructors’ fees as well as its customers’ expenses for travel and subsistence.

Along with MS/B’s clients, the firm’s employees are using the LMS, too.

Michael Brennan, programme manager at the market-research firm IDC, said: “Based on the findings of a study we are now completing, between 15 and 20 per cent of organizations that have adopted e-learning are using it to train their customers. When a company buys an LMS to deliver and administer training for its customers, the effort can pay off in the form of higher customer satisfaction and a willingness on the part of consumers to buy more services or goods.”

Steve Thomas, president and chief executive officer of Pathlore, said: “The LMS gives MS/B’s customers multiple opportunities to learn how to get the most from the company’s products. Training customers and developing employees’ professional capabilities are among the primary reasons why companies buy learning-management systems. Our experience shows that an LMS used in this way will deliver a return on the initial investment within one year.”

MS/B provides the insurance industry with residential and commercial building-cost data and estimating technologies. With more than 70 years of experience, MS/B counts more than 100,000 individual users, including underwriters, claims adjusters, inspectors and agents. The Wisconsin-based company licenses its data and software to some 700 insurance firms, including many of the largest homeowner insurance carriers in the US.