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Customer Testimonial
Greg Trimble, President
Trimble Insurance Agency, Inc. Delaware, Ohio
In business since 1946
10 employees, 10 eTFile licenses
Acquired eTFile in May, 2003
How did you first find out about eTFile?I first saw eTFile at the Applied Systems’ National Conference (ASCnet) in Reno three years ago.
Prior to that I met Bob Linton, the founder of eTFile, and he told me he had to show me a product he had integrated with Applied Systems. I saw it again a year after that in Las Vegas.
Were you already looking into scanning options?I started considering scanning because of the space limitations I had with my agency. We expanded and doubled the size of the agency 15 years ago and I was getting to the point where I needed to consider expanding again. Our filing cabinets and storage were taking up a lot of valuable space. I started looking into some of the options on scanning with Applied’s software. I was also investigating some local vendors who had scanning solutions. It just so happens that eTFile was available at the time so we gave that more consideration.
I always wanted to keep the scanning software separate from the agency management system software. When I looked into eTFile, I liked the concept that it can reside on a stand-alone server without taking up valuable RAM on our main server.So what was the deciding factor that put it over the top for you to go with eTFile?
Integration with Applied! When I saw how easy the integration was, it was a no-brainer. It was important to have integrated documents to view, email, print and fax for my employees for whatever they needed, whenever they needed it. The cost of eTFile was important, but it was further down on my list of concerns during the evaluation period.
We were going to have to physically add onto the office if we did not make a decision soon. We were able to get rid of 30 file cabinets and a lot of counter space. This allowed us to add 5 additional workstations. Since implementing eTFile, we have room to grow in our current office.Shown to the left, employees at Trimble Insurance Agency, Inc. work diligently removing the old paper files for scanning and archiving. Thirty file cabinets were removed during this process to clear the way for more office space. Since going paperless with eTFile, Trimble Insurance Agency has been able to add 5 workstations in space that was once occupied by filing cabinets and storage areas.
Did you purchase hardware from the vendor?
We are using a Canon DR3060 document scanner. The scanner and software came from the vendor. The size of the scanner is deceptive and, at one point, I said to myself, “Is this scanner going to do all my scanning?” It is a size of a big boot box. I am happy with the speed of it.
I set up a separate server for eTFile with a tape backup, mirrored drive, and CDRom on the network. I am bullheaded and stubborn, so for piece of mind I wanted it all in house to make it work and that is why I chose not to buy my hardware directly from the vendor.
How is eTFile used in your agency in terms of workflow and procedures? What types of documents are most frequently scanned?
I decided I did not want to upset the workflow process in this agency a whole lot because we had it down pretty smooth and we have been using transactional filing for the last nine years. That process has worked really well. eTFile transitioned right into our t-file workflow. When documents/mail come in it gets distributed to the CSRs. The work performed, whether entering transactions or policy information, gets t-filed and prepped later for scanning. We keep one week of t-files in a cabinet and once it is 5 days old it is shredded. This makes room for the following week. We keep a week’s worth of paper files as a safety precaution.
Shown to the left is what is left of the shredded files that once occupied 30 file cabinets at Trimble Insurance Agency. Storage and space of paper files is no longer a concern for the agency. The agency only keeps one week’s worth of paper files, which gets shredded the following week.
We purchased eTFile in May of 2003. I hired a college student to come in and scan files into eTFile twice a week. I decided to scan files going back to January 1, 2002. One of the reasons was to test the system to make sure it was going to work. The second reason I needed to scan them was because everything from January 1, 2002 was taking up valuable space. What we did was set up daily t-files in eTFile folders; we then scanned those documents under each day with the corresponding subfolders of CSRs that work with them. If you need to go find one of those documents you look under the activity, and on the fly, you find the day that you scanned it -- the same way if you were to pull a paper t-file but in a fraction of the time. You look at that day and the corresponding CSR, click, and there it is. Once all those documents got electronically stored as of (July 1st), we began to implement eTFile’s barcode system. Using the barcode has had tremendous benefits and it has only added one more step to our workflow process.
When a CSR does a new application, and that application is signed, it would get t-filed. Now we perform the additional step to create the barcode for scanning so that application is attached directly to the customer file. Everything from July 1, 2003 forward is now bar-coded while we still continue to t-file. This provides a measure of checks and balances for us to keep our E&O exposure to a minimum.
The information is gathered at the end of the day and put in the t-file then scanned. They are scanned in with the barcode page and attached to the customer files. In addition, there is an automatic date generated when a barcode is created which gives you another search option.
Of course, we back it up each day and we perform an offsite backup at the end of each month. I also burn a CD for that month’s t-file. Again, our workflow has had one step added to it, which is creating the barcode. The barcode is printed and placed right on top of the documents associated with that barcode. You continue on with your work and at the end of your day your t-file gets picked up and gets scanned. Then, the week’s prior work gets shredded, starting the cycle all over again. This process has worked very well for us.Was it easy to learn the scanning procedure?
Yes, very much so. Sean, the college student we hired, worked closely with eTFile training. We were very pleased with the quality of the training. I will miss Sean when he leaves because I am going to have to learn how to do it. He grasped the scanning procedure of eTFile easily.
As for the CSRs, it was nothing to train them on eTFile either. Creating a barcode is just a matter of a couple of clicks, print, and you are done.
The only process the employees didn’t like early on, back in July, was the extra step in creating the barcode because it added ONE more step. However, adding that step far outweighs finding that paper in the paper file or going out to the activity, going to a file cabinet, pull a particular day’s folder, and then the CSR’s name. Each CSR could potentially have a large number of electronic documents associated with them for each day’s t-file. Now you just go to the customer code, click on eTFile, and the electronic document is there. So in hindsight, when they see the benefit of what the barcode does, it far outweighs the time they spent in creating it.
To make our lives a little easier, we can also do text string searches. Since we also use the notes created in the barcode process of eTFile, we can do a search to find a common note characteristic of the file.
Since disc space is cheap, we are scanning all the applications, group apps, coverages, invoices, bills, statements, and anything that requires a signature. We don’t sit there and think, “Should this piece of paper go in or that one?” we just SCAN IT ALL... We created another level of security so I can monitor who gets into which files (depending on the sensitivity of the information), but every aspect of our agency is now being scanned.
Yes, they are also scanned and stored with eTFile. Right now if someone sends a photo we print the photo and scan it through eTFile and attach it to the client.
So what would you find to be the biggest benefits of eTFile?
The two biggest benefits to me are storage of paper and speed of producing documents when you need them. I am amazed at how fast you can bring a document up in eTFile.
Are you finding the floating image viewer useful?
We are just playing around with it and if you have someone who wants to look at the several scanned documents, you can float the images on top of the application you are running, whether that be word or TAM, to view all the images. That is a neat feature.
Have you been able to estimate a cost savings from using eTFile or a return on investment?
We recognized revenue from the sale of all of our old file cabinets. When I take a look at what I’ve spent to buy the software, the server and backup and see all the money that went into it, it might be hard to get a true hard-dollar savings. I would say “yes” I have made a return on my investment and don’t know what those figures are yet since we are not into it even a year. I would say however from hours and manpower, I would hope to reap $10,000 to $12,000 a year in savings from time saved, improved filing and increased workload. The initial investment that went into training, implementation and hardware have been absorbed so it is all downhill from here and our savings realized from eTFile can only increase.
We download the updates. We have only done one upgrade and the download took about 10 minutes. This did not require any hardware upgrades.
Vendor support has been absolutely amazing. We have had no trouble at all with getting results after we put in a support call.
I use it from the office in my house; I dial in from a Virtual Private Network.
The first is the speed, which you can obtain the document while having everything at the desktop. The second most important aspect of eTFile is the bar-coding and how you can attach it to the customer file -- not only the customer file, but the vendor file, the lien holder file, broker file, employee file. Any file/category that it applies to you can attach it for quick reference and lookup. Accounting is even applicable.
How does eTFile improve your customer service?
You are answering questions faster and you are not pulling paper files to look up information. It is all right there at the desktop. Rather then calling someone back, you are pulling up the information to answer the questions right then and there. People today are spoiled by the luxuries of the Internet and want everything in real-time. eTFile gives us the ability to provide information in real-time.
Based on your knowledge of eTFile and how has it improved your insurance workflow, what other businesses would benefit from it?
In my opinion any business that handles paper can use this. It need not be specifically related to insurance. It stands alone as a great software program. Anyone who handles large amounts of paper can use this application. It is a perfect paper solution. If an agency is considering imaging and going into document management, they need not look any further than eTFile. Because of the ease of implementing it within our agency, the workflow that is integrated with our Applied Systems’ product, and the ease of getting employees up and working on it, it has been a no-brainer.
