Copyright © 2001 Business Insurance

"What's Worthwhile On The Web:   Sorting Through the Myriad of Resources is a Challenge for Risk Managers" December 4, 2000

by Rodd Zolkos

 

 As are their counterparts in a host of other professions, risk managers are finding the Internet to be a cornucopia of information. It's the vast abundance of useless information that can hide the useful that poses the problem.

But, again like their contemporaries elsewhere, many risk managers are becoming increasingly skilled at identifying precisely where to look on the World Wide Web for the information they need. As their lists of bookmarked Web sites grow, the Internet is becoming an increasingly valuable, and sometimes even essential, tool for risk managers.

"I'm using it more and more. It's almost like a Yellow Pages of knowledge,'' said Carlos A. Sintes, risk manager at Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers Inc. in Rolling Meadows, Ill. "I don't know that we've learned exactly how to use it, but it's a great tool to point you in the right direction.''

"I try to use the Internet as much as I possibly can,'' said Lance J. Ewing, senior director insurance and loss prevention at GES Exposition Services Inc. in Las Vegas. "Especially when I'm stumped by upper management with something like, `Let's come up with a program on telecommuting.'''

Mr. Sintes is among those who bookmark sites for professional use.

"There's one really cool one. In fact, it's a link to about all the insurance sites that there are,'' he said. Mr. Sintes said he often visits that site, www.ultimateinsurancelinks.com, because "If I don't know what site I'm looking for, I go into that one because it shoots me into whatever is the right direction.''

"That thing has more links than I know what to do with,'' Mr. Sintes said. "But it's really handy if you're trying to find something and you don't know where to start.''

Other sites Mr. Sintes frequently visits include rating agency A.M. Best Co.'s site, www.ambest.com, and the Web site for his company's third-party administrator.

And the Web resources Mr. Sintes' uses in his job often go beyond risk management sites.

When planning travel, he frequently uses the American Airlines site, www.aa.com, to study flight schedules and plan his trips. "Then I just print it out and say, "Get me on these flights,'' he said.

"MapQuest (www.mapquest.

com) is really handy when I don't know where I'm going,'' Mr. Sintes added. "I've got a variety of law links bookmarked, too.''

He also uses various newswire sites, the Yellow Pages site, www.yellowpages.com, and even an online writing guide.

"What I don't have,'' he said, "is enough time to look at everything I'd like to look at.''

State government sites on the Web also provide a way for risk managers to keep track of workers compensation information in different states. Both Messrs. Sintes and Ewing mentioned said they frequently visit such sites. "I'm looking right now particularly at Missouri,'' Mr. Sintes said.

Other government sites also can be useful to risk managers.

"Obviously, due to the bureaucrats in Washington, I'm going to www.osha.gov and www.epa.gov to find out what wonderful new things are coming out of those institutions,'' Mr. Ewing said. "Most of the government sites are decent.''

Another site Mr. Ewing said he finds useful is www.propertyandcasualty.com. The business-to-business site provides industry news, professional information, product news and supplier contacts, among other features.

He said he also frequently visits "niche'' sites related to specific aspects of his company's business, such as the American Trucking Assn.'s site, www.trucking.org, "because we have fleet vehicles.''

"We do a lot of electrical work, and the National Electrical Contractors has their own Web site,'' www.necanet.org, he added. "Some of the unions have their own Web sites as well.''

And the Web also proves useful when GES is dealing with litigation, Mr. Ewing said.

"Our department handles litigation management. When we're looking for actual defense counsels, a lot of them have Web sites,'' he said.

"We obviously don't make our decision based on how nice their Web sites are,'' Mr. Ewing said. But, the information about a firm available online "is a piece of the puzzle when we make our decision.''

Sue Boucke, risk manager at Lucasfilm Ltd. in San Rafael, Calif., mentioned Riskvue at www.riskvue.com as a Web site she uses frequently in her work.

"I really like that one,'' Ms. Boucke said. The Web-based risk management magazine provides a variety of information related to the profession. It also includes such features as "Useful Web Tool of the Month'' and "The Lighter Side of Risk Management.''

In addition, she said, "I look at our Golden Gate (Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc.) chapter because it's what I'm involved in, and the national RIMS site,'' www.rims.org.

On the sites she visits regularly, "What's useful to me are the updates, new laws that are coming out, the ergonomics standard. What's happening in the market,'' Ms. Boucke said. "Those kinds of things I find really useful.''

Jerry C. Ayers, senior vp and risk manager at Wachovia Bank N.A. in Winston-Salem, N.C., is also a frequent Web user.

"The rating agencies-Best's, I certainly go there,'' he said. "In fact, I was there a couple of times today, looking at insurance companies. And then, of course, the news sites-CNN (www.cnn.com) or ABC (www.abcnews.com)-keeping up with what's going on.''

"Being in the Carolinas, I also use the hurricane tracking and the hurricane center,'' Mr. Ayers said. Wachovia has facilities from Florida to Virginia, and during hurricane season, he'll frequently visit such sites as www.nhc.noaa.gov, www.fema.gov/fema/trop.htm or hurricane.terrapin.com.

What he values from those sites are "accurate and timely updates,'' along with the ability to actually follow the hurricane's track as it is developing, Mr. Ayers said.

"The services that provide that information are a real plus,'' he said. But, he noted, "Often, it's hard to get through because they're getting so many hits they get overloaded.''

Last year, when Hurricane Floyd hit the Southeast, Mr. Ayers' office put the Web to use as the company sought to address document preservation issues caused by flooding at Wachovia facilities.

The "crisis-driven search'' produced several useful academic and vendor sites. "We found (the information) in a very short time using the Net as opposed to using the phone,'' Mr. Ayers said.

While he said he has all the various risk management trade publications' sites bookmarked, "I'm still in the paper mode for most of the trade publications, even though they all have Web sites and most of them very good ones,'' Mr. Ayers said.

The issue is one of time, Mr. Ayers said. He can scan the print versions of the magazines as they are routed to him in his office, and, typically, he's at the top of the routing list.

Pepsi-Cola General Bottlers' Mr. Sintes has a similar view toward reading risk management trade publications. "I've got my reading pile,'' he said. "I don't think the Internet will ever do away with paper reading.''

Some risk managers said they don't have sites they visit routinely. Instead, risk management Web surfing for those like Gary A. Baxter, assistant treasurer and director of insurance at Weyerhaeuser Co. in Tacoma, Wash., is driven more by "what my need happens to be at the time.''

"I've got a couple of suppliers like FM Global that are pretty good,'' Mr. Baxter said. FM Global is the name under which Johnstown, R.I.-based Factory Mutual Insurance Co. does business.

But one deterrent to using the Web more is that "it seems, like everybody, I'm just kind of flooded with information,'' the Weyerhaeuser risk manager said.

And time can be another consideration.

"Part of it is, going to a Web site, there's a time-loading factor up front until you get to know them,'' Mr. Baxter said, with a large amount of time often spent before one finds and bookmarks a useful site.

"Probably when I have most of my time is when I'm at home, and like a lot of people, the computer I have there isn't as fast as the one I have at the office,'' he said.

Another risk manager also mentioned a lack of time as a key factor preventing him from using the Web as a risk management tool.

"Other than a couple of proprietary Web pages from suppliers of ours, there isn't really anything on the Web that I go to with any regularity,'' said William W. Johnson, risk financing manager at Hallmark Cards Inc. in Kansas City, Mo. "I spend most of my time trying to beat down e-mail.''

Mr. Johnson said he had been interested in cataloging different risk management-related sites that might be useful, but hasn't had the opportunity to do so.

"More than anything else, it's just time,'' he said, adding that he finds it easier to make a call and pick the brain of a peer or a broker than to search the vast expanses of the World Wide Web for information.

"My experience with the Web has been that although there's a lot out there, unless you know the URL you want to go to, you spend a heck of a lot of time,'' Mr. Johnson said.

For another risk manager, while the Web holds a world of personal interest, it hasn't yet proved very useful in a professional sense.

"I'm sort of low tech in that,'' said Michael J. McAndless, corporate risk manager of United Grain Growers Ltd. in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "I don't use it a whole lot. I'm into Web sites, but it's more for my personal use than anything else.''

"I'm into the RIMS site from time to time,'' Mr. McAndless continued. "I usually use the Web sites of companies I'm working with.''

"I'm a surfer like you wouldn't believe, and I enjoy it. I have access to it, and I feel comfortable in that environment,'' he said. But, his use of Web sites at UGG in connection with the company's risk management program typically is limited to going online "to find out about things I don't know anything at all about,'' Mr. McAndless said.

For example, with the company implementing an enterprise risk management program late last year, Mr. McAndless used the Web to help him learn the language of the company's treasurer and about financial risk management from such sites as the Global Assn. of Risk Professionals, www.garp.com.

And, with the enterprise risk management program in place at UGG, "I suspect our treasurer is going to the RIMS site,'' Mr. McAndless said.

In terms of what makes a site appealing, the risk managers who frequently use the Web generally believe that anything that can help them cut through the vast amount of information to find the specific facts they seek is a definite plus.

"Quite frankly, it is ease of use,'' GES Exposition Services' Mr. Ewing said. "If you go to any of the federal government Web sites, you know there is a whole lot of information out there. It's just finding it.''

"I need to go right to the information, download it and get out,'' he said. And, "Obviously the information has to be relevant and up to date.''

"You can get information overload,'' Mr. Ewing said. "RIMS is working on their own Web site, obviously, and they're looking to cull down that information.'' The aim is to make sure a search from the organization's site generates information that is relevant to a risk manager.

"That ability to search is important, because if you have a site that's a big site and has a lot of features to it, that ability to search on key words is a big plus,'' said Wachovia's Mr. Ayers. "Because you don't have a lot of time, and there's a lot of information there.''

Mr. Sintes also argued for ease of use. "Some sites just get kind of jumbled up,'' he said. "But, as time progresses, all the sites are getting pretty easy to use. You just click on whatever you need.''

Volume: 34

Publication number: 49

 

 

© Copyright Business Insurance 2000, 2001