Insurance carriers are not shy about proclaiming their talents. They know what they do well and they don't mind telling you about it. On the opposite end are the areas in which the carriers have, shall we say, slightly less confidence-the ones they are eagerly trying to get out from under. And if there's one area that insurers rarely brag about, it's their call centers.

Some companies may have a good call center crew, but the success of such an operation is often tenuous. Turnover can turn a good crew upside down at a moment's notice. It's hard to ask for loyalty in today's business climate when a function like customer service seems a hair's breadth away from being outsourced.

There, we've said it: outsourced. It can be an answer to your company's biggest problems or it can be a nightmare. What determines which side it falls on is the work that goes into selecting the right outsourcer and the ability to communicate with that segment of your operation. Too many businesses have seen their outsourcing efforts fail because of the Cool Hand Luke Syndrome-a failure to communicate.

Plenty of Expectations

Many companies don't worry about the IT department connecting with the call center because nowadays the IT department itself is outsourced as often. With insurers wisely believing their core competencies are in the traditional insurance fields (underwriting, policy administration, claims, etc.), it's easy to believe that less insurance-traditional departments are being shopped around.